Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Nutty Professor

Ahhhh!!! Things are a-changing. Big news - I got the job!! I officially start May 1 and will be teaching one section of Pathophysiology at a local college. I am super excited but also overwhelmed. I have to prepare and deliver 6 hours of lectures a week, on top of my current full-time job. It's going to be a TON of work, but if I can pull it off...and I *think* I can....it will be amazing for my career.

The short version of the story is that I am lucky I went to talk to the Assistant Head of the Biology department 2 weeks ago. It turns out that they originally weren't even going to interview me for the position after they saw my resume because of my lack of teaching experience. But this guy apparently INSISTED they bring me in for an interview (he obviously saw something in me when we met!) and then they said I NAILED the interview! They were prepared not to like me, but I won them over. Later, the head of the hiring committee jokingly asked whether someone had prepped me on the "teaching experience" questions (i.e. How would you deal with a difficult student, etc). The truth is, I just pulled the answers out of my ass, on the spot. I feel extremely lucky to have gotten this job since:
1. Usually they hire people with more experience - if there had been someone who applied with more experience than me who also did a good interview, they likely would have gotten hired (turns out they ended up interviewing 3 candidates for the position)
2. These positions don't come up very often
3. I am now considered an internal candidate and start earning seniority
4. This is a heavy-duty second year course. If I can do a good job of it, especially since it's my first time ever teaching a course, it will be very good for my career

The downside is that I still have a lot of work to do for my other job. Papers need to be written, experiments need to be performed. And preparing lectures takes a TON of time. My post-doc boss isn't super happy with me right now, but he'll have to be confident in my ability to get all the work done. I will try my hardest!! I am willing to work my ass off this summer - I see it as short-term pain for long-term gain.

Anyhow, this was my first attempt at the 10 min blog. Since my time is going to be pretty precious the next few months, I think this is how it's going to have to be!! Just a quick pop in to record some thoughts. I think that's all for tonight - until next time...