Somehow it’s been a year since I started as an Assistant Professor at Emory, where I teach and run a research lab. It has been a whirlwind!

As a postdoc I had no idea about what the transition to faculty would be like, so I’ve decided to write up some thoughts in case it’s illuminating to grad students and postdocs. As always, these are just my own opinions, specific to my own circumstances, and may not apply to everyone.

Thought #1: This job should not be one person’s job.

The single biggest thing I’ve concluded over the past year is that this job should not be one person’s job. It should be several people’s full-time jobs.

You’re supposed to be a scientist who comes up with creative ideas, designs experiments, plans out projects, builds collaborations, stays on top of the literature, writes grants, publishes papers, and gives talks. When you’re a new PI, you’re probably also doing actual experiments yourself, or at least helping to troubleshoot things in the lab, set up equipment, or write code. Being a scientist is clearly a full-time job. But often that’s the thing you spend the least amount of actual time on!

As much as you’re a scientist, you’re also a mentor and manager. It’s your job to recruit and hire people, train them in the lab, help them develop professional skills (writing, presentations, etc.), keep track of their progress, intervene if they’re not progressing, sort out interpersonal conflicts, and do all that other management stuff that few of us have been trained to do.

In addition to those two jobs, you’re probably doing the job of a lab manager, at least at first. This means you’ll spend hundreds of hours negotiating with vendors, comparing products and ordering things, figuring out how to navigate the purchasing system, tracking down missing packages or spurious charges, not to mention endless administrative work (e.g. animal and biosafety protocols).

Most of us are also teachers. Many faculty teach multiple courses per year. We also have other student-facing roles such as academic advising and serving on thesis committees.

Anyway, I think you get the idea, and I haven’t even mentioned all the other stuff that falls under “service”, which includes things like serving on committees.

I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I actually enjoy a lot of the multitasking inherent in this job. The variety of tasks keeps things interesting and lets me use different parts of my brain. I just wish I had enough time to do everything well, which leads into my next thought….

Thought #2: There is no time.

There is just too much to do. Most of the time I feel like I’m drowning. Every time I think I’ve made it safely above the surface there’s another wave that hits. I’ve read many, many advice columns and threads about how to manage my time as a PI, and basically all of them boil down to: “There is way more work than one person can possibly do, so just do what’s most important, ignore or say no to whatever you can, and don’t spend more time than necessary on anything.” What this basically means is “do a minimally acceptable job on most things”.

This is a rude awakening for many of us who are overachievers who have always given 110% effort into everything we do. I don’t want to submit an abstract with typos, stumble through a talk, or ignore emails from students. So as good as that advice probably is, I haven’t really accepted it yet and instead am still trying to put my best effort into everything… which means that I work ALL THE TIME and am still behind on everything.

I just feel so lucky and grateful to have this job that I’m willing to work all the time right now if it means I’m less likely to fail. Or at least, I want to know that if I do fail it’s not because I didn’t try hard enough. This is NOT a recommendation. On the contrary, the standard advice is that you should proactively create a work-life balance by setting boundaries on when you can work. I hope to try that at some point.

Thought #3: This job is way better than being a postdoc.

Despite how hard it is, I still think this job is way better than being a postdoc. As a postdoc, I constantly heard PIs say “being a postdoc was the best time of my life!” I never really believed them, and now that I’m a PI I’m calling BS.

The biggest difference is that you finally get to make all the decisions.

You get to decide what research questions you’ll study, which techniques you’ll use, who you’ll collaborate with, what direction to take a project, when and where to submit papers, and basically everything else. Of course you make certain decisions in collaboration with your people, but you’re the one in control.

You also get to decide who works in your lab and what kind of culture you want to create. I love being in a position where I can cultivate an inclusive and positive environment in a way that I had little control over before. This includes things like hiring diverse types of people, making sure everyone feels valued, having regular lab meetings where people share ideas (don’t take this for granted – we didn’t have this in my postdoc lab!), and valuing diverse types of science and not just the type being published in certain name-brand journals.

Of course, the higher salary is also nice. For some people it’s literally life-changing. (Though I should note that salaries vary widely. I received some tenure-track job offers where I would have been paid about the same as in my postdoc.)

The increase in respect is extremely notable. I’ve had a PhD since 2012, but no one ever called me “Dr. Devineni” until I became faculty. I was never asked to meet with invited speakers, present invited talks, or give guest lectures. I’m the same person that I was a year ago, but all of a sudden people care what I think.

It’s surprising how much more fulfilling a job is when you feel respected and valued for your work. I think the lesson here is that we should value postdocs more. There’s nothing stopping us from inviting postdocs to give talks, meet with speakers, or do other things typically reserved for faculty.

Something else that surprised me was how much support I get from other faculty. I have a few formal mentors and many other colleagues who generously offer their help all the time. (Hopefully this isn’t specific to Emory, although my colleagues here are exceptionally awesome!) This kind of support network didn’t exist for me as a postdoc (although it’s something I helped work to create for future postdocs while I was there).

Wrap-up

I have more thoughts, but I think I’ll just stop there on this sorta-positive note. Again, everything I’ve described is just my own experience and I’m sure there are many different perspectives out there. Feel free to add to the comments below, but I haven’t been good about checking comments here – the best way to engage with me is through Twitter (@BrainsExplained) or Mastodon (@anitadevineni).

And if you want to read more about what my lab has actually done over the last year, read this post at our lab website!