In my resolutions post I mentioned some changes underfoot, and one of those changes is my job! In September a took a job with the same instrument company that I post-doc-ed with.
[Side bar. I verbally use "post-doc" as a verb all the time, and I know I'm not alone. My problem is the past tense of post-doc. Post-doc-ed? Post-doced? Post-docked? Should it even have a hyphen between post and doc? Everything I come up with looks dumb.]
So as a post-doc I worked for an instrument company in Delaware, but I was primarily based in a lab at BFU (Big Fancy University). It was definitely a non-traditional post doc, even by industry standards. This lab is a joint project of sorts between my company and BFU. While there are faculty chairs technically associated with the lab, I was pretty much the only staff person making things happen on a day to day basis. Everything from prepping and running samples, caring for the instruments, data analysis, training users on various software programs, tracking down supplies, coming up with content for a lab handbook and website, to communicating guidelines and results with lab users. I did my best to stay out of BFU administrative and political nonsense. It was an insane job to say the least.
Since I got hired for real my responsibilities have gradually been transitioning away from this lab at BFU. Supposedly there's a replacement for me... he's real and I've met him...but I'll believe it all when I see it. (Let's say BFU has known since August that I was going to step down my time but not a whole lot has happened administratively to hire a replacement.) In November I dropped to 50% time in Baltimore, with most of the other 50% of my time spent in California at another company location. Since then I've been working a couple weeks in Baltimore then a couple weeks in California. After February I'll do a couple months at 25% time in Baltimore, until finally dropping down to just a day or two every now and then.
In California I've been training and working on a new instrument that we've just put out. I had experience on another instrument with similar technology in grad school, making me a good candidate ti work on this project. I'll continue to spend lots of time in California for a few more months (hello frequent flyer miles and Marriott points!) before being based primarily in Delaware. I'm sure I'll still travel quite a bit, though not as often, far, or for so long at once.
I'm pretty excited about the changing job. There are a lot of less than polite things I could say to explain this, but in this venue it's going to have to rest with this: I'm ready to be done with Baltimore (both in terms of living and working there) and the work in California is pretty fun. I think in the long term this will be have a lot more of what I want in a job than this post doc has had. The post doc was in a lot of ways closer to the facility job I thought I wanted than this job will be, but there were a few things that made this not the best match for me that wouldn't necessarily be true everywhere. If I ever did take a facility type of job (funnily enough I've been hearing rumors that there may be exactly such a job available quite soon), it would definitely have to be in a very different type of academic setting that BFU, where I'm preferably not starting from scratch and not the only person working in the lab.
P.S. My other/older What Next posts are here, here, and here.
I used to be a grad student. And now I'm not (thank goodness). I spent a year as a post doc in industry in Baltimore before starting a "real" job with the same company. These are my tales of science, food, travel, and life.
Showing posts with label not academia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label not academia. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Monday, January 14, 2013
Good Riddance
A few weeks ago Tiff (of dissertation date fame) asked if I missed Tucson at all, and while I do miss somethings about Tucson, I DO NOT AT ALL miss grad school. She was pretty surprised that I felt that way. Another friend from grad school has said the traumatic grad school memories faded really quickly, and while I don't completely cringe when I recall grad school at this point (not quite 6 months out), I still don't miss being a grad student. Not even the tiniest bit.
Friends who finished a few year ahead of me said I'd miss the flexible schedule and the ability to do work of my choosing. Honestly I haven't had this problem. This probably depends upon one's actual job, but I have enough flexibility that things like getting to the post office or the doctor's isn't a problem. As far as being able to do whatever work interests you, I think this may only be an issue if you actually enjoy research in the first place. By the end of grad school, I HATED research. So much of it is so obscure that its only significance is in the mind of the researcher, and I absolutely despised the never-ending nature of research. I hate that a project is never actually done, even after years - there is always something else to do, some other direction in which to take the research. I am so glad to have work with a much shorter time frame for completion, and the ability to work on something different often! If I don't actually like that project, it really doesn't matter, because it's short-lived. I've written plenty about the crappy aspects of grad school, and frankly the perks (flexibility, ability to work on what you like - which is actually not entirely true) don't come close to making up for them.
The biggest thing I miss about Tucson and grad school are the people. I miss cooking with E, hiking with Dallas, procrastinating/chit chatting with people in the group downstairs. I was very lucky to already know a couple of people in/near Baltimore when I moved here, so there are a few people to go explore and hang out and celebrate stuff with, but I still miss my friends from Tucson. There are a few other, relatively trivial things I miss, but the biggest thing is the people I spent the past 5 years with. My co-workers at my actual employer are great, I like almost all of them a lot, and the people at BFU are mostly nice though totally insane. (Seriously, getting out of academia = good decision.) Anyways, I mostly like the people I work with, but they're not friends the way my grad school classmates were/are, and probably won't be even with time.
Aside from missing friends, the short-term nature of my job (both the actual work and the fact that it's only a 2 year position), the normal hours, and significantly improved salary all contribute to my not missing grad school in the slightest.
Making even harder to miss grad school is actually being able to see Boyfriend more than every 6-8 weeks. I see him almost every weekend now, and it doesn't involve hundreds of dollars or spending all day on a plane! It's wonderful. It (and he) makes me incredibly happy. That alone makes it hard to miss grad school.
Friends who finished a few year ahead of me said I'd miss the flexible schedule and the ability to do work of my choosing. Honestly I haven't had this problem. This probably depends upon one's actual job, but I have enough flexibility that things like getting to the post office or the doctor's isn't a problem. As far as being able to do whatever work interests you, I think this may only be an issue if you actually enjoy research in the first place. By the end of grad school, I HATED research. So much of it is so obscure that its only significance is in the mind of the researcher, and I absolutely despised the never-ending nature of research. I hate that a project is never actually done, even after years - there is always something else to do, some other direction in which to take the research. I am so glad to have work with a much shorter time frame for completion, and the ability to work on something different often! If I don't actually like that project, it really doesn't matter, because it's short-lived. I've written plenty about the crappy aspects of grad school, and frankly the perks (flexibility, ability to work on what you like - which is actually not entirely true) don't come close to making up for them.
The biggest thing I miss about Tucson and grad school are the people. I miss cooking with E, hiking with Dallas, procrastinating/chit chatting with people in the group downstairs. I was very lucky to already know a couple of people in/near Baltimore when I moved here, so there are a few people to go explore and hang out and celebrate stuff with, but I still miss my friends from Tucson. There are a few other, relatively trivial things I miss, but the biggest thing is the people I spent the past 5 years with. My co-workers at my actual employer are great, I like almost all of them a lot, and the people at BFU are mostly nice though totally insane. (Seriously, getting out of academia = good decision.) Anyways, I mostly like the people I work with, but they're not friends the way my grad school classmates were/are, and probably won't be even with time.
Aside from missing friends, the short-term nature of my job (both the actual work and the fact that it's only a 2 year position), the normal hours, and significantly improved salary all contribute to my not missing grad school in the slightest.
Making even harder to miss grad school is actually being able to see Boyfriend more than every 6-8 weeks. I see him almost every weekend now, and it doesn't involve hundreds of dollars or spending all day on a plane! It's wonderful. It (and he) makes me incredibly happy. That alone makes it hard to miss grad school.
Friday, October 19, 2012
That wouldn't happen in grad school.
Best part about having a "real" job (even if it is a post doc)? When your boss says, "It's 4:30 on a Friday. I should stop taking up your time and let you go." Amazing.
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