Acadamia | DrTrot

Tag Archives: Acadamia

March 9, 2014 · 12:40 am

Pre-Prospective Faculty Workshop – Secret and Destroy!

Dr. Trot’s best efforts from ~7:30 am until nowish, ~1:30 am, (not to mention the best efforts of a number of my very patient, smart and helpful group mates and friends) have produced what will hopefully be a sufficient 10 min talk on my current and future research for the ~~last minute demand making~~ brilliant faculty of Purdue’s Chemical Engineering Department. Secrete and Destroy! The slides are a little heavy on cartoon bacteria and a little lean on data points. (Never mind the bast background knowledge that’s supposed to be packed away upstairs in the noodle.) But, quite frankly, that’s about as good as you could ever hope to get from this kid in t<20 hrs Purdue.

While I might be just a titch underprepared in terms of my "expertise" that got me invited to the ~~shit storm~~ outstanding professional growth opportunity that I’m sure the next two days will bring, I spent my precious little non-presentation-preparing time ensuring that I was well prepared in the outfit department. 🙂 It’s all about priorities people! Honestly, in the end that is what really matters anyway, right? Right? Anybody? Hello?

Speaking of priorities, Dr. Trot had best call it a night. One needs to build strength for such ventures as going through the living hell masquerading as Newark, NJ, and then driving half way across the one-and=only Hoosier State. (Never mind that Mother Nature is robbing us of an hour of sleep tonight for absolutely no good reason. What a great way to start my adventures in The Crossroads of America!

Please wish me luck!

Pre-Prospective Faculty Worshop SURPRISE!!

By some unlikely alignment of the stars, a generous act of god and/or an erroneous “acceptance” email sent to me by a member of the selection committee, I will be attending a Prospective Faculty Workshop at Purdue University over the next few days. 😀

The rather short back-story (you’re welcome) is that the university will apparently be hiring to fill 107 new tenure track engineering faculty positions over the next 5 years. With this in mind they are holding a 2-day long ~~fishing expedition~~ worshop for 30 “senior graduate students and post-docs” that have the intention of applying for faculty positions over this time frame. Enter an optimistic/delusional Dr. Trot.

God knows how many people applied, but somehow (see above) your’s truly was selected to attend!! 😀

The workshop is two days long, starting with a welcome dinner tonight. The schedule is largely divided into 1-hr segments dedicated to different relevant topic: What is expected of new faculty members? Proposal writing: the art of persuading a sponsor to invest in you! Engineering across cultures. Preparing a personal development plan. Mentoring graduate students. Effective techniques and tips for creating successful learning experiences in the classroom or lab. There will also be a poster session during which all of us present our research, tours of various departments and meetings with a number of current faculty members.

Fortunately I managed to find a direct flight to ORD from (unfortunately) EWR. Please say a prayer. (After a series of irritating logistics email exchanges) I have decided that it then makes the most sense for me to rent a car for the 2.5 hr drive to West Lafayette. I am passing up a 4 hr (each way) shuttle ride (at very inconvenient times) – as difficult as this may be, I’m working hard to get over it.

So this is where things stood 24 hrs ago. A 2.5 day workshop that is super relevant to what I want to do in ~3 years and a direct flight to get there. Good. Great. Grand. Happy Dr. Trot.

And then I received this…

“The Head of the School of Chemical Engineering is requesting that each ChE participant prepare a short 10 minute presentation on their current and future research. This presentation will be in front of Chemical Engineering faculty and a computer will be provided. There are no other guidelines.”

O.M.G!!

Terrified Dr. Trot.

In addition to this, a schedule was attached to the email stating that I will have “meetings” (read: interrogations) with three department faculty, including the department head! In the blink of an eye my useful and interesting, yet totally benign, next few days have mutated into a most intimidating prospective faculty interview two years too early! And happy Dr. Trot has transformed into a terrified and anxious yet excited, 3-um-of-stomach-lining (max) away-from-an-ulcer Dr. Trot.