The first installment of the “Keep Your Job, Ken!” blog series
will focus on transitioning from a postdoc to a professor and getting your lab
up and running.
1) Before leaving your postdoc, wrap up as much of your current work as possible. Do your best to
part on good terms with your advisor because, hopefully, they will support and
advocate for you in the future. However, other than being another line on the
CV, do note that papers produced during your postdoc do little to nothing to
help you with your independent career and can steal precious time from your already
overwhelming assistant professor schedule. You may be invested in a project/paper,
but a cost-benefit analysis will indicate that it is better to hand off those
projects (and first authorship) to someone else before you leave. Also, as I
will describe in greater detail later, you need to differentiate yourself from
your advisor as soon as possible.
2) If it’s an option, arrive
early to your new institution and get settled in well before your first
semester starts. Any move is a major life-disrupting event. But it could
prove substantially more chaotic if you move only a week before teaching your
first class and starting to work with graduate students. Just thinking about
that amount of stress makes me shudder. Even if you are not getting paid and/or
don’t have a purchasing budget to start your research it is worth taking as
much time as you can to settle in (e.g., spending time in your office, setting
up your home, finding a grocery store, etc.) before your formal schedule kicks
in (i.e., classes, committee meetings, orientation, etc.). If you are lucky and
have a budget, you can even start placing orders.
3) This one is obvious: ramp
up your research as fast as possible. Hitting the ground running maximizes
your productivity faster and that additional time at peak performance can be a
critical boost to pre-tenure success. Framed another way, the faster you get up
and running the more time you have to make mistakes, recognize failed/promising
research directions, and make adjustments accordingly. If possible, avoid
relying on or agreeing to a renovated space because the renovations will
inevitably take twice as long as originally outlined. If renovations are
necessary, fight for a temporary space where you and your students can work in
the interim.
4) Once you’ve
accepted a job offer, immediately start generating a purchasing list that includes
the names and item numbers of everything you might need. This should include
the big items—that will ultimately involve seeking quotes and negotiating
prices—as
well as little things. Some of them are obvious (i.e. 50 mL round bottom
flasks, solvents, lens/mirrors, post holders, etc.), but others not so much. Like
that stupid little connector piece between the vacuum and the Schlenk line (see
image below). What is it called? What size is it? What company makes it? How do
you find it in a catalog? There is nothing more demoralizing than spending
hours at your desk finding an item, purchasing it, and once it arrives finding
out it is completely wrong. This will inevitably happen to everyone but
hopefully you can minimize the amount of time you spend and the number of times
it happens. It is much easier to recognize what you need when it is in front of
you instead of trying to envision it in an empty hood/bench. My advice is to
walk through your postdoc lab and write down the name and part number of
everything that you may need in the future. Taking pictures of a setup you like
is also helpful.
5) Place orders for
large equipment right away but make sure it’s done correctly. Ordering,
processing, delivery, and installation can take several months. For many new
assistant professors this will be their biggest rate limiting step. Most
institutions require items costing >$5,000 or $10,000 to go through a
time-consuming process like bidding. This will likely be handled by a purchasing
office that is not nearly in as much of a hurry as you are. If you are not
particularly attached to one brand or model or the one you want is the least
expensive among the competitors, then the process may move faster.
Alternatively, if you know exactly what instrument you want, and it has unique
features, then a Sole Source
Justification—a
process in which you justify why the instrument you want is unique and required
for your work—may
be your better option. Here
is an example Sole Source Justification form from FSU (pdf). Keep in mind
that the justification is being written for someone who is not an expert in
your field and most likely not even a scientist. Through trial and error, I
have learned:
·
The three lines offered to justify the purchase on
the FSU form are not enough. If you’re justification space is similarly modest
get used to writing “see attachment.”
·
Get at least three quotes from the most
well-known suppliers. This shows you have done your homework and will allow you
to show them how the item you want is clearly differentiated.
·
Ask the vendors for advice on how to write the
sole source. They regularly fight the same battle and know the pros and cons of
their competitors. It should be detailed but not so detailed it looks like the
vendor wrote it because the other vendors can challenge it.
·
Request a successful Sole Source Justification example from senior colleagues. Ask for
their advice as well since every university handles this process differently.
For example, at a private institution the restrictions are much looser and a three-line
justification might be enough. Alternatively, public intuitions like those in
Florida have to adhere to Sunshine
Laws and that prompts a more rigorous process. If you email me I’d be happy
to share an example of a successful sole-source justification. Unfortunately, I
can also share an example of an unsuccessful one.
All in all, take time and do a good job on your Sole Source Justifications. It’s
demoralizing when, weeks or months later, a justification is rejected by the
purchasing office or challenged by one of the alternative vendors. Not only is
this a delay but the rejection can also trigger additional, time-eating bids
and negotiations that can add months to your wait.
6) Get your website
and social media presence online ASAP. Your website is the world’s window
into your research group. It is a crucial tool for recruiting postdocs,
graduate, and undergraduate students. Equally important is that it may serve as
a source of information for article and grant reviewers. After all, the NSF’s two-page
biosketch, for example, only tells you so much about the qualifications of a PI
or co-PI.
There are multiple approaches for producing a website. One
strategy is to learn HTML and design your own from scratch. That is what I did
and, while I am not going to say I regret it because I learned a lot, it did
take more time than I expected. Another possible drawback to this approach is
that a DIY website can end up looking a bit…amateur. But one plus is that by
controlling the formatting you can hide Easter Eggs like a Kanomi Code (try
plugging it in while visiting the Hanson
Research Group page). Another more
cost-effective strategy is to opt for a user-friendly template and fill in your
content (e.g., wix, site123,
etc.). Alternatively, if your university offers support services for website design
you can take advantage of them. Or, it may even be worth paying an undergrad
with web design experience to create your page.
Setting up a Twitter, Instagram, and other social media
accounts is much easier and will be an important channel for publicity. When a
new paper is published you can quickly use a tweet to increase its visibility.
Quick note: if you tag the journal, they will also usually retweet it to their
followers. Also, follow my group on Twitter
and Instagram
(@HansonFSU).
7) Everything will go
slower than you would like so pick and choose your battles. From the day
you arrive on campus you are going to be excited, motivated, and ready to take
on anything and everything. However,
things like getting an ID, setting up a purchasing account, getting quotes, actually
making purchases, major/minor renovations, instrument training, etc. will most
likely take longer than you want. The reality is that, regardless of how much
time you’re willing to put in, most of the logistics will rely on staff who are
already overburdened with day-to-day work and rightfully do not want to work
nights and weekends. While your task may seem quick and easy, it may be the 81st
item on their to do list. Therefore, my
advice is to be patient and pick and choose your battles. Do not be the
assistant professor who cries wolf and demands that everything needs to be done ASAP. If everything is equally the
highest priority, then everything is also equally the lowest priority. However,
if you contact someone once and say “I realize that you are busy, but I am in a
hurry and I would really like your help with X.” chances are that it will get
done quickly. But if you do that every time, especially with things they know
are trivial, then you have officially become
that pain in the ass colleague that no one wants to work with. The bottom
line is that your coworkers are people and if you rub them the wrong way don’t
be surprised if your requests/purchases/emails get back-burnered behind someone
they like who treats them well. With
that said sometimes you do have to push hard but aim to do so in a diplomatic
way.
8) Don’t be afraid to
ask for help. There are people who can help with everything from purchasing
to finding a good doctor and dentist in town. While there can be a fine line
between needing help and pestering, often you will find that your senior
colleagues are happy to hold court and share their wisdom with you (present
blog post included). Given the importance of setting up your lab as quickly as
possible, don’t be afraid to ask to borrow hood space, instrument time, tools,
etc. before your lab is up and running. Those extra few weeks/months of active
work can make a huge difference in producing preliminary results for early
proposals. Think of it this way, the department has made a large investment in
you and most will do everything they can to help you succeed. Worst case
scenario they say no. But from my experience that is rarely the case. With that
said, if they say yes, don’t damage anything and if you do offer to pay to fix
it. Also, read the room and don’t overstay your welcome.
9) Be nice to the
support staff. First, do this because it’s what a good person would do. You
and your colleagues can really tell something about someone’s character by how they
treat the people that “serve” them. This is sometimes referred to as the Waiter Rule. Second, if the staff like you and you show them
respect, they are far more likely to help you and do so in a timely manner.
Finally, treating staff well is good for the health of the entire department.
As I will expand upon in the management section, how people are treated at work
directly affects their productivity, retention, number of sick days, etc. more
so than any other factor (e.g. salary, benefits, vacation days, etc.). Long
story short, check your ego at the door and treat the people around you well.
