Letter to the Postdoc

Originally posted on August 29, 2008 by PHD Comics

Postdoc status is a viable option for many newly-minted PhDs; however, you should be more aware of the job description, the employer's expectations, your responsibilities and what you plan to accomplish as a postdoc. 

The Job Description
It can be summed up in one word: TEMPORARY.

The Postdoctoral Associate/Researcher is wedged between the full-time graduate student classification and the full-time permanent employee classification. You are no longer a graduate student. Your conference travel scholarship eligibility is now nil. When you say you are a postdoc, the question wheel triad always includes: "when does your postdoc end?", "what do you want to do next?" and "where are you focusing your permanent employment search?" Ugh, in most cases, you don't know, but the questions still come. Also, you are not in a permanent employee in the faculty, industry or government ranks. You notice that your influence and impact factor within your postdoc position's organization is low at best. Plus, your direct supervisor is a permanent employee, who tends to be referred to as your postdoc mentor and serves as a pseudo-research advisor. On the bright side, a postdoc provides you 1-2 years time to close the graduate student life book and start the next book -- whatever your career ambition.

Job details

1. Perform specific contributions on aspects of your postdoc advisor’s research agenda
2. Submit and publish technical research papers
3. Learn grantsmanship
4. Attend professional development workshops and activities
5. [optional] Assist in managing the research projects of your postdoc mentor’s graduate students
6. [optional] Serving as the instructor or co-instructor

Goals and outcomes
In understanding this job description, you probably realize that it’s advantageous to be strategic in your postdoc appointment. You need to figure out your next professional step and obtain full-time permanent employment. I followed the academic life so I can only speak to it. The suggestions I provide  is geared toward successful tenure-track position attainment. Regardless, the postdoc life can serve as a preview of what may be in your future.

Build your technical and support network by connecting with postdoctoral-centric organizations, such as the National Postdoctoral Association or discipline-specific postdoctoral events. For example, there is the Academic Career Workshop for URMs in computing. I was mostly unaware of organizations and resources as a postdoc. I wish I paid more attention. Don’t be like me.

Research
Be productive. Shoot for quantity AND quality.

If you are fortunate to gain grant writing experience as a senior  graduate student, soak it all up. If not, a postdoc is a great opportunity to get started. Step 1 - request an NSF/NIH/DoD/etc ID and create your NSF/NIH/DoD/etc Biography.

Teaching 
If you are seeking an academic teaching position, do, Otherwise don't do.

Service
Don’t do it! DON’T DO IT!

Job Hunting
Computing Research Association - Job Announcements.
Chronicles of Higher Education - Job Search.

Your faculty position application includes cover letter, CV, research agenda, teaching statements, professional references and scholarly publication samples. When submitting your faculty position applications, you may want to provide your professional references draft letters of recommendation. As you write, you should strongly consider how the role of gender influences your word choices, phrases and statements. You can read J. Madera, M. Hebl and R. Martin's research entitled “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences”.  Communal terms center on helping others (kindness, nurturance) while agentic terms center on influencing others (assertiveness, initiating tasks). Their studies resulted in two major conclusions “women were described as more communal and less agentic than men (Study 1) and (b) that communal characteristics have a negative relationship with hiring decisions in academia that are based on letters of recommendation (Study 2)” using a psychology department’s tenure-track faculty search.

Let's assume your application is well-received by at least one faculty search committee. You make it to the on-campus interview. Please consider interviewing your potential bosses (Department Heach/Chair, Dean, Provost, etc) and colleagues (fellow departmental junior and senior faculty) as they are interviewing you. Here are some starter questions and comments:

• How do assistant professors in the departments acquire graduate students? Is there a partnership between the department and some schools? What are the recruiting efforts?
• How long has the Department Head/Chair been is his/her current position? What is the Department Head/Chair's vision for the department? Most likely, he/she will not be in that position when you are seeking promotion and tenure in 5-6 years.
• How are teaching assistantships distributed? Does the Department Head/Chair or Division/College/School Dean allocate them? How does this process operate? For instance, the Dean of the College allocates number of TA position to each department based on faculty contact hours and the Department Head assigns these TAs to the faculty who are instructing those courses. Note: contact hours are some combination of class size and number of times the faculty is in front of the students. If you teach smaller classes, you will not be awarded a TA position.
• Is there a maximum number of trips you can take in one semester? Are there location restrictions e.g. domestic only?
• Comment: Google the Department Head/Chair to find out if he/she was an internal or external hire? This may indicate the department culture of mostly internal/external department-level administration.
• Comment: Investigate the research collaborations within the department. Who are publishing papers together? What are their respective faculty ranks? It helps to know who are collegial and who are not to junior faculty. Ditto for external funding activities.
• Comment: Identify which undergraduate classes at that institution are required for any student (grad or undergrad) to assist you in your research objectives? Ask specific questions about course topics (if you can speak directly with the faculty member who teaches the course, that would be optimal).
• Comment: Make no assumptions about what students know. Students may remember the term but have not used/implemented that concept.

Healthy "Freak-Out"

Another Independence Day holiday has come and gone ushering in the season of unfilled summer tasks. Instructors made grand plans back in mid-May including but not limited to:

• complete some series of tasks on at least 1 research project
• submit conference papers and/or journal articles
• conference paper reviews
• grant proposal writing for new or continuing research projects
• post-award management of existing funded research projects
• course modification e.g., review your previous course instance and update course materials as appropriate
• course development e.g., design new course offering or receive (new to you) course materials

Sometimes, you make strides toward your summer tasks list. Other times, you can easily and frequently caught up in some other tasks. You are in the middle of what I call a healthy freak-out. The freak-out happens first. Those other tasks consume and eat up your days while leaving your nights to agonize over the untouched no-progress to-do items. Those other tasks are not high impact to your career plan and growth, but you still elect to complete them. or a WOC STEM faculty member, the freak-out experience is exaggerated. Why? Because you, my fellow doctor-sister, are the bridge. Poet Donna Kate Rushin says it best.

The Bridge Poem
by Donna Kate Rushin

I've had enough
I'm sick of seeing and touching
Both sides of things
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody

Nobody
Can talk to anybody
Without me Right?

I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sister
My little sister to my brother my brother to the white feminists
The white feminists to the Black church folks the Black church folks
To the Ex-hippies the ex-hippies to the Black separatists the
Black separatists to the artists the artists to my friends' parents...

Then
I've got the explain myself
To everybody

I do more translating
Than the Gawdamn U.N.

Forget it
I'm sick of it

I'm sick of filling in your gaps

Sick of being your insurance against
The isolation of your self-imposed limitations
Sick of being the crazy at your holiday dinners
Sick of being the odd one at your Sunday Brunches
Sick of being the sole Black friend to 34 individual white people

Find another connection to the rest of the world
Find something else to make you legitimate
Find some other way to be political and hip

I will not be the bridge to your womanhood
Your manhood
Your human-ness

I'm sick of reminding you not to
Close off too tight for too long

I'm sick of mediating with your worst self
On behalf you your better selves

I am sick
Of having to remind you
To breathe
Before you suffocate
Your own fool self

Forget it
Stretch or drown
Evolve or die

The bridge I must be
Is the bridge to my own power
I must translate
My own fears
Mediate
My own weaknesses

I must be the bridge to nowhere
But my true self
And then
I will be useful

    -from This Bridge Called My Back
             edited by: Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua
            New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.

You are frustrated by more than your unaccomplished professional milestones, but you know that you can not afford to be paralyzed by it.

You feel a burden to do and to be for others before yourself more times than not.

Stop that.

The healthy aspect of your freak-out happens second. You must sanitize that toxic frustration to green and clean fuel. Let your frustration make you better and stronger. You need to re-focus your energies by finding your balance. There is a time for work, a time for play and a time to do nothing. All parts should be roughly equal. Every day. You can revise your summer task list by answering the following questions:

• What are the high impact items to progress your career?  (e.g., journal article submissions)
• Which task items have impending deadlines? (e.g., grant proposal submissions and conference paper reviews)
• What can you reasonably accomplish in the remaining 6 weeks of the summer?

Originally fount at http://bschoolbabe.com/post/87204327699/how-to-live-your-purpose-i-love-this-graphic)

The image above is one pictorial illustrating what it means to fulfill a purposeful life. Your passion helps you solidify your mission, then your selected profession and vocation goals become more clear. At the center is your ability to find this intersection of your passion, mission, profession and vocation. 

You can do it.

Now, go play -- start executing your revised summer task list in the morning.

To the Aspiring Black Female Scientist

Brandeis Marshall's childhood desk aka "study depot"

This week, Kyla's article listing 73 Black Female Scientists has ignited a conversation about Black women in STEM and our (lack of) visibility within the science community. Well, I received a question from an almost 4th grader, who I'll call Cali. How sweet and awesome is that?!? She asked for advice on how to become a Black female scientist and I'm sure she's not alone in her inquiry. This is for all the Cali's...
 


Dear Cali:

I was very happy to receive your email. Thanks for asking your question. The 73 of us have had our own path to scientist-status. First and most importantly, you should have good grades. Then, you should attend and graduated from college. I also strongly suggest that you consider pursing an advanced degree in your chosen discipline. Education can only help you achieve your goals. Be smart, confident and have a positive personality. Beyond that, let me share a few pointers. 

Reading. I love reading. If you love reading, then you would love learning everything from the mathematics and science to language and arts subjects. My summer vacations were spent reading fun books, such as the Sweet Valley High series, in addition to the summer reading books. I read everywhere. I used my at-home desk as my study depot that housed some of my fun books and school supplies. I encourage you to make your own "study depot" and read some fun books. 

Extracurricular Activities. To excel in any field, you dedicate your time and energies to learning your craft. It takes focus and balance. I love music and took dance lessons during elementary and junior high school. I also enjoyed sports - volleyball, basketball and track & field. I still enjoy dancing and watching basketball. Extracurricular activities help you stay active and healthy. They also build your teamwork skills, which you will use science project teams. I hope you have at least one non-STEM activity that you find fun and enjoyable.  

Next Steps. Science is a big field including biology, chemistry, computing, engineering, mathematics, technology and physics. You can exposing yourself to these different types of science so you can find the ones you like and the ones you don't. There are 1-day events to week-long summer camps for all K-12 grade levels. Check your local colleges for these events and camps. These programs usually have a cost for participation, but could have scholarships or discounted cost options available. Here's few examples to get you started:

• 1-day events: Black Girls Code
• 1-week programs: Purdue University Summer Camps for Kids, Spelman Imagine Computer & Information Science (ICIS) Summer Camps

Dream big, be positive and you will do some great things. 

Yours in STEM,
Dr. Marshall

Tenured BWiC

originally posted on April 6, 2014 on csdoctorsister.blog.com

Motivational and inspiring statements by unknown

The tenure-track Assistant Professor position is a finite probationary term, which typically spans from 4-6 years for most colleges. These Assistant Professors take this time to learn academia, grow research (if college is research-focused), teach courses and serve her/his technical community through professional societies. At the end of the probationary term, the Assistant Professor generates a document describing the contributions and impact she or he has made to the institution in the categories of scholarship, teaching and service. The document is evaluated and voted upon by her/his colleagues in multiple rounds – proceeding to subsequent round is typically contingent on receiving at least a favorable in the previous round. This evaluation process takes about an academic year. A positive outcome of promotion and tenure expands a faculty’s opportunities and more academic freedom. My tenure-track position began in August 2008. My evaluation process has began August 2013.

On 4/4/2014, the Purdue Board of Trustees approved my faculty promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in Computer and Information Technology, effective August 18, 2014 (http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/Q2/purdue-trustees-approve-faculty-promotions.html). #ThisIsEpic #TenuredBWiC

With this announcement, history has been made. I became the first Black woman to earn tenure in Purdue’s College of Technology. This history-making act goes far beyond Purdue. According to the Institution for Women’s Policy Research “Accelerating Change for Women Faculty of Color in STEM: Policy, Action, and Collaboration” report, only 6% of STEM faculty are women of color. That’s 6,400 of 111,800. The challenges facing STEM women of color faculty are enumerated in the report; however, I have experienced each one to a certain degree throughout my academic career. I wish there was less enumeration of the challenges and more advocating of other STEM WOC in academia, industry and government. What actions are you taking to champion a STEM WOC?

So what’s next for this tenured BWiC?

First, celebrate. Honestly, this may last a while.

Second, decide on which fork to take in this road: step up, lean in, lean back, or opt-out

5 Tips for the Black Woman in Computing (BWiC)

originally posted on March 23, 2014 on csdoctorsister.blog.com

Recently, I read @EvetteDionne: 5 Tips for Surviving Grad School As A WOC. I gave #icouldwriteSTEMWOCtips as a reply. For a STEM WOC, be an undergraduate student, graduate student or professional, the mode of operation is slightly different. So here goes:

Continually refresh your core competency skills. Most likely, your computing sub-discipline is rapidly evolving. To keep current with the newest, latest-and-greatest system, software and/or tool is a tall order. As you build your career, hone your technical skills regularly through reading, studying, and becoming an active contributor to your field. You want to have the pulse of your field – typically given by your field’s ‘thought’ leaders and influential members. I suggest identifying the influential members in your technical field and concentrate on keeping up-to-date on their research. Your intelligence, knowledge and experience within your discipline is completely under your control. Know your stuff and whenever you are challenged (and you will be because everyone is), you will simply further impress potential colleagues, employers, and clients. Plain talk: what’s in your technical toolbox?

Establish and grow your support networks. Yes, that is networks – plural. One network is not enough. I have found myself simultaneously building 4 support networks:

• The racial/ethnic circle: under-represented minorities (URM), especially in STEM, conversations
• The gender circle: female empowerment conversations
• The technical circle: talking shop around that virtual water cooler
• The philosophy of life circle: bettering your perspective of life and your role in it

I mean, peruse through my twitter account. My twitter followers and those who I follow are considered small by twittersphere standards but I find it to be a wonderfully, eccentric band of insightful and inspiring commentary. To have multiple networks is not novel, but for Black women, there is a tendency to fall into the stereotypical ‘superwoman’ role, e.g., the one-woman show. No one else does it. Why should you?!? A blend of face-to-face and digital interactions is very beneficial. Plain talk: are the individuals you are surrounding around yourself  progressive or oppressive people?

Execute your plan, not one others have for you. Others have suggested activities and events that may not best serve their short-term or long-term goals but not me. Some of these engagements I have participated, while others I have not. Think deeply and think through the consequences of the choices. Confer with others, whose opinion you value, to assist you in weighing your options before you make your final decision. Hence, the motivation the establish and grow your support networks.

This one is the most difficult and time-consuming advice since it requires you to know your plan. Start by devising your career mission and vision statement. Undoubtedly, you need some first-hand successes and missteps to know what you do and don’t want to incorporate into your plan. Nevertheless, you should aim to be clear and comfortable with your plan and the common sense to revise said-plan when necessary. Plain talk: What’s your hustle?

Identify and use your beard. The likelihood of finding and then building a  relationship with someone who looks like you at your place of employment is slim. Those who are considered successful could probably be counted on 2 hands. For many BWiCs, the feeling of isolation and being invisibly visible in your discipline and eventual place of employment is common. The computing community is not accustomed to interacting with Blacks, women and certainly not BWiCs. As a result, your voice is marginalized in most technical interactions. To combat this marginalization, you may need to speak through at least one beard.

Your beard is most likely a member of  the computing majority – a man or woman of Caucasian, Indian, Asian or South Asian descent, who advocates your ideas, not stealing them, and also actively supports your career growth. Be the best you. Revel in your uniqueness. Let them help you. Plain Talk: find the work-arounds.

Confidence is queen. My definition of queen is a technical woman who has healthy self-esteem, comfortable with her career plans, active and productive member of her technical community and working toward building her networks. Not arrogant. Not a know-it-all. Not her-way-or-the-highway. She is well-balanced since she is capable of reporting well up the chain of command (senior colleagues, management, etc) as well as reporting well down the chain of command (junior colleagues, support staff, etc). She is unwavering in her plan outcomes but flexible in the path/route to arrive to that final goals. This is a life-long evolution of you. Lean in, lean back, stand up and/or walk out, when you deem appropriate. Admittedly, this tip is very Zen. Heck, I don’t feel like I’m a queen, yet. But if you have knowledge of this vision, your current circumstances can be placed in the proper perspective. Your value is not attached to your situation. Emote your emerging queen status. Plain talk: lessen the impostor syndrome and strive for queen status.

A Little Chit, A Little Chat

originally posted on March 11, 2014 on csdoctorsister.blog.com

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.”
~ Albert Einstein