The Academic Job Search: Notes from the Frontline

by Jessica Conroy

I did it. I landed a tenure track faculty position. And not just any position, but one I really, really wanted.

I’ve been summing up the last year or so in my head recently—whenever I feel guilty about not getting as much done as I had wanted, I ask: what, exactly, did I do the last year? Then I feel better, because the answer is I applied for 13 jobs, and prepared for and went to 6 job interviews. In between I had 2 field seasons in the tropical Pacific, analyzed a mountain of water isotope model data, and worked toward getting 3 very different manuscripts ready for publication. And I spent a very intensive (but fruitful!) week at NSF Expert Witness Training Camp. So I guess I did some stuff.

Getting a job takes work. Thirteen times over I carefully crafted my research and teaching statements to match the institution and the call, polished up my CV, and sent applications into the ether. Once the interview invites started rolling in, I spent weeks making my job talk as perfect as possible--keeping it as scientifically sexy as possible, but still interesting to the igneous petrologist in the room (who also votes on you, remember). Prior to each interview, I also researched each institution and department to death, and practiced my talk like a maniac (since going over time in a job talk is the kiss of death). And maybe I made some flash cards with interview questions, too, because I tend to overdo things.

The interviews themselves were the most exhausting experience of my life. That is not hyperbole. Being something of an introvert and a classic imposter syndrome case (it waxes and wanes, but never seems to go away for good), being ‘on’ for 2 days straight six times over was an ordeal for me (confession: I drank 5-hour energy during my bathroom breaks!). But, despite the hours of stressful prep (and the mental exhaustion that sets in afterward), the interviews were actually kind of fun. You get to meet lots of interesting people and talk shop. Only in a couple instances were people jerks to me, or was I the victim of mansplaining.

 What required the greatest emotional fortitude, though, was the waiting afterward. I had heard from three of my highly successful mentors, all amazing scientists who exude Science and Nature papers from their pores, that “You won’t get the first job you apply for,” and “I didn’t get X job,” etc. This is frightening information, I think, for the first-timers on the academic job market. Those of us who have gotten to the point where we are getting academic job interviews are not used to failing. But, fail I did. I learned that you can have a great interview experience, give the best talk, and still not get the job. And this has to do with ‘fit’ and ‘need.’ Completely reasonable, but even when I didn’t end up wanting the job, rejection stings a bit.

 But, here’s the bright side: Of all the applications I sent out, I got offers from my top 2 choices. I even wound up having to decline interviews at four more schools after those offers came in. So I did ok! I’m proud to proclaim that starting in August, I’ll be an assistant professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign!

Dual-Career Issues 
Like many other female academics, I have an academic partner. In grad school I fell in love with a charming, handsome thermochronologist. We got in engaged in 2011, and have spent the last 1.5 years apart as he finishes up his PhD in Arizona. Long distance is not fun, and is not a long-term option for us. We knew our ultimate goal was two tenure-track positions at the same school. But how to make it happen? We had seen it work at Arizona, and at Georgia Tech, but we had also seen it not work. My plan was [to try] not to worry about it until I had an offer. So I never brought it up, until interview #4. I was asked what my fiancé did, and I just decided to be completely honest, and not make a big deal about it. Although I did talk him up, which was easy to do. I quickly realized that the question was being asked in order to inform me how wonderful the institution was about spousal hire. Not to ‘out’ me as a candidate with a two-body problem. This happened a second time, as I set up an interview at another school. Then I mentioned my academic partner on the phone to the search committee chair, and the department arranged to have us both fly out to interview at the same time.

Both institutions where I got offers were very open to finding my fiancé a position. Illinois moved quickly, and had him out for an official interview about 2 weeks after I got a formal offer. He rocked it, they loved him, and it was clear he would fill a need in the department. There were many reasons why we picked Illinois, but one of them definitely was their progressive attitude about spousal hire.

Since he is earlier in his career, we thought it best if he had a couple years off from teaching to build his lab and get his dissertation papers out. So Illinois offered him a 2-year research assistant professorship with the start up to build his lab. His position will transition to a tenure track line after 2 years. We got it in writing of course (very important).

Thus, the stress of the job search has ended. We’re going to be Fighting Illini come fall!

Now, I can worry about getting tenure.

Climbing Mt. Everest: the undergraduate researcher

by Elizabeth Wiggins with input from Eleanor Middlemas

Cobb lab undergraduate researcher Liz Wiggins presents her
research to Cobb lab alum Jud Partin at the 2012 Fall Meeting
of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

I like to think of the journey from student to scientist as a marathon. Obtaining both an undergraduate and graduate degree is a lengthy process on its own. Once research is added into the mix this journey becomes much more complex, and rewarding. As an undergraduate senior preparing for graduate school I have found the path for my marathon is not an easy road, it is quite the opposite. But now the goals I am close to achieving are beyond what I could have ever imagined.

At the start of Eleanor’s and my fall semester, Dr. Cobb casually dropped Mt. Everest onto our marathon path. She gave us the choice to climb, or rather sprint up this mountain and be light-years ahead of our peers, or to take the easy way out and bypass it completely. We chose Mt. Everest, of course. Along with taking 18 credit hours of coursework (a hefty amount at Georgia Tech) my marathon would now consist of taking the GRE, finishing my own research project, writing a proposal for the NSF graduate research fellowship, presenting a poster of my research at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, and applying to graduate school – all within 5 months. Eleanor’s path would be similar except she would also be participating in her first field expedition to Borneo.

Cobb lab undergraduate researcher Eleanor Middlemas
posing with Kim at her poster at the 2012 Fall Meeting
of the American Geophysical Union.

The process began in the summer and early fall with locating and contacting prospective graduate research advisers. For me, this process was terrifying but has helped me learn how to network as a scientist. The search itself makes the whole world feel like it is at your fingertips; just find the most interesting and hottest research out there and begin to make yourself a part of it. After countless emails, phone conversations, and Skype meetings with prospective advisers both Eleanor and I have found some incredible programs that we recently applied for.

Getting a NSF fellowship is a career- defining achievement, and affords more flexibility in the choice of graduate research. It is also the most pristine, polished, and time consuming application I have ever completed. In the course of two months each of the three essays went through at least 10 drafts before they were finished. Add this load in with normal school work, research in the lab, and studying for/taking the GRE and our Mt. Everest comes into plain sight.

Liz collecting fossil corals on Christmas
Island during our May, 2012 expedition.

There wasn’t even enough time for a sigh of relief after the NSF application was officially submitted. In less than two weeks we would be presenting our research posters at AGU. Entering into a new state of panic and exhaustion, I began to truly feel like a real scientist. Long days evolved into long nights in the lab, but in the end I had a beautiful poster with (mostly) completed research results to present.

Attending the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union is a mind-opening experience full of endless opportunity, although to the rest of the world it probably seems more like a festival for earth science nerds. Along with presenting our research and enjoying other presentations, we were able to meet and mingle with prospective advisers and graduate students in their labs. The entire experience has exponentially increased my desire to continue on this path towards becoming a scientist, fully understanding all that entails.

Eleanor and Danja Mewes, another Cobb lab
undergrad, at Gunung Mulu National Park,
Malaysian Borneo, during our October, 2012
caving expedition.

 Winter break allowed us time to apply to our chosen graduate schools. Back at school we will be wrapping up our research projects and beginning the next leg of the journey – writing a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. To enter graduate school with a first-author publication under your belt is an impressive achievement. It also means that we will have experience in how to write (and hopefully publish) a scientific paper. As we complete this leg of the marathon, our futures are bright, and hopeful. 

Women's attire at the AGU Fall Meeting

by Kim Cobb

Every year before the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, there is a flurry of conversation in my mostly female lab about what to wear. I understand that this was also discussed on the Earth Science Women’s Network listserv. For someone who has never been, it is impossible to know what to expect. This is science after all, and geology at that, so much of the online guidance about corporate conference attire is off-base. As women in earth science, it is especially difficult to balance several competing aims when packing for AGU. First and foremost, AGU presents a unique opportunity for professional development– one that is particularly important for younger scientists. Getting a job after graduation requires making a name for yourself outside of your lab. Presenting a polished, put-together appearance reflects a seriousness of purpose, self-confidence, and shows respect for the collective scientific efforts on display at AGU. Add to this the intuitive understanding that attractive people are at a distinct advantage in our society (see supporting research here and especially here), and these drivers would in isolation push women towards the coordinated, tailored suits that are so common in corporate settings. It is important to remember that science is an arena where individual intellectual accomplishment is highly valued, so there is more latitude for personal style than in corporate America.

However, several important factors push AGU women’s attire in the other direction, closer to the average AGU men’s outfit of jeans paired with a pullover sweater. Most obviously, attractive young female students are likely wary of distinguishing themselves from the sea of male colleagues by calling attention to their femininity. And then there’s the whole “geology” subculture:  rock hammer-toting, North Face-wearing, “I’m-so-busy-solving-earth’s-mysteries-that-I-hardly-have-time-to-shave”. In this world, a Mac laptop is a fashion statement. Finally, some recent research (summarized here) has uncovered a distinct bias against the hiring of attractive women in male-dominated fields. If young women are subconsciously aware of such a bias, it will also push them towards a more androgenous look.  

What follows is my attempt to provide some guidance for young women beginning their careers in geoscience, especially as they consider conference attire. It was also really fun to collect these images from well-dressed women scientists, as a fashion aficionado myself. I didn’t know most of them, so you can imagine the reaction I got when I asked to take their picture for an AGU fashion blog! They turned three shades of red and giggled nervously. Some preferred to remain anonymous, while some, like my esteemed colleague Adina Paytan, reveled in the spotlight. I owe a big thank-you to these ladies, who were great sports.

Below I present several looks and discuss why I believe they make successful AGU outfits. [Update:  Many readers have bemoaned the lack of pants featured here. I love wearing pants to AGU myself, and I in no way meant to suggest that one must wear a skirt and/or boots to AGU to look "acceptable" or fashionable.]

Lynn Soreghan, Prof. Univ. of Oklahoma. I love the
effortless-ness of the outfit, impeccably accessorized,
with matching coat and boots. It's "earthy" but modern,
 and the vest adds a touch of academic elegance.

Jen (awake) and Annie (asleep) Pierce, Boise State
University. What can I say, there is nothing that says "I'm a fearless female scientist" like a baby in a sling paired with some incredible red boots! Great wool skirt too.

Yours truly, sporting my new, ridiculous(ly cute)
Italian shoes. Matching bag is a coincidence. I do like
to wear skirts at AGU, most often with a plain,
unmemorable, but well-conceived (and warm!) top.
Here, it's all about the accessories.

Anonymous. I think this outfit hits all the right notes. She
looks nerdy and interesting, but attractive, in a Euro-styled aesthetic that is made particularly memorable by, once more, great red boots. I like her hair worn down here, which softens the look. 

Anonymous. I saw meters and meters of scarves at AGU,
whose gifts are on display here. The long skirt is flattering
yet nondescript, while the scarf and coordinated sweater
add interest and draw the eye to her face - a good thing.

Betsy Madden, an all-but-PhD'd grad student at Stanford. I love the ease that this outfit conveys, and the pairing of neutrals with the colorful textured skirt. She certainly seems ready to be at the front of a class.

Sylvia Dee, grad student USC. She is making
a bold statement with the all-black look, which
is very effective against her striking red hair and
blue eyes. The metal-studded flats are a good
choice, adding some playfulness to the ensemble. 

Adina Paytan, UCSC. Sporting a killer blue dress at the
AGU Honor's Banquet. She wears her sunglasses at night.
A brilliant scientist, close friend and colleague, and one
of my role models.

Cobb lab folk at AGU

by Kim Cobb

I am thrilled to be at the Fall Meeting of AGU this year, thanks to my husband who is holding down the fort back in Atlanta. Joining me in San Francisco are graduate students Jessica Moerman and Stacy Carolin, and undergraduate researchers Eleanor Middlemas and Elizabeth Wiggins, who are all presenting TODAY (details below). I have to give a special plug for my students of course, especially the undergrads, who are presenting their first poster of many at AGU. If anybody wants some super-qualified, wildly enthusiastic, and exceptionally personable graduate students, you would be well-served in dropping by their posters to woo them today, or contact them by e-mail. They are free agents, and will be applying to grad school next month.

Eleanor will present her poster this morning in the Hadley circulation session:

PP31C-2049. The effect of lowered sea level on climate in the Indo-Pacific region as simulated by the SPEEDY AGCM
Eleanor Middlemas; Kim M. Cobb; Emanuele Di Lorenzo

and then this afternoon, Jessica and Liz will present their posters in the High Res paleo session:

PP33A-2094. Local and regional climatic controls on high-resolution rainfall and cave dripwater oxygen isotopes in northern Borneo
Jessica W. Moerman; Kim M. Cobb; Jess F. Adkins; Harald Sodemann; Brian Clark; Andrew A. Tuen

PP33A-2089. The Effects of Freshwater Dissolution on Coral Geochemistry and Morphology
Elizabeth B. Wiggins; Kim M. Cobb; Hussein R. Sayani

My own presentation on our greatly expanded fossil coral dataset (now back to 7,000 years ago) isn't until Friday morning, in the El Nino-Southern Oscillation diversity session (yes, we even want to promote diversity in ENSO these days):

OS52B-03. Testing late 20th century El Nino-Southern Oscillation variability against new coral-based estimates of natural variability
Kim M. Cobb; Niko Westphal; Hussein R. Sayani; Emanuele Di Lorenzo; Hai Cheng; R. Lawrence Edwards; Christopher D. Charles

I am especially happy to see Cobb lab alumni Jud Partin and Julien Emile-Geay here (Jud is presenting a poster this morning and Julien's talk is right before mine on Friday morning). They are both kicking some serious science &^%# and, not coincidentally, are happy and well.

Another day, another drip

by Kim Cobb

We’re back! Well, that is, we’re back from a week at Camp 5, the rustic outpost about 20km from Mulu Park headquarters. After a 45min boat ride upriver, we hiked the last 8km carrying a week’s worth of food and scientific equipment, and 2-3 day’s worth of clothing. Camp 5 provides a roof, some gas burners, freshwater (even cold showers!), and mosquito nets, so provisioning is relatively easy. My undergraduate research assistant, Eleanor Middlemas, and I had just stepped off the last of 5 planes on our 70-hr trip from Atlanta to Mulu that very morning, eager to get going. Sang, a new graduate student at U. Michigan, had met us at the Miri airport, fresh from a 3-day battle in Hong Kong for a Malaysian visa.

We arrived at Camp 5 very worse for the wear, in the midst of a true Mulu-style downpour, happy for the jungle oasis. The rest of our group, comprised of graduate students Stacy Carolin and Jessica Moerman and undergraduate Danja Mewes, had been caving with long-time collaborators and guide-extraordinaires Jenny Malang and Syria Lejau that day. They arrived mud-coated and exhausted, but full of stories from Whiterock Cave, our primary target for the Camp 5 research. The next day, we hit the trail at 7:30am after some wonderful Nescafe 3-in-1, and reached the Whiterock entrance after 2 hours of hiking and 4 stream-crossings. Once inside we went to work collecting dripwaters from the stalagmites we had cored on the 2010 expedition. Jessica, Syria, and I pushed farther into the cave, finding an incredible chamber full of HUGE stalagmites (some no thinner than my arm but more than 20’ tall). The British cavers who first explored Whiterock had given us their maps for this expedition (map? who needs maps anyhow?!?) had named this chamber the “Nightwatchmen” for the carbonate sentinels watching over us. There were many broken stalagmites strewn across the floor, most of them too large for us to pack out. We took some hand samples for dating, mostly out of curiosity. My lab’s work on climate reconstruction is focused on the very recent geologic past – the farthest back in time we go is 140,000 years. While heading back through the sticky mud that coats the cave floor, the sole of my shoe came unglued!! and I had to use my shoelaces to try to lash it on as I limped back to the rest of the group. Jenny did some emergency duct-taping upon our arrival, which worked great. We rounded up the rest of the crew and headed out. I’m not going to lie, it was a miserable trip back – over 2.5 hours of limping through the jungle (most of us had developed some pretty good blisters by now) to arrive at Camp 5 after dark. Syria’s birthday dinner was a welcome distraction from our aching bodies.

The next morning we tackled Cobweb Cave – a comparatively easy hike in but a dismal cave to navigate, full of huge break-down boulders the size of a house, and full of disorienting twists and turns. A few years ago some nestors (locals who poach cave swift nests to sell for the equivalent of ~$2-3 each – a small fortune around here) had gotten lost in Cobweb for 3 days. When they found them they had already laid down in the graves that they had dug for themselves. Yikes. Luckily we had not one but two expert cave guides with us, but it is even more important to stick together while doing our research activities in a cave like Cobweb. After a relatively easy day at Cobweb (we do not explore past a certain point, because we need ropes to traverse a huge 50-ft hole in the floor), we arrived back at Camp 5 to see that my brother Niko had arrived. When he hadn’t arrived at Mulu with us, we had assumed that he wasn’t able to make it after all. We all took a swim and gave our bodies a rest, in preparation for a long day at Whiterock the following day.

Our last caving day was a full one indeed. Niko took some great footage of the scientific operations (see the video!), so we’re excited to get back and become YouTube sensations.  ;)   We celebrated Stacy’s birthday back at Camp 5 with a blow-out dinner complete with pineapple curry, green mango sauce, chicken curry, and a Dutch pineapple dessert. It was a jungle-sourced extravaganza that none of us will ever forget. 

We slept in yesterday, before hiking out of Camp 5 back to Park Headquarters. Two porters carried about 150 lbs of rocks out – I have no idea how – and we left all of our extra food, including about 100 Cliff bars, so our packs were light, if our hearts were heavy. Leaving a place like Camp 5 isn’t easy, even if you are heading towards hot showers and cold beers in the near future, and loved ones in the not-too-distant future. Back at Headquarters, I am grateful for a safe trip to the remote caves at Camp 5, and for the extremely hard work that everyone did towards accomplishing the lab’s scientific goals. We sure have our work cut out for us over the next years! Jessica, Stacy, and Danja will be staying at Mulu for another 10 days, while Eleanor, Sang, and I will be jetting back to States to complete our busy semesters. Class?!? What’s that?

Entry

Today is the third day that we have been in Mulu. In my last sequence of Caltech posts I chose the theme throughout to be trying to teach the advanced chemistry used in my thesis work to readers with little-to-no math and science expertise. For this trip my new idea is to treat each post like a journal entry, which can uniquely provide a personal window into the around-the-world fieldwork that we are doing. Hope you enjoy.

Friday, October 17, 2012

Woke up at 6:30am. Jessica was setting up her rain gauges as I went into the research center and began separating out what we needed to pack for today’s trip to a decorated chamber within Gunung Mulu. Small 4ml vials and funnels to collect drip waters, flagging tape for collecting broken stalagmites on the cave floor, lab notebook, lab camera, ect. We covered our bodies in insect repellant then walked over to the park’s restaurant to eat breakfast. Pancakes, fruit from the jungle, tea. Then we went back to the research center, grabbed our cave packs, quickly threw in our caving kneepads, gloves, helmets, and rubber shoes, and went out to meet Syria at the boat dock.

Beautiful 15-min boat ride down the river to arrive at the Cave of the Winds. We collected a few drips at the entrance -- a fun sight for the tourist groups as they shuffled past with their park guides into the show cave -- then followed Syria off the visitor's path and into the deep chambers of Gunung Mulu.

It’s been four years since my last time adventure caving with Syria here in Mulu, and I still love everything about it -- the mind-blowing gigantic chambers, the non-stop rock climbing, the slippery muddiness, the darkness, the nervousness, the adrenaline. But it’s Syria who makes the caving incredible. She is a god-- there is nothing she doesn’t know or can’t do, and I am in constant awe. Plus she is hilarious and fun. I have looked forward to seeing her again ever since I left four years ago. One of my few idols and an amazing friend. At one point while we were walking to the next chamber she stopped suddenly. “Stacy! Come here!” How nice -- she found a 6ft long racer snake gliding along outside the path to show me. She sees everything! I’m amazed. 

We arrived in the decorated chamber after about 2 hours of climbing. Sat down, ate some clif bars, then separated out to start our fieldwork for the day. I started searching around the chamber floor for some attractive broken stalagmites. I found a few, and carried them back to our lunch spot. Then I set up a 1-liter bottle on top of a tripod over a growing stalagmite to collect a large sample of dripwater to measure its trace-uranium concentration. Syria disappeared off to explore more of the cave chambers and look for new stalagmite decorations we hadn’t studied before.

At 3:00pm it was time to begin our trek back through the cave and catch our boat back to park headquarters. Covered in mud and sweat, the boat ride back in the rain was refreshing and fun. We showered, then went to the park restaurant to eat dinner. Laksa, jungle ferns, Milo. It was 7:00pm, but had already been dark for a few hours, and the rain was pouring. We returned back to the research center exhausted. I lay on the bed for a quick nap. Alarm set for 30 mins. I woke up at midnight.

Journey to Borneo!

After loading three chests full of scientific equipment (and at least a million clif bars!), four packs of personal gear, and a slew of carry-on bags into two cars, our journey to Borneo was finally underway. In spite of reminding our second driver to be sure to take I-75 to the new international terminal of the Atlanta airport, I proceeded to take the old route to the airport via I-85, as muscle memory took over. Correcting this added an additional 20 minutes to our journey, but we made it to the check-in counter with plenty time to spare, so all’s well that ends well! The first leg our journey was a 15-hour flight to Seoul, South Korea, which departed on Sunday Oct 14 at 12:30 am EST. Thankfully, we were all able to get a decent amount of sleep during the flight. We arrived in Seoul on Monday Oct 15 at 4am local time, and stared a 12-hour layover in the face. This was made more bearable since we booked a hotel room near the airport and were able to sleep for several hours. We certainly crashed hard! Eventually we managed to pick ourselves up and explore a little bit of South Korea by train before heading back to the airport for our 6-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 9:55 pm local time, a little less travel weary than before, but we were very thankful for our beds once we checked into our hotel. We spent all of Tuesday October 16 running necessary errands around Kuala Lumpur, like picking up our federal research passes and buying food for when we are at the remote Camp 5. But along the way were able to see many of the sites of the city, including Kuala Lumpur’s huge twin towers! We were also asked to pose several times in photos with other tourists, which was a little strange but made us feel a bit like celebrities! After completing all our official tasks and taking in a few of the sites, we were back at the hotel for our last night in ‘civilization’. At 8:30 am local time on Wednesday Oct 17, we finally boarded a flight headed for Borneo and Gunung Mulu National Park. After a quick stop in Borneo’s coastal city of Miri, we hopped on a puddle jumper plane to Mulu and flew over the rainforest. More than 72 hours after leaving Atlanta, GA, we were finally at Mulu. It was a pleasant surprise to find park manager Brian Clark waiting at Mulu airport to take us and our dozens of bag to Mulu park. After settling in at Mulu Park’s research center, we were ready to start the next leg of our expedition – the science!