Networking

I still haven't heard from EKU (annoying since I told them I had an offer and wanted to hear ASAP either way), but I have basically decided that I am going to take the New Paltz job regardless. Yay for having a future plan. The next step is negotiating my salary and start up package. To get advice about how to do this I have been contacting just about everyone in my network. And man is it nice to have a big network! I never realized how useful it could be before.

First of course was my advisor, who actually was extremely helpful, though he is really coming from a different perspective and doesn't know a lot about small colleges. So I then contacted three people I know from UT who are now at small colleges - and it turns out that they are all pretty close geographically to New Paltz as well. We can have a mini reunion! They all responded quickly with great advice, and one of them in particular talked to me on the phone for a long time. He offered to come down to New Paltz and to invite me up to his school, and to give me his lecture slides and help me get started with the curriculum! He also really helped me form the strategy for how to negotiate (more info to come after I actually do it).

On the other side of things I will have to build a small observatory there, so I want to put together a budget for that to make sure they will give me that start up. So I asked a Prof here if my idea for science to do with it could work (yes, with the right set up), and during that another Prof overheard and suggested that I talk to another guy in the department who works for HETDEX because he has a lot of experience with small telescopes. That guy, who has never met me, sent me a great email of all kinds of CCDs and equipment I could get. Then during cookie time people were asking me about the job and I told them about it all. One of the McDonald Observatory engineers was there and said that he is building a small observatory in his backyard and would send me a few budgets for different levels of setups I could do. It's not often that a small school gets a world class telescope engineer to help plan their observatory!

Then lastly comes the electronic networking. I posted on facebook that I got an offer from New Paltz, and two of my friends from high school said "Hey, so and so just took a job there last year!" So they connected me with a girl from my high school who started as an Assistant Professor at New Paltz last August. She has told me about the area, given me some tips on what I can expect in negotiating there, and is going to help me find a place to live. How awesome! See, facebook is useful for something.

One interesting note is that only two of the above people are women (and they are my age). In most discussions of diversity in academia one of the big things that comes up is that women need other women as mentors. I generally agree that is true, so why am I not seeking out female advice during this process? I don't really have an answer for that.

The point of all of this is that it really is true when people say it is important to build up your network and to be able to get along well with others, not just bury your head in research. Also that I am very fortunate to have such nice, helpful people around me! Thanks all!