Year 1 is done

Wow!  As you can see from the lack of posts, the year was tough.  I have learned a lot though.  A few things that I would like to point out are:

1) Make sure to play nice with all of your colleagues.  I have gone out of my way to have lunch with almost all of my colleagues or at least have brief chats about research and that has been productive and a good political move.

2) Not all of your colleagues will be nice back!  I have at least one person who seems really out to get me.  Luckily it's just one but it makes me feel bad sometimes.  I have learned to just ignore this person and move on.

3) Meeting other new profs (from other departments) was key.  It was so nice to have other people to talk through who were going through the same things I was and were struggling/rejoicing in their first year.  We will continue to meet (I hope) through year 2 but it's certainly something I would recommend to other new professors.

4) Students are awesome.  One of the great joys of this year has been the long-awaited ability to actually imagine getting invested in the department.  I have made great connections with lots of people, in particular students.  I have been running an informal session this summer on getting a job and just trying to generally get the pulse of the students.  I also have a number of grad students doing research with me.  It has taken a huge amount of my time but is totally worth it.  I had my group over for dinner the other night and I got very nostalgic about getting to this stage. It's awesome being a group leading and helping science progress right now and in the future.  This part has really kept me going.

5) Time management is still hard.  I still have not figured out a good balance of time.  There have been a couple of grants that I really should have applied for but couldn't manage my time enough to get something of appropriate quality out the door.  That was very tough for me.  In general, I have learned that I can't do everything and that some things have to take a back seat.  That is not an easy thing and learning how to prioritize is tough (and I haven't figured it out yet).

6) Friend or Professor.  One thing I continue to struggle with is my role in being a friend to graduate students while still maintaining the appropriate distance as a professor.  I have no peers among my faculty colleagues and a number of the graduate students were in their 2nd or 3rd year of grad school when I was in grad school - so I feel a much close social bond to them.  However, I know that I certainly need to keep some distance - but that is sometimes challenging.

OK, that's it for now.

Maybe I will post more soon.

And into week 3 . . .

I feel like I am now in the zone with teaching. Today was awesome - I did a bunch of interactive exercises and had students come up and learn about conservation of angular momentum by spinning with weights on a stool - classic demonstration but they get so excited.  I use something in my class that gives me instant feedback as well as an opportunity for students to ask questions: Minute papers - at the end of every class I have students write about what they learned about in class or ask questions or tell me things they liked or disliked.  I stole the idea from a professor at University of Washington and it is amazing. Although it takes a lot of work to read and comment on them every day, it is really a nice way to gauge how I am doing - and when you have good days like today, it's an awesome ego boost.

That reminds me - in my first post, I tried to be all anonymous about who I am, where I work, who my advisor was - can't really do that without much trouble so I won't bother: I'm Andrew West, I work at Boston University, Julianne Dalcanton (of the excellent checklist) was my PhD advisor . . .

By the way, a few more tips for the beginning profs:

1) 12 month plan - this is something I learned from my postdoc supervisor Adam Burgasser.  Sit down and write what your priorities are for the year in research, papers, teaching, conferences . . . it's a great technique and I had my BU students do it too, which was a great thing for them.

2) Buy quicktime pro - I know that sounds weird but it has saved my ass for lecture prep.  You can use safari to download youtube videos (can't figure out how to do it in firefox) and then convert them in quicktime.  It's only 30 bucks and so far it has saved me a ton of time.

3) Get exercise.  I think the tendancy is to be so stressed that you just work and sleep (and maybe remember to eat - I forgot to eat lunch and dinner last Saturday).  But getting a little bit of exercise every day has kept me really sane. I actually cycle to work and back every day (10 mile round trip) and it's perfect for me to keep moving and stay healthy. I also am playing ultimate on Monday nights - what a nice relief that is (and tonight I had a super sick inside-out forehand for a score - as well as a push pass). 

And so it begins . . .

This past week I started a tenure-track faculty job at a research university. I have been looking forward to this moment for over a decade and found this week, exciting, nerve-inducing, as well as surreal. In fact, there were a number of times as I sat in my new office that I wondered how I actually got here (and how lucky I am). My hope is that this blog will help me write down some of the things that go well over the next few years as well as document those that don't go so well. So far I really like my department. Everyone has welcomed me into the fold. However, I have walked into a bit of a political fight in the department that I need to make sure I navigate well as a junior faculty member.

The department has assigned me a mentor (great guy and nice move by the dean) who has reminded me that my role in faculty meetings for the first few months is to listen and just take mental thoughts - good advice thus far (2 faculty meetings in my first week).

I am teaching an introductory class for non-majors, which so far has been awesome. I had forgotten how much I love teaching so far it's been a blast. I will write more about what things have gone well with teaching in later posts but I am very excited about the first semester.

I have received a number of pieces of advice about being a new faculty. People have told me to make sure I put in some long hours, be seen by my peers and become someone to whom they turn with scientific and other questions. Another (current dean at a prominent institution) told me not to take any sides or make too many "close" friends early on. She recommended I schedule one-on-one meetings with each of the other faculty members during my first semester. I really like this idea and will start doing that this week. One of my colleagues, who is going through the tenure process right now told me to keep EVERYTHING. She means everything - when you get invited to give a colloquium, print out the email and put it in your tenure file. When you give a talk somewhere, grab a copy of the talk announcement and put it in your tenure file . . .

Julianne Dalcanton, an astronomer at the University of Washington has assembled a short document for first-year faculty. Here is what she has to say:

Surviving Your First Year

Yet Another Opinionated Guide by J. Dalcanton

The transition to becoming a faculty member is more difficult than one would think. For many of us, a faculty position was a magical holy grail that, once obtained, would bring peace to our turbulent lives. However, I found my first year as a faculty member to be harder than any other year of my academic career. I pulled more all-nighters than I ever had in school. Moreover, I couldn’t really complain, because lots of my friends would have changed places with me in a second. So, once you’re on campus, what do you do? Here’s a list of tips, though they’re mostly geared towards people headed to research universities, rather than teaching colleges.

1. Take any orientation classes offered. Lots of institutions offer workshops for new faculty. It’s great to make friends outside your department, and hard to do so once orientation is over. You’ll also learn a lot about how your institution operates.

2. Confine your teaching prep to evenings or fixed times of the week. Teaching a new class can expand to fill all available time. Try to prevent it by limiting class prep to specific times, leaving other times free for research. What works for me is preparing the majority of my classes at night after my kids go to sleep, since the urge to get to bed keeps me focused and efficient.

3. Teach before lunch. Before class, you get nothing done because you’re getting ready for class. After class, you get nothing done because you’re fried. If this cycle happens before lunch, you’ll be refreshed after a good meal and can get something else done in the afternoon.

4. Consider teaching 2 1.5-hour classes per week rather than 3 1-hour classes. This schedule confines heavy-duty class-prep to only two days a week, rather than three, and frees up a weekday for research. The students tend to like it to, since they don’t have to go to class on Friday. You have to give the students a break, however – 1.5 hours is a lonnnnng time to listen to a lecture.

5. Do not underestimate the importance of a course syllabus. The students treat it as a binding contract. Make sure it covers not just dates of exams and reading assignments, but also policies for cheating, late homework, make-up exams, etc.

6. Don’t take on lots of students immediately. Frequently new professors are flooded with requests for research projects. Don’t immediately start saying yes to everyone, or you’ll soon find yourself with too many students, not all of whom you’d be comfortable supervising.

7. Don’t put new students on the critical path. It takes even the best students quite a while to get up to speed. You’re better off giving them small side projects to begin with. If they get something done, then great! Move them on to something more substantial. But, if they flail, it’s not a great loss.

8. Don’t take on new students without a closing date and/or trial period. Sometimes a student just won’t work out, no matter how hard you both try. It’s better to have a trial period set up at the beginning of a project, rather than needing to “break up” with the student unexpectedly. Have potential students do a small side project for credit before agreeing to support them financially. You don’t want to accidentally commit a year of RA support to an unproductive student who’s not enjoying the research project..

9. Accept that you’re not going to overachieve in every aspect of your job. If you’re reading this, you’re probably an overachiever. Unfortunately, you’ve just been given an impossible job description, so you’re not going to be simultaneously superb at teaching, research, and service. At various times, different parts of your job description are just going to have to slide a bit. Don’t beat yourself up to much about it, OK?

10. Start writing grants immediately. The success rate for grants is not so hot (25% or less). So, start writing proposals! It’s not wasted effort since: (1) much of the text will wind up in the introduction or conclusion of your papers; (2) much of the text can be recycled in other proposals; and (3) you can resubmit unsuccessful grants. For the NSF, I’ve heard the figure that 75% of all proposals get funding after being submitted 3 times.

11. Find a senior person to read your proposals. Get as much feedback as possible. Borrow successful proposals from your friends and colleagues, so you know what to aim for. Go to grant-writing workshops offered by your institution or the AAS/APS.

12. Make sure your department nominates you for the Sloan and Packard Fellowships. There are various fellowships for early career development. Some of these you can apply to on your own (NSF-CAREER, Cotrell), but others require your department and/or university to nominate you. Make sure that you and your chair are aware of these opportunities.

13. Find out the requirements for tenure. Somewhere in the bowels of your institution’s administration lies a document describing the requirements for tenure. Get a copy of this early, so you know what’s expected. Make sure you keep the department informed about what they need to do in the intervening years. You may need yearly progress reports and course evaluations in your file, but if no one notices until you go up for tenure, you could face unnecessary problems. Don’t count on your department to be as invested in the process as you are, and keep track of deadlines yourself.

14. Start a tenure file. Keep a simple list somewhere of all the talks you gave, all the outreach you did, all the committees you served on, all the professional societies you participated in, all the students you supervised, etc. The file will help you write your tenure case in a few years, and will remind you that you did a lot more than you give yourself credit for.

15. Don’t freak about tenure! Just keep on giving talks and publishing a reasonably steady stream of papers. If you haven’t completely screwed up on your teaching, you’ll probably be OK.

16. Keep your CV current, and expand it. Although you’re done applying for jobs, you’ll still need a CV for grants and various award applications. So, keep it updated. Also, add new categories for courses taught, students supervised, grants received, committees, etc.

17. Pick and choose your committees. Rather than being drafted onto a committee you’re not interested in, actively volunteer for one or two that you’d enjoy. But, don’t overload.

18. Pay attention to your budgets. If you misjudge, you can really screw over the junior personnel who are dependent on you for funding.

19. Get to know the front office. Office staff can make your job much easier. They’re the ones who are scheduling your courses, finding your classroom space, administering course grades, etc. Be decent to them, treat them with respect, and you’ll find them very helpful in return. However, make sure you’re respectful of their job descriptions (i.e. it’s not OK to ask the budget person to xerox your exams).

20. Get involved. Step up. Some new faculty members act like visiting postdocs. Others dive in and show a willingness to make the department a better place. The latter get a lot more respect. However, don’t overdo it – you still need to get papers written.

One of my plans is to add to this list over the next year.

A few other things I have already done (more to come soon):

• I met a bunch of other new faculty at orientation and we have started a club for new faculty so we can support each other over the first year.
• I used some of my start-up funding to pay a graduate student over the summer. This forced me to be around in the department before my appointment started and made the transition MUCH easier (it also helped that my postdoc was in the same metropolitan area).
• I took my teaching relief in the spring. I figured that with the transition to a new job and with the jump to faculty, my research efficiency might not be great in the fall. So I negotiated to take my relief in the spring so I can get a lot done.