Question From Readers I

In response to my begging for comments yesterday, a few readers have asked me questions so I thought I'd answer them in a series. First I'll start with Katie who asked me the following questions...


"I remember you writing that you would consider going back to academic research. Do you feel your current role has built helpful skills should you decide to return? Or did it just make you appreciate the academic environment more"?

I have to admit that I pretty much knew I would want to return to academia, which means that I probably didn't commit to this job as much as I would have if the return wasn't in the back of my mind.

The short answers to your specific questions are yes and yes.

I am gaining valuable experience in ANJ that I think will be helpful for a return to academia. First, I am learning a whole new way to write, for lay persons and for policy makers. These are things that academic jobs in my field want new research faculty to have experience doing. There is a big push to get the word out to the general public and to politicians about the importance of my field and the research that we do, having these skills will be a big selling point. I think it will also help me when applying for funding from both NSF and NIH.

Also, the content of the research I do for ANJ will help as well. It's a nice bridge to my previous work, using new methods and analysis strategies that psychologists of my background generally do not use but may make publishing easier (and faster).

In terms of my appreciation of academia:

I really miss academic freedom regarding what you research and how you do it. I don't have that freedom in ANJ, a number of my proposals have been shot down by the powers that be (despite my direct supervisors LOVING these ideas) and I am becoming increasingly more frustrated every time that happens. I sometimes wonder (sometimes even out loud) why they hired a psychologists if they won't let me foster the psychologists part of myself.

I also miss the experimental part of research, this isn't necessarily a pining for academia per say but I know if I had an academic job I could do more of this.

Finally, I hate the 9-5 part of my job, having to be in the office all the time and having to account to others about when I'll be where, and not having the choice of which projects I work on when. And seriously, ANJ is really awesome about this... they let me work from home whenever I want pretty much, and I make my own hours as long as it's 8 hours a day.....I just have a really, really low tolerance for this I guess and want to be able to work 4 hours on Monday and 12 hours on Tuesday if that's what I feel like doing. :)

Oh, and I really miss teaching. This doesn't really have anything to do with ANJ but it's one of the things that makes me miss academia and want to go back.

I'm happy to respond to follow-ups about this topic if I neglected to answer something.

It's Delurking week....

Or it might have been last week... there seems to be some debate, but either way come out, come out wherever you are and leave me a comment.

If it helps you can ask me a question and I'm happy to answer in future posts, but no pressure a hello will do just fine.

Empathy...

I think I'm experiencing a little too much empathy lately.

A close friend lost one of her parents (after losing the other parent shortly before the second) another friend's grandparent is dying. I keep thinking about how I'd feel in their position and I'm a bit overwhelmed with sadness. I wish I had the power to make things easier for them. I don't really have much else to say...

For me???

Much thanks to MeaningGrrrl over at Meaningful Revisions for this beautiful award.




“This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

And I bestow this award to the following amazing bloggers, who just happen to be some of my favorites. Seriously, they deserve it and therefore you should check them out.

DiDi

PsychGrad

Katie (who is on a blogging hiatus but could not possibly left out of this list)

Seeking Solace

Surfergrrl

Unbalanced Reaction

Southern Grad Girl

Neurosciencegirl

So, what are you waiting for? Check them out!!

Progress and Productivity wk 2

1. Work:
- started to work on next deadline despite Boss still working on late items.
- talked to others about the situation to brainstorm ideas for how to make it better.
I realized I may not be able to talk about too much of the progress I make here because it's so job specific but I'll share whatever I can.

2. Research
- Worked on my Diss manuscript a bit today, had to enter some new analyzes and now all I need to do is write 1 more paragraph and then do a thorough proof read and I can submit.

3. Health
- made Drs appointment
- looked into gym options
- brought lunch to work everyday I was in the office.
- made 2 different soups this weekend so I can take it to work with me.
I really should have joined and gone to the gym... but I promised I'd keep it positive here so no beating myself up for not doing so.

4. Home
-Went through some of our gigantic piles of backed up mail. We have a habit of just moving piles from place to place and today I went through a bunch of them and guess what I found??? A CHECK!!! For $750. Talk about motivating for us to stay on top of the mail! We overpaid our grad school city escrow account last year, needless to say I took that right to the bank.

5. Finances
- brought lunch to work every day I was in the office.
- talked to DH about student loans, we agreed he'd pay about 20% of my loan payment as we took out some of these loans to live on while he looked for work in grad school town.
- got reimbursements from work for professional memberships! I did not even know this was possible but it saved me $75!
- Oh, and I found a check for $750, that helped.

Paranoia?

After receiving bad customer service so many times I'm paranoid when things seem to go too smoothly.

I had to revise our rental car reservation for our trip to Spring Training because we're flying into a different airport and arriving earlier than the original reservation. I called the local number I received from the baseball teams destinations package group, they asked my name, when I'd be arriving and to what airport, told me it would be $X more and that I was all set...

It was probably less than 1 minute on the phone!

I am a little worried we'll get there and not have a rental car. I guess it's not a huge deal, like they'd be out of rental cars and if our reservation wasn't there I could just call this number again. We should get all our reservation materials in the mail a couple weeks before the trip so I'll just check it then, but isn't it weird how rather than relieved the ease makes me more worried??

RBOC: Ready for Spring

• The weather sucks today, snow, rain, ice... right now we have 1.5 inches of new snow with a shitload of rain on top. That is going to be just great when the temperature drops later and it's all ice. I am really grateful that ANJ let's me work from home so often, getting to the office would have been more of a nightmare than Monday!
• I got DH a trip to Spring Training for our favorite baseball team for X-mas, I booked the flights last night, I'm ready to leave now.
• I want to start running again and I know I like running outside way more than on a treadmill, and I'm much more likely to actually run if I can do it outside...but see the first bullet.
• I want to have a garden in my new yard and grow herbs on my deck. I can't even get on the deck right now because it's covered in ice.
• X-mas is over, there is no more need for snow.

Ok, so bring on Spring!!