New Contract

MY SEMESTER IS OVER!

The students are finishing up their exams tomorrow, and then graduation is Saturday. The following months will be complete bliss around our hallowed halls. My semester ended on a very high note. I was checking my campus mail one day last week, and I noticed everyone’s box had a big envelope with the big red stamp of “CONFIDENTIAL” on the front. Our new contracts had arrived. Having only completed 2 years of service, I still wasn’t completely sure as to what to expect upon opening up the envelope. I was very happy to see that I was awarded a two-year contract! Not only that, but I gotta very nice 4% pay increase! I honestly cannot say enough about how much I love my job. It is the perfect job for me in every way. It is in the perfect location. It has the perfect balance between teaching and research (for me). I have great colleagues and great bosses. I really plan on staying here as long as they keep me around.

I am really looking forward to my summer. I get to really get going on my research. I get to set up my lab just the way that I like it. I am finding it rather odd starting up my own lab. I miss being in an environment where everything is already setup and running. All of the little things I use on a daily basis, that I took for granted during my PhD, I am discovering are not around when I need them. I overlooked them when doing my initial ordering. So now I have to go back and order all of these little things, but it will be great once everything is just how I like it. I can’t wait! Now back to planning out some syntheses!

Online Exams

Today, I was proctoring an exam for the class in which I teach.  The coordinator for the course really likes giving exams online using our universities provided exam software.  I don’t like it so much.  This morning I had 6 students (out of 54) have problems submitting their exam.  They hit the submit button, but instead of submitting their answers it sent them back to the log-in page.  Unfortunately, the only way for them to receive credit for the exam was them to retake the exam.  It was painful to watch them have to go back through and answer all of the questions again.

It also never fails that some students forget their laptop or their laptop freezes up in the middle of the exam (these students generally have to start all over as well).  I may be old-fashioned in this way, but I simply prefer paper exams (with scantrons if they are all multiple choice questions).  The reason the coordinator likes the online exam format is to cut down on cheating.  It is very easy to randomize questions and answers so that no two students have identical exams.  The software can easily sort out the data to give you an item analysis for each question.  I love that aspect of online exams, but the variables are just too much for me to handle.  It doesn’t take that much more work to randomize paper exams to give 3 different versions so that you can make sure neighboring students have different versions of the exam.  If it is a scantron exam (which all of our exams are), we have the software to simply scan the bubble sheets and provide us with an item analysis for each question without that much work (it’s not anymore work for the professors…just the administrative assistants).

I know that when I coordinate my course (next Spring) I will be using scantrons for all of my exams! I can’t handle another exam like this morning.  After that experience, I can really use a break. Too bad I’m 12-month faculty…no Spring Break for me.  However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  I am going to a week-long conference the last week of this month! It can’t get here fast enough.  Not only will it be nice to get away from the office, but it will be nice to get a solid night’s sleep (We have a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 month old in our house).  The oldest sleeps through the night without any problems, but the 4 month old still gets up about one time per night. Even though my wife usually gets up with her, it is still not a solid night of sleep with two baby monitors buzzing near your head and the slightest noise waking me up.

It will also be nice to be at the conference so that I can work on expanding my professional network. I’ve tried to be get my networking started before the meeting by posting to professional social networking sites (i.e. LinkedIn and the society has its own networking site), but no one has responded to anything.  Hopefully, the networking will go better in person!

The Idea Book

During my last year in graduate school, I started noticing that my boss was carrying a notebook with him whenever he went to meetings, talks, poster sessions, journal clubs, etc..  I walked into his office one day and he was browsing an article and writing stuff in his notebook.  I asked him about it and he told me it was his “idea notebook.”  I always (ok not always, but sometimes) take notes during talks, and if I like a poster I’ll get them to e-mail me a PDF or take a hard copy.  In my mind, I was doing the same thing as my boss.  However, I can’t tell you where all of those scraps of notebook paper are or where the hard copies from those posters went.

Now, I am beginning to see my boss’ wisdom.

Since he wrote all of this notes (even transcribing things from hard-copies) in one single notebook, he can easily keep track of all of his thoughts and ideas.  Now that I am all grown up and coming up with ideas of my own, I have started keeping my own idea book.  As I read articles, I write down interesting reactions or molecules (always writing down the reference so that I can find the hard copy when I need it) and any thoughts I have about the paper and any big ideas I walk away with from their paper.  I’m going to my first big meeting as an assistant professor next month, so I will get to test my notebook out during talks and poster sessions.

I am really excited about doing this.  I think it has gotten me back in the mindset of research and has gotten my wheels turning for coming up with my own ideas.

So, do any of you keep and idea book? If not, how do you keep track of all of your ideas (my mind is too cluttered to keep them all up there!)? I’m always looking for ways to keep my thoughts organized.

Original Ideas

For those of you who have read my blog since the beginning, you know my academic history.  For those of you who are newer readers, let me fill you in on some details that are relevant for this post.  I graduated with my Ph.D. in a subfield of chemistry in May of 2010.  I’ve known that I wanted to teach since early on in graduate school.  I decided (with my bosses approval) to start applying for teaching positions in the Fall of 2009.

I know that many of you are probably thinking, “What! No postdoc?”

My boss and I agreed that since I had no desire to be a big-time PI at an RO1 institution that doing a postdoc wasn’t necessary for me.  He also agreed that if I didn’t find a job during this cycle that he would keep me on a a postdoc until I was able to move on to something else.  This sounded like a great plan to me!  I went ahead and sent out close to 30 applications during that cycle; including applications for a couple of teaching postdocs (which apparently are very very rare in the field of chemistry).  To make a long story short, and to get to the heart of this post, I ended up getting a couple of call backs and ultimately landing my dream job.

The crux of this post is whether or not is was a good idea on my part to forgo a postdoc.  I don’t feel as though doing a postdoc would have helped me any with my teaching ability; I feel that I received plenty of teaching experience during my days in graduate school.  Most chemistry postdocs I know just spend their days slaving away in the lab.  They learn to become more independent researchers and formulate their own research ideas.  This is where I start questioning myself.  In graduate school, I was not responsible for coming up with my own big ideas.  My boss gave me an idea and told me to make some compounds, and I took it from there.  I made different derivatives of my own thinking, but the idea as a whole was his.

Now, as I sit in my nice office typing this post, I wonder, did I do myself a disservice by not going the postdoc route? I am by no means in a high-pressure situation where it is publish or perish, but I was hired under the notion that I could eventually start a small research project much like at a PUI, but this is for a professional program.  Some of our students (primarily those who obtained a B.S. in chemistry as an undergraduate) have already approached me because they know what type of work I want to do, but I have to turn them away because I don’t have a project for them.

I am trying my best to come up with some idea that I can get rolling into a nice little project, but I am not having any luck.  I have some internal collaboration going on right now, but it is in the very early stages that doesn’t require any lab work from me at this time.  I am scouring the literature right now (I really have to make myself read the literature…I hate it!), but anytime I see something that interests me I don’t know how to translate that into an actual project that has legs.

Do any of you have suggestions on how to get the ball rolling on discovering your next research project? How did you discover your first real idea?

How do people do it?

MULTITASKING! I suck at it! I truly envy people who have the ability to multitask.  I have tried and tried to no avail.  It seems that the harder I try to multitask, they more I focus on one task.  I desperately need to learn to multitask because it really stinks only being able to focus on one task at a time.

I try to multitask while working on powerpoint slides for future lectures, but I end up getting all consumed with making the slide perfect.  “Did I add too much information?” “Is that enough information?” “Can I draw that figure better myself?” The questions go on and on in my mind.

I try to divide my time so that I can get many things done within a day, but I just can’t seem to make it work.  I end up working on one thing for the vast majority of a day.  I will admit that part of that is my fault because I get very easily distracted on the internet.

Anyone have any ideas on how to beat this?

The Unmotivated Professor

I think I should change the name of this blog to the title of this post.  I cannot seem to find ANY motivation this semester.  I sit here at my computer with PowerPoint open, surrounded by textbooks, but I can’t seem to make myself transfer the information from the written page to digital screen.

That’s not the only area in which I cannot seem to find any motivation.  READING!  We all know that reading research articles is a key ingredient in staying up on the current research in your field, but that doesn’t make me want to read them all of the time.

My to do list is also staring me in the face, but have I checked anything off of it this week? Nope.

Is anyone else finding it hard to get motivated for this semester? Normally I am not this poorly motivated, but this semester seems to have me beaten already.  I’m not a rocket scientist, but it could possibly have something to do with the fact that we have a 2-year old and a 2-month old in our house.  They are both great and both sleep really well, but that doesn’t mean that having two as compared to one isn’t more exhausting.  Hopefully things will stabilize soon and I can get back to my normal semi-motivated self!

Resolutions

The new year is upon us, and I have decided that I should get back to blogging (thanks to some recent posts by Dr. 27). I really liked her post about her scientific/career resolutions for the year. I tend to be a person who sets goals, but somewhere along the way I lose track of them and they just get buried in the massive pile of stuff that becomes my life.  Hopefully, by posting them here on the blog, coupled with blogging more frequently, I will be more likely to accomplish all of my resolutions.

So here they are (in no particular order):

• Stay ahead of my lectures.  It always seems as though I start off with the best intentions of getting ahead of in preparing my lectures.  However, it always ends up after a month or so that I am struggling just to stay caught up with them.  I would like to have my lectures done in advance, but I can’t seem to find the motivation.  Hopefully becoming more seasoned (i.e. going around the block a time or two) will help!
• Get my research lab up and running.  I am fortunate  to have a job where research is required, but not pressured.  When I started working at my current job (1 1/2 years ago!), I was the first bench chemist that they hired.  So there was nothing in place as far as a lab was concerned.  I didn’t technically have a start-up budget.  They just asked what things I needed (within reason) and they bought them.  Now the time has come that everything is pretty much in place and it is time to start doing some actual chemistry.  The only problem is…I don’t know what I want to do!  I think this is one of the downfalls of not doing a postdoc.  Don’t get me wrong, I was very happy to be offered this job straight out of grad school, but I think I could have used a little more work being independent (or as independent as a postdoc can be) in research before I began.  I am trying to make myself stay busy scouring the journals for some kind of clue as to what interests me the most.
• Build my network.  As a new faculty member (and a very introverted one at that), I find it very difficult to mingle and make connections with new people outside of my university.  I will be attending the Spring National American Chemical Society meeting in March (Thanks departmental travel budget!) and I hope to really start building my external network along with some collaborative research ideas (which could help me with my previous resolution).
• Publish.  I would really like to submit an article at some point in time this year.  I am currently working on a small side project (that probably won’t result in any real chemistry being performed) that could result in a small publication.  Once my research really gets started, I would ideally like to publish at least 2 papers per year.
• Grants.  I know that grants are extremely difficult to come by these days, but I would at least like to submit for one grant this year.
• Contract. As of right now, I am on a 1-year contract.  When I go up for renewal this summer, I would really like to be offered a two-year contract, but I would be happy with another one-year contract.  I need to find out if I need to do something extra in order to merit a two-year contract or if they just haven’t been awarding those due to accreditation issues (not bad, it’s just that we are a new program).  After I have worked here for 7 years, I then become eligible for what they call a “permanent contract.”  A permanent contract is essentially this university’s version of tenure where your contract automatically renews without a yearly review, but it provides them a little more flexibility to fire you if you cross the line.
• Be a good educator. The past 3-semesters I have taught classes and I have gotten good student evaluations, but I will admit that I have been “the easy teacher.”  I am going to strive to find ways to make my material useful for the students and present it in a way that is informative and keeps them awake.  I also need to learn to right better test questions because I have a tendency to be very straightforward with my test question.  I need to find a way to present my material in class so that it lends itself to more thought provoking exam questions.

I think that should just about do it for this year’s resolutions.  I will hopefully remember to update you all as the year progresses on the status of these resolutions.  Now to get started!

 

It’s been a while…

This blogging thing did not work out like I had hoped last year. I kept getting discouraged because I felt like no one was reading it (even though I kept telling myself that this is more for me and if people read it that is just an added bonus). I then realized that more than likely no one was reading it because I posted so in frequently.

So, I have decided to start 2012 off on the right foot with this blog…a new post on the 1st day of the new year! I regularly check my blogroll (although it needs updated) and I decided to start posting again after reading Dr. 27’s recent posts about resolutions. While I am not big on making personal resolutions, I do like to make science/career resolutions. Unfortunately, I don’t have time right now to make a list, but you can expect a post either later tonight or tomorrow with my resolutions for the year! Thanks for the idea, Dr. 27!

One more year

My new contract arrived in my campus mailbox today! It is so exciting being able to sign it, turn it in, and know that I have a job for another year. It was only a one year contract, and as I found out today that is to be expected because we are a new college (within the university) and haven’t become fully accredited yet (not until June 2012). After we become accredited, we will then be eligible for longer contract terms. There was positive news in my contract…I received a 3.5% raise (or cost-of-living increase, however you want to look at it)!

Does anyone else have exciting stories to tell about their new contract?

Job Security

The one year anniversary of my employment at my current position is just on the horizon (July 1). I am anxious to see what my new contract will look like. Will it be a one year or two year contract? Will there be a cost of living increase? These are just a couple of the questions to which I am excited to find the answer. We have a departmental faculty meeting today, so I may just ask when the new contracts will be coming out.
Would that be too forward to ask? I see no reason why I should get a new contract. No one has seem displeased with me so far. The students seem to really like me. They have spent a lot of money on starting up my lab.
Does anyone else get nervous when it is time for new contracts to come out?