• A Meandering Scholar by Ian Brooks

    Wherein I hope to document the path of change: The continuing evolution of the Postdoctoral Fellow within academia.

    • live posting?

      Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 04:40 UTC

      I’ve been to two conferences this month (lunar) and spectacularly failed to live up to live blogging. But right now I am blogging from my phone (a G1 for those care) and I. Can say the m0bi13 int3rn3t5 rox cos I can tell you I killed ANOTHER grant, interviewed for my own job and submitted a manuscript.

      Not through my phone, but you know what I mean… like telling you live at the end of the day. Through my phone…

      …ok so HG does this (and more) but it’s new to me.

      And to our dedicated and hard working most beloved developers: the site is 95% mobile access friendly. Details upon request.

      Last updated: Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 04:40 UTC

      • Comments

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 04:48 UTC
          Craig Rowell said:

          So did you get the job? Or did they just give it to the G1?

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 06:29 UTC
          Eva Amsen said:

          Why do you have to interview for your own job? I have vaguely heard about this before, when someone said she interviewed for what turned out to be her friend’s job, who also interviewed for that herself and got (kept?) it, but at the time I thought I probably just misunderstood. Is this a thing people do?

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 12:43 UTC
          Massimo Pinto said:

          What do you mean by interviewing for your own job? Is it what you do when you leave a place and help selecting your successor?

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 13:37 UTC
          Maxine Clarke said:

          I don’t know if this is what Ian means (I hope not) but when a company is changing management or making layoffs or otherwise restructuring, it sometimes makes all the employees effectively redundant, and makes them all interview for the (fewer) jobs that are left, including their own. I have seen it happen, though not thankfully at NPG and I certainly hope not to Ian.

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 13:59 UTC
          Richard Wintle said:

          Mmm. Nasty. Another way this can happen is if you are not a citizen or landed immigrant, and your work permit is in imminent danger of running out. In ahem certain countries ahem this might necessitate your employer posting your position, then interviewing all the likely applicants (citizens, landed immigrants, and everyone else including you) for the position that you’re already in.

          I imagine this isn’t Ian’s situation, but it’s another scenario where “interviewing for your own job” can occur. Me, I’ve had to write my own job description before, and also (in a previous life) create my own position on an org chart, but fortunately never been in this interview position.

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 14:57 UTC
          María José Navarrete-Talloni said:

          Ok, so did you actually interwiewed for your own (same) job?
          And, what is a G1?? (I care but I don’t know what it is… I actually share my mobile with LP, so no mobile of my own… I know, I know… no comments)

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 15:37 UTC
          Ian Brooks said:

          A G1 is a mobile phone. Kind of a cross between a Blackberry and an iPhone.

          the job I’m in now was supposed to be a staff position, not a postdoc position. I was brought on board as a postdoc to make the hiring process easier, then two weeks before the promotion to staff member went into effect, we were hit with a university wide hiring freeze. So, i had to walk through fire eat broken glass work my cute little ass off until i’d proven myself enough that our ExecViceChancellor noticed me and signed off on the promotion.

          But! Because I’m a filthy dirty terrorist foreigner on a visa the job has to be posted and applied for officially (which i have no problem with actually). So, I cleaned my CV, wrote a nice cover letter and applied. Then we found out I have to actually interview as part of the hiring process.

          So my boss, The DragonLady, being a stickler for the rules, called me in for an interview yesterday. Thankfully she was in a really bad mood and actually grilled me for an hour and half! But, because I am fragrant oiled wondrous and really really damned good at my job I aced it all.

          Now I have to wait for HR to process our business manager’s note of approval and hopefully, sometime this month, go get my Yellow Staff ID badge :)

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 15:49 UTC
          Craig Rowell said:

          Congrats on making it through the gauntlet (he says with fingers-crossed).

        • Date:
          Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 - 16:15 UTC
          Maxine Clarke said:

          Phew! Well done, Ian.


Search blogs

web feed Want a blog?

Submit this post to

Advertisement