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.