Thoughts about entering into an Assistant Professorship

Since it’s the time of year when people are thinking about transitioning into an Assistant Professorship, I wrote up a few thoughts to convey what I think worked for me. It was a Twitter thread, collated here for better access! Given the audience, it was written informally.

——-

Since it's nearly time for many new Assistant Profs to start, I thought I'd collate some thoughts on what worked for me in preparing for my first Assistant Prof year. Some background on me before we get started:

I had a two year postdoc under my belt, where I learned to juggle several projects & manage student workers (thanks @aphasia_lab). I also came into the position having ~5 years of teaching experience, ranging from private supervisions at Cambridge (my alma mater)

to teaching introductory courses at a community college. So, I had experience and was pretty confident in preparing course materials. This is some context so that you know where I'm coming from, and can judge how relevant these thoughts are to your own experience.

(1) Teaching. The thing I focused on most in the summer was *completely* prepping my courses. I'm not talking about just a syllabus. I had a single course in the fall (upper level undergrad) and two courses in the spring (same undergrad class, then a Master's level class).

I was pretty familiar with the topics to be taught in both, so reviewing the topics wasn't necessary. So, the majority of my time was creating every. single. thing in each class. I'm talking lectures, homework assignments, rubrics... the works.

As in, every single lecture for the entire year was done prior to me entering a classroom. This helped my sanity immensely. Did I tweak lectures & such as I went? 100%. After each class, I'd go back and tweak stuff that didn't work. I saved 20 mins before & after class for this.

Over winter break, I'd review the spring materials, make any edits, etc -- but it was easy because they were (in large part) already there. This type of teaching prep is totally not functional for many people, and I get that.

But, I’m someone who drastically overthinks making lectures, etc, so if I can drastically overthink in only two months rather than spread across a whole year… I’m into it.

(2) Research. Over the summer, I also mapped out some time to draft IRBs and a lab “best practices” document. These were totally not in a complete form, and took most of the fall to complete. I had a working IRB by spring.

(3) Grants. I mapped out what grants I wanted to apply to in my first year. Being relatively inexperienced with this, I set my sights on internal grants first.

I was very fortunate (thanks to awesome co-PI @richardfbetzel) to receive a few internal grants in the first year to kickstart research and also employ a research coordinator. Hugely helpful.

(4) Sign up for a writing group. My university has this wonderful program, where faculty sign up for writing groups each term. Each writing group meets for 3 hours per week, with ~30 mins designated to chatting about some aspect of writing, and 2.5 hours dedicated to writing.

If I had to pick a single thing that’s made me productive over these last three years – this is it. I’ve never *not* done a writing group during my time here. If someone takes away these writing groups, I will mutiny.

Also, big thanks to my colleague who emailed me in the summer prior to me starting my job, telling me to “SIGN THE HECK UP” for this. You’re the real VIP.

(5) Make some friends. I already pointed out @richardfbetzel, above, but seriously – make some new faculty friends. They’re as driven as you are. It’s nice to just chat ideas, see how other people are tackling research and getting started, etc.

(6) Hire good people. If you can get admin to let you hire a postdoc, an RA, anyone…. Do it. I know some people managed to hire these people the summer before they even got there, which is epic.

I didn’t have this opportunity, but I did bring on some extremely awesome Master’s Ras in my first year, and they made a world of difference. They helped me to create the type of lab vibe I wanted, helped tackle data mountain, etc.

The key to being an Assist Prof, in my opinion, is the ability to delegate. It’s a cultivated one. Again, thanks to @aphasia_lab for teaching me how to delegate.

(7) Meet your dept colleagues. There are loads of awesome people in the dept – don’t miss out! Grab some coffee individually over the course of the term. Learn about what’s worked for them in being successful, what they love to do outside of work, etc.

(8) Befriend your dept's admin staff. They're so darn helpful. They know all the ins and outs of the dept and university, and can be hugely helpful for purchasing materials, guiding you through the grant process, etc.

(9) Set some boundaries, but know that they can also be flexible. For instance, my boundary – and this really isn’t very flexible unless something is totally out of my control, like a multi-player grant or something – is that I work from 8AM to 5PM.

My lab knows that I check email and Slack then. This type of boundary has been super useful for me to “switch off” (cue horse riding, dog walking) every day, and be *way* more efficient from day to do. Again, doesn’t work for everyone, but works for me.

(10) Set some short-term and long-term goals. I used sticky notes and weird Google calendar reminders, but I set some short term goals (“write up a single author paper this year”) and long term goals (“map out an NIH grant”) for my first year.

I had Google remind me of these goals on a semi-regular basis. It was useful. Also – goals change, and this was definitely the case for me.

(11) Enjoy the ride. For me, this experience has been a positive one. I love the opportunity to work with students, have a lab, do translational research with amazing participants, discover things, teach, learn from students and faculty, and make friendships.

Yes, there are expectations, but I do what I can and I’m happy with what I do. I think that side of my personality (knowing I did my best and being satisfied with it) has really aided me in putting this experience in a positive light. I hope some of these were helpful.