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I always get asked for advice about starting/surviving the tenure track. Last couple of months I've started compiling rules etc I find myself saying. Thought I'd put it out there for the masses if anyone found it useful. Will prob keep adding, feel free to add your own!
I always get asked for advice about starting/surviving the tenure track. Last couple of months I've started compiling rules etc I find myself saying. Thought I'd put it out there for the masses if anyone found it useful. Will prob keep adding, feel free to add your own!
1. Hard work is required for success, but it is, in of itself, not enough. You need to be lucky.
2. Sometimes luck can be more important than hard work.
3. Luck can turn at any moment. Never forget that.
4. The data are the data are the data.
5. If you have the proper controls, there is no such thing as a failed experiment.
6. All outcomes should be publishable.
7. Never attempt to merely make the grade. Instead endeavor to be bulletproof.
8. Anything worth doing is worth not just doing well; it’s worth overdoing.
9. Persevere! One quality that often separates the successful from the unsuccessful is not intelligence, talent, or creativity. It is sheer bloody-minded persistence.
10. Funding is a random process.
11. Be mercenary in your approach to funding. Apply for everything that you can even vaguely make yourself fit. Use a shoehorn if necessary.
12. Publish Early. Publish Often. Publish yesterday.
13. There are 3 categories of papers: Papers in press, papers in review, and papers you’re working on. Always strive to have at least one paper in each category at all times (more than 1 is better)
14. NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK!!! You will always need letter writers, references etc… beyond your PhD and postdoc advisors.
15. Look out for yourself. No one else will do it for you
16. Know your worth, both to yourself and to others.
17. Do not have loyalty to your institution; they don’t have any for you. Never fool yourself; a tenure-track job is a mutually beneficial business arrangement. Do what is best for you.
18. Have loyalty to your people, but in the same vein do not expect unconditional loyalty from them. They ultimately have to do what’s best for them, not for you. Your best people may be the quickest to leave. This is a feature, not a bug.
19. Treat everyone you meet with respect, no matter who they are, or what they do.
20. Don't feel guilty about wanting a life outside of work. Your job is not your life
21. It's almost never personal. Don't make it so.
22. You can do everything right and still lose.
23. You can do everything wrong and still win.
24. There's no such thing as basic vs. applied science. There's just good science and bad science. Do good science.
(Told to me by Bruce Hammock way back when I was a a wet-behind-the-ears PhD student. I still live by this)
(Told to me by Bruce Hammock way back when I was a a wet-behind-the-ears PhD student. I still live by this)
25. Your lab members are not your family. They are not your friends. They are mentees, trainees, & employees. It may be fun to have one big happy lab family, but sooner or later you're going to have to pull rank. You can't easily switch from buddy to boss without bruised feelings
26. The lab is not a democracy. It's a friendly dictatorship
27. Lab members may, from time to time, seek to subvert the dictatorship (i.e. do stuff you counseled them not to do). It's often good to turn a blind eye to this, significant advances may result (i.e. your people may know the system better than yo do)
28. Always get it in writing.
28 Corollary: Make sure the person you're getting it in writing from has the authority to do so
28 Corollary: Make sure the person you're getting it in writing from has the authority to do so
29. Never collaborate with people you don't know and trust.
I got out of a bad collaboration (my first, and the only time I'd broken the know and trust rule) months ago and the hassles are still ongoing
I got out of a bad collaboration (my first, and the only time I'd broken the know and trust rule) months ago and the hassles are still ongoing
30. Authorship is cheap. Err on the side of inclusion, especially for technicians and undergrads
31. Never be afraid to say "No"
32. No one can take advantage of you unless you let them. Don't let them.
33. Learn to make decisions, often without complete data. You’ll have to make them frequently. If you’re not comfortable with this, get comfortable. If you don’t make a decision when it needs to be made, it will be made for you, either by others, or simply by circumstance
34. Like most things in life, the problem is never "everyone else". If you keep having the same issues even though the situation changes, look for the common denominator and work to change yourself
35. If it was easy, someone would have done it already
36. In a negotiation, always ask for what you need; never shortchange yourself in an attempt to be "nice". Also, be prepared for the other party to say No.
37. Many parts of the job are just a grind.
Never stop grinding.
Never stop grinding.
38. Never hire someone just because they have their own money. There is no such thing as a free postdoc/grad student.
(Not a subtweet, just a thought that popped into my head today)
(Not a subtweet, just a thought that popped into my head today)
39. The best time to write a grant is just after you have one funded. Or had one rejected. Or, any time really.
40. The best idea in the world is worthless if people can't understand you. A mediocre idea* presented outstandingly will go over better than an outstanding idea presented mediocrely.
(*grants, papers, seminars, talks, conversations etc etc)
(*grants, papers, seminars, talks, conversations etc etc)
41. When the margin between winning and losing is razor-thin, and folk are looking for the merest excuse to say no, don't give the gatekeepers a reason to reject you before you even get to the gate.
In other words, FOLLOW THE FUCKING INSTRUCTIONS!
In other words, FOLLOW THE FUCKING INSTRUCTIONS!
42. Own your decisions
43. Until the Notice Of Award arrives, you do not have a grant
44. Don't write the grant you want to write. Write the grant they want to fund
45. READ the RFA. USE it to structure your proposal. I literally parrot back the exact language in the RFA in my proposals - the funder is telling you exactly what they want to see, if you're smart you'll give it to them!
