Today marked the end of my fourth week at my new job, so I thought it would be a good time to describe what I've been doing. Doing this without revealing my identity will be an interesting challenge.
Last year, the my university started an institute focusing on a major problem that is facing society. Let's say that problem is obesity. The institute is sort of an umbrella organization for all of the faculty members who are studying obesity at the university. There are people from purely scientific disciplines who might be looking at obesity by studying neurohormones and genetics, but there are also sociologists who aim to understand obesity by looking at the way that we as a society interact with our food. Throw in a few economists for good measure.
This fictional Obesity Institute has a number of goals. One is simply to facilitate interdisciplinary research on obesity, essentially to make it easier for the scientists and the social scientists to work together. Another is to develop new undergraduate and graduate courses at the university on obesity (as viewed from many perspectives). A third is to provide information about obesity to communities, businesses, and policy makers throughout the state.
The founders of this institute have a very broad vision and lots of great ideas. But both are full-time professors at the university, so they don't have a lot of time to spare. That's where I come in. I was hired as the coordinator for this institute, which means that I am trying to take those very broad visions and make them happen.
Over the past few weeks, I've had a few different tasks. The first is to figure out who all these obesity researchers are and what they're doing. So I've become the queen of meetings (this week's count: 7). Having been an obesity scientist myself, I'm very familiar with the science research. But the sociological and economic research is totally new to me, and it's really exciting. As I meet with everyone, I'm figuring out what they need from this institute. Is it money? Is it more interaction with their colleagues from other departments? Is it more graduate students?
The second task I've had is to act as a representative of the institute at several one-day conferences. These have been on topics that are of interest to all three of us that are working in the institute, but the two founders don't really have the time to participate because they're working on their own narrow obesity research.
Finally, I've been building a website for the institute. I've never done such a thing before, but it's coming together nicely. It's one of those projects that has its fair share of grunt work (html coding) but also its fair share of interesting tasks, such as writing all of the content.
Then there are a bunch of other little things -- researching funding opportunities, attending workshops on the university's donor and foundation relations practices, talking with informal K-12 educators on developing new obesity outreach programs, etc.
As time goes on, I suspect that the job will become less administrative. Right now it's a bit like a small startup company -- everyone takes out the trash.
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3 comments:
Just wanted to thank you for providing more details about your job! It sounds like a very interesting position to be in. Did you have prior administrative experience (paid or volunteer?)
By the way, also love your latest post about *non-academic* work hours and academics' sense of martyrdom. My sister and brother-in-law are business people, and they work at least as hard as any academic I know--plus they spend half their lives on airplanes and airports. Not the lifestyle I'd want at all.
It's definitely an interesting position to be in, and I'm enjoying having a broader perspective on my field than I did as a researcher.
I didn't have any official prior administrative experience. By nature, though, I'm an organizer. So I had done things like put together small workshops as a graduate student. Also, I had written two papers with the scientist who is now my boss. From working with me previously, he knew that I was organized, stuck to deadlines, and fussed over details.
Again, though, that's one of the advantages of getting a job through someone you already know. Most people would have read my cover letters, which always touch on my organizational skills, and thought "Yeah, but how can you prove that you have those skills."
Wow cool job - How do you move into a job like that?
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