Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Find Something to do in the Middle of This Graph.
This is not a Venn diagram. I'm assuming the activity can't be important and in your skill set and not be either relevant to your current job or interesting to you. Also, It can't be relevant to your current job and interesting without either being important or in your skill set.Your interest and skillset are internal. Importance and relevance to your job are external. You have some control over your skillset and what your current job is. Your interest and what's important cannot be controlled. Your task is to find the middle of this graph by exploring your interests, expanding your skillset, moving toward important problems, and finding gainful employment solving them.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Once I'd written down the question, the answer was obvious
I was about to post the following to AskMefi:
Someone talk me down from the ivory tower's ledge [more inside]
I got my PhD in Computer Science in 2007, with a focus on computational biology. I have a wife and 2 young kids. During and prior to grad school, I worked/consulted for biotech companies always strictly as a means of paying the bills. My goal has been a faculty position. I applied in 2007 and got no interviews. Now, 2 years into a so-far-unremarkable 3-year postdoc, I've had an epiphony. I'm actually really good at industrial computational biology: making things work. I'm actually not that good at academic computational biology: publishing papers/getting grants. I'm also sick and tired of being poor. A friend of mine has eMailed me about a job at his company that seems like it would be pretty sweet. Whether or not this particular job works out, I'm thinking of broadening my search, effectively leaving academia behind forever. I'd like someone to explain why I shouldn't "sell out" and what will make me regret going into industry.
When I read the question, I knew exactly what my answer would be:
what took you so long? It soulds like you're headed for a failure in 2010 similar to the one in 2007. You're not getting any younger and your kids are growing up poor. You're not quitting academia. It's rejected you and you're finally realizing that fact. Take the price signal and GO!
Someone talk me down from the ivory tower's ledge [more inside]
I got my PhD in Computer Science in 2007, with a focus on computational biology. I have a wife and 2 young kids. During and prior to grad school, I worked/consulted for biotech companies always strictly as a means of paying the bills. My goal has been a faculty position. I applied in 2007 and got no interviews. Now, 2 years into a so-far-unremarkable 3-year postdoc, I've had an epiphony. I'm actually really good at industrial computational biology: making things work. I'm actually not that good at academic computational biology: publishing papers/getting grants. I'm also sick and tired of being poor. A friend of mine has eMailed me about a job at his company that seems like it would be pretty sweet. Whether or not this particular job works out, I'm thinking of broadening my search, effectively leaving academia behind forever. I'd like someone to explain why I shouldn't "sell out" and what will make me regret going into industry.
When I read the question, I knew exactly what my answer would be:
what took you so long? It soulds like you're headed for a failure in 2010 similar to the one in 2007. You're not getting any younger and your kids are growing up poor. You're not quitting academia. It's rejected you and you're finally realizing that fact. Take the price signal and GO!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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