Introduction

Like many people, I have never written a blog before – read numerous ones, and even commented on a couple – but never actually written one. But, I realized several months ago that I needed some outlet.

This realization probably came about as a result of several things: 1) the horrendous end to an even more traumatic PhD experience and 2) completing an exhausting faculty search. After being asked for advice by many of my classmates and my friends about how to deal with both of these experiences, I thought that there may be other PhD students and post-docs who might benefit from advice – not that I am an expert in either. So, I am embarking into the blog-o-sphere.

I am starting at one of the faculty positions in the fall. I already have a sense that I am quickly going to be overwhelmed and need a place to vent, and this seems like a good forum, at least for now.

Since this is the first post, it is only appropriate that background information be given here, so: I am starting as an assistant professor at what most would call a (private) tier 1 research institution in an engineering department. As you can probably guess from the title of the blog, I am female. While there are other female professors in the engineering school, there aren’t in my department. This isn’t a new experience – it was the same during my undergrad and my PhD, so at least I’m immunized (for better or for worse). My post-doc lab was the one beacon of hope, but that is another story. However, all of us (the female professors) meet for lunch – I feel like I’m in AA or something – but it is nice to have this support group of professors, if for no other reason than as a mentoring network.