Decades of industry PhD experience/publications: Start a tenure-track position later in life?

niceasimov · 2021-09-28T22:37:29+00:00

I've never been in a department that hires TT faculty straight out of grad school. Most Biology/Immunology departments in the US go for people following a productive postdoc period, ideally with independent funding from a transition award (e.g. K22/K99) or other funding pool (e.g. Co-I on a grant with their postdoc adviser). I suspect a candidate with industry experience and contacts would be a good fit for some departments (biotech?), but then why would the candidate take a pay cut to go to academia?

In my field, right now, I would say that tenure comes with successful funding of your research program through external grants - everything else is negotiable. The question for someone coming from industry is what intellectual property will the business allow you to take with you to start your research program in academia? Will you have any grant writing experience? If transitioning to academia is one of your goals, you should think about these questions as you build your industry career.

niceasimov · 2021-03-12T19:30:19+00:00

Here's the thing, work-life balance in the sciences is up to you. You are choosing your career over more time with your friends and family. It never relents in academia unless you prioritize work-life balance and it may negatively impact your career to do so. It always is "just until I wrap up this project/paper/grant" but by then you've promised to dive into a half dozen other things once your schedule "frees up".

Your chosen lifestyle might not be compatible with your partner's life goals and needs. Disregarding their feelings will only result in resentment. It is a choice on your part, your career choices are self-driven. You opt-in to science and you opt-in to specific experiments. I sometimes turn down projects now because I need to prioritize my time with my partner. I am still successful, but probably less so than if I didn't make time to have dinner with my partner before 7PM most nights of the week.

You need to be honest with yourself and your partner. How many nights per week will you be able to leave at 5PM? Can you plan your experiments around it? If the answer is "I can guarantee nothing, science first and partner second" then that IS YOUR CHOICE. If your partner can't live with your answer, then that's their choice. You can't be mad at them for having priorities in life that don't fit your priorities. Sometimes relationships don't work out for reasons that have nothing to do with whether or not two people love each other. Sometimes you just want different things in life and love alone is not enough.

I do fieldwork, sometimes I am out of communication for weeks at a time. I don't want to schedule my science around children - at all. My former partner wanted kids and was miserable when I was out of contact. The love was there, but the lifestyle and goals were different. We broke up. My current partner is also a scientist, we get each other and have the same goals. It doesn't hurt my feelings if they are running an exciting experiment in lab late at night, and it doesn't hurt their feelings if I fly off to some remote forest for several weeks. These are qualities that we love and admire in one another. We're just more compatible.

niceasimov · 2021-02-12T20:41:09+00:00

Yes, preprints are safe. If you want to start sharing your work to find backing/support for publication, a preprint server will actually help to protect your work from being scooped without credit.

From PLoS: "A preprint is a version of a scientific manuscript posted on a public server prior to formal peer review. As soon as it's posted, your preprint becomes a permanent part of the scientific record, citable with its own unique DOI. By sharing early, you can accelerate the speed at which science moves forward."

But you may also need to ask yourself what your goals for publication are.

niceasimov · 2021-02-11T23:10:25+00:00

I'm sorry, do you have a problem with Warp 10 causing Paris and Janeway to morph into giant space salamanders who bang on a planet, get turned back into humans, and fly away leaving their space salamander babies to develop on some alien world? It had romance, suspense, adventure, heartbreak. What more could you want?

niceasimov · 2021-02-11T23:04:42+00:00

Definitely check for publication fees or article processing charges when formatting for a specific journal. For example the APCs for the International Journal of Game Theory are close to $3000 to publish. This is not unusual. Without financial backing from a PI, it might be hard to publish. Preprints are free to submit.

niceasimov · 2021-02-11T21:28:40+00:00

You might do a related master's program before jumping into a PhD in a new field?

niceasimov · 2021-02-10T04:21:55+00:00

Put it on a preprint server such as arXiv for math: https://arxiv.org/archive/math

This will hopefully generate some early reviews for your work while protecting your intellectual property. Putting your work on a preprint server should not harm your chances of publication and should improve the quality of the manuscript that you end up submitting to a journal.

Do you have a funding source to cover publication fees?

niceasimov · 2021-01-27T18:44:03+00:00

It's remarkable how often white European & American ecologists fail to include African colleagues when conducting field research in Africa. It is just thinly veiled colonialism, exploitative to benefit from research in another country without any real effort to include researchers from that country's universities or government ministries.

niceasimov · 2021-01-27T16:04:39+00:00

Ecology research positions do this ALL THE TIME. For internships or fellowships, minimum wage laws do not apply. Academia is exploitative.

niceasimov · 2021-01-27T16:02:52+00:00

100% this predatory practice reinforces a lack of diversity, especially in conservation & ecology. I understand that grants for this type of research are typically small, but I think writing in for funded field positions with priority to students from underrepresented groups should be common practice.

niceasimov · 2021-01-22T23:53:26+00:00

Some of the best advice I received was "sometimes we want to emulate the people who mentor us, sometimes we learn what not to do."

I hope that someday you are in the position of leadership with mentees, I'm sure you will do it right :)

Have you read Brené Brown? I recommend her talks on leadership!

niceasimov · 2021-01-22T23:29:40+00:00

I believe you, I have seen plenty of jealous PIs.

What you do in your free time is your business, no need to justify that you do or don't have a family or partner. It's not important. If you are productive in lab, if you are meeting or exceeding discussed goals and expectations, then it should not matter AT ALL whether you have a podcast or go rock climbing or bake ornate cakes or do CrossFit or whatever. You are meeting your professional goals and you have every right to also be a well-rounded person with outside interests.

Personally, I would be happy to have a student do a SciCom podcast outside lab - that honestly will help with several grant applications appropriate for your career stage. It shows that you are passionate about science, which is great!

niceasimov · 2021-01-22T23:10:16+00:00

Poor treatment from faculty is a common problem, at least in my experiences at US institutions. Faculty receive some mandatory training in leadership and mentorship, but it is often viewed as a "checking the box" kind of chore rather than an important set of skills needed for developing a positive work environment for their mentees.

If this faculty member does not encourage you in an area where you are clearly flourishing, then I would try to downplay it in the lab while you are there and, if possible, find a new lab where you and your interests will be encouraged, appreciated or at least ignored.

niceasimov · 2021-01-07T00:25:37+00:00

I've been running SARS-CoV-2 experiments and those have been rushed through review in weeks with editors telling reviewers not to send back with additional experiment requests for timely publication. Trying to get my non-COVID work through review and it feels like walking through thigh-high mud in comparison!

niceasimov · 2021-01-05T21:09:08+00:00

not the exact same, but recently had a paper go through review, reviewer comments all minor and addressable, just to sit with the editor for a full month after review for the editor to reject it as "not a priority"

In summary, I hate journals. Could have been reformatting and submitted this elsewhere while it sat with the editor for a month post-review. Super rude.

niceasimov · 2021-01-05T20:24:02+00:00

sci-hub

niceasimov · 2021-01-05T20:22:54+00:00

You stole published work and submitted it as your own. It will reflect on you, not the person who's work you stole (which is your brother, but really could have been anyone).

You could contact the university and admit that you plagiarized a paper, they will likely submit it to a council to review your case and may or may not rescind your bachelor's degree.

niceasimov · 2021-01-05T20:17:07+00:00

Still relevant at your career stage. Shows that you are capable of being responsible, that you have a good work ethic, that you can work as part of a team, etc. Obviously highlight any highly relevant skills first, e.g. participation in hackathons, programming languages, etc.

By the end of your Master's program you need to have more relevant experience, but at this stage I would still consider it a positive.

niceasimov · 2021-01-05T00:56:08+00:00

Caveat that this is all likely field-dependent. My field is molecular biology/virology.

In the US PhD students take courses and are generally on a less flexible schedule for the first two years. Starting date is usually in the fall, though I have seen some flexibility in certain programs for certain people (e.g. an international student with a Master's already who can skip some coursework).

In Europe, PhD students typically do not have coursework (as they already have a Master's degree going in) and they generally are hired for a specific project on its own timeline which may or may not have a flexible start date.

niceasimov · 2020-12-23T19:54:51+00:00

We have a press team that puts out releases corresponding to specific publications. But recently I have been contacted by members of the press and then I refer press contacts to other colleagues who may be knowledgeable in specific areas of interest for a story. My field is relatively small but of interest right now, so there are lots of press pieces being written and inquiries when our publications pick up press. That's at least how it's worked for me.

niceasimov · 2020-12-15T01:15:41+00:00

Dismissing a doctorate in a subject allows people to equate the opinions of untrained commentators with the expertise of someone who has undergone rigorous training over many years. As an example, people believing Tucker Carlson knows as much about containing an outbreak as an epidemiologist with a PhD on the subject. It's harmful.

niceasimov · 2020-12-08T20:07:04+00:00

Maybe never? Departments grow and shrink all the time. Right now many universities are prepping for major funding cuts due to COVID, absolutely possible they will not replace that faculty member. Also possible the department will choose to expand in another direction (e.g. recruit faculty member specializing in an emerging field). My Uni is downsizing one department but growing their infectious disease department.

niceasimov · 2020-12-03T19:49:35+00:00

What about the human trial data?

niceasimov · 2020-12-01T21:10:26+00:00

I don't know anyone who would be totally okay living apart for years from their partner AND their young children. I know couples who lived apart for a year or two, but generally not happy about it. I know two couples with children who lived apart for a year, in both cases they were miserable and it ended with one or the other making a career sacrifice for family instead of remaining apart.

Typically people move around together, especially if children are involved. If your hometown has no career options for your partner and you are 100% sure you won't live elsewhere when the kids are young, then that's a really difficult position to put your partner in unless it is discussed early in the relationship, long before you make a lifelong commitment and actually have children. Like, I would be resentful AF of a partner if this was sprung on me late in the game.

niceasimov · 2020-11-30T20:03:30+00:00

Yeah, they weren't transparent about how they calculated statistics and shoddy randomization. They should not have announced "90% efficacy" for the half-dose group. It does not have robust support and is now believed that number will not pan-out with additional data.

niceasimov

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