The interviews, follow-up emails and phone calls are all over with. I’ve signed my name on a great number of forms and waivers. I’ve traveled back and forth from the midwest to boston three times (which, by the way, there are no direct flights and some of the planes still had propellers). The end result…I HAVE A POSTDOC!
( source )
I’m really excited about my new lab and the research I’ll be doing. I can’t wait to go out there and start the projects we’ve discussed, they’re exactly what I hoped to go into for my postdoc (host cell-pathogen interactions). I am also looking forward to moving to Boston and city-life. Sure, it’ll be 100x more expensive than living in Central Illinois, there will actually be traffic, crime is higher, and there’s that accent…but I’m still incredibly excited.
Of course, now reality sets in:
1) I need to unravel the new instructions for NRSA individual fellowships and come up with specific aims for my postdoc project by the end of the week, not to mention write the grant proposal in the next month (eek! independence is scary).
2) I have to finish Chapter 1, the introduction, of my thesis by Tuesday, to qualify to go up for my “pre-defense meeting” with my committee. Pass my pre-defense meeting, and start writing the rest of my thesis.
3) And most importantly, successfully finish my three current projects in a timely manner and write up the manuscripts.
Let the craziness begin.
Congratulations on the job! Now you’ve only got n-1 reasons to panic.
Congrats!
Congratulations! Sounds like you found a perfect fit. Good luck with finishing up!
Congrats! As someone who lived in Boston and moved to the midwest, I can tell you Boston is mah-vellous!
Congrats Elizabeth! So is the proposal to get funding for the post doc gig?
Congratulations! Sounds like a smaller adventure ;) (just like a post doc seems to all of us?!) Good luck with finishing your thesis and writing all the things!
Thanks everyone for the congrats and well wishes!
Steffi…yes, the proposal is for post-doc funding with that stalwart of postdoc-dom…the F32 fellowship.
You know, the more I look at that cartoon, the more it makes me smile (… sardonically?).
Congrats… and good luck with the craziness!
A bit late, but congrats! Sounds like you found the right place :) And it also sounds like a lot of effort went into it. I’m soon to start looking myself, so I’m quite envious of you. To have it all over with and settled!