Translating Your Postdoc Experience into Practice

An academic journey is an interesting thing. After focusing on developing specialized knowledge in a field during your PhD and then digging deeper during your postdoc, it is understandable to wonder how you might use your specific expertise in different settings – whether inside or outside of academia.

A recent panel of Ph.D.s working in industry highlighted the importance of translating your doctoral and postdoc experience into broader terms. Taking an inventory of your skills, capabilities, and strengths can help you gain confidence as you begin to imagine you do have something remarkable to offer to a future employer or to leverage for success in your career.

Skills learned during graduate school and a postdoc fellowship have set you up to be a competitive applicant for most industry and start up jobs, in addition to the traditional academic track. By the completion of your training, you are highly intelligent, with an ability to learn and teach yourself “what you don’t know.” You are adept at gathering all the available information and making a good decision regarding what it means and what’s next. You have developed great analytical and logic-minded skills, which you can apply to move an issue, experiment or conversation forward. All it takes is stepping back, and reframing your experiences for a different audience.

Need some ideas about how your graduate and postdoc experiences have prepared you for a rewarding career inside or outside of academia? Check out this list from Peter Fiske’s keynote at the National Postdoc Association meeting 2017 (#NPA2017) to get you started:

Ability to function in a variety of environments and roles
Teaching skills; conceptualizing, explaining
Counseling, interview skills
Public speaking experience
Ability to support a position/viewpoint with argumentation and logic
Ability to conceive and design complex studies and projects
Ability to implement and manage all phases of complex research projects and to follow them through to completion
Knowledge of the scientific method to organize and test ideas
Ability to organize and analyze data, to understand statistics and to generalize from data
Ability to combine, integrate information from disparate sources
Ability to evaluate critically
Ability to investigate, using many different research methodologies
Ability to problem-solve
Ability to do advocacy work
Ability to acknowledge many differing views of reality
Ability to suspend judgment, to work with ambiguity
Ability to make the best use of informed hunches

As you develop your own inventory, keep in mind that similar skills or capacities may be called different things in different sectors or fields. Do your research when you are targeting a job prospect and develop tailored versions of your CV or resume and cover letters to reflect the field specific terms. You are prepared – it just takes a little translation to help others see it easily. We invite you to budget an hour or so a week to explore the references below for more tools and ideas.

Peter Fiske, 2015 at UC – Berkeley – Put Your PhD to Work: Practical Career Advice for Grad students and Postdocs
Try taking a self-assessment with these quick activities: Dependable Career Strengths Exercises, UW Career & Internship Center
Connect with other events, job listings, and online resources: Beyond Academia: Jobs and Internships, UW Career & Internship Center
Review other people’s lists of skills and see what resonates!
- Identifying Skills, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Career Services at Brandeis University
- PhD Transferable Skills, Career Center at University of Michigan.

How Prof. Adam Summers Works

Adam Summers, Professor, Friday Harbor Labs

Department/program: Biology & School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Research focus: Biomechanics and Biomaterials

Adam Summers is known around campus as “the fish guy,” reflecting his passion for, and expertise in, all things fishy. With a focus on biomechanics in fish movement, he played a role in bringing Pixar’s most popular fish movie — Finding Nemo — to life. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts, and, after nine years teaching at the University of California — Irvine, now runs the comparative biomechanics and biomaterials lab at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs.

Work

Give us a one-word description of how you work:

Curiously.

How do you manage your to-dos?

Wunderlist. Also email ping-backs: I send an email explaining I am working on something and the person who needs it should send me an email if they don’t get it in a certain number of days.

What are your essential apps, software or tools?

Word, Chrome, Amira (a 3-D software platform for visualizing, manipulating and understanding data from multiple image modalities), Fusion 360 (a software platform for designing, engineering and manufacturing), Photoshop, Illustrator, Papers.

Where do you most often work?

In my office and lab.

How do you manage your time?

Google calendar.

What is your best time-saving shortcut?

Lots of open tabs.

What are some of your productivity strategies you’ve honed over your years in academia?

Write 750 words every day. Every single day.

Life

What mundane thing are you really exceptional at?

Landing in a crosswind.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?

Half Resurrection Blues by Daniel Older

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

Daughter’s self-made spelling test which included ‘Parents,’ ‘Mission’ and ‘Revenge’.

How do you recharge?

Fly small planes, snuggle with small children.

What’s your sleep routine like?

Five to eight hours in one block or three and four in two.

Inspiration

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Make your teaching serve your research.

Who’s your support system?

My wife, kids and brother.

What pitfall do you consistently see students falling into?

Waiting to write. Write early, often and broadly. It makes writing for work less work.

What do your most successful students do?

They love morphology and poke at how things work. They tinker and make things.

How UW Works was inspired by LifeHacker’s How I Work.

Did you enjoy this series? Check back Wednesdays during the Spring quarter for the latest mid-week motivation! While you wait, you can read more in this series, nominate a student or professor to be featured, or answer the questions yourself! (Students should answer the questions via this form; faculty should use this form. If you prefer to answer the questions over email, drop us a line at gradnews@uw.edu).

Should You Pursue An Academic Career?

“So what do you want to do when you graduate?” There is no better way that a well-meaning family aunt or uncle strikes fear into the heart of an unsuspecting grad student or postdoc over slices of turkey at the holidays. Although this question is well meant, it often makes you squirm and feel uncomfortable. Here are some tips to help you think about this quest:

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
About the answer to this – I will tell you what I tell my own students: “I have good news and bad news for you …” The good news is that you aren’t alone. On most days, I’m in the same boat with you, still trying to figure out what I want to be (n.b., please do not tell my department chair!). The bad news, however, is that if you don’t give this some serious thought, you run the risk of missing out on key opportunities in your immediate future.

NOT “Can I Become Faculty?”
Importantly, there is an absolutely wrong question to be worried about: “Can I become faculty?” I can’t emphasize enough that the question is not “can I do it?” The answer to this is an unequivocal “YES.” You already earned a Ph.D. and a postdoc at a world-class institution. If you are willing to put in the work to find mentors, network, learn the rules of the game and be disciplined about executing a plan, then you can do it.

BUT “Should I Become Faculty?”
This is the far more interesting question to ask. Consider your time as an undergraduate and reflect upon your experience with faculty. Now think of life as a graduate student and your interactions with professors. Finally, postdocs can do this exercise yet again. How have things changed? Faculty, perhaps more than most other professions, wear many different hats, usually at the same time. You have viewed the faculty experience up close, leading to an important conclusion: you may not really know how a professor spends all of their time. I highlight this simply to say that before you make one of the most important decisions of your life, you should learn more about the life of a professor.

Is Being Faculty A Good Fit?
I advocate that instead of worrying on the details of the future (Will I get hired? Will get I tenure? Will I get funding?), you spend time trying to learn if being faculty is a good fit for you. The happy news is that faculty love to talk about themselves, and if you do a bit of informational interviewing, you can learn a lot about how faculty you admire (and aspire to be like) spend their time. While you already know they work a lot, you should find out how they spend their time, what they like about their job, and importantly, what they don’t like. Try to do this with several faculty you admire; if possible try to do it with faculty at different types of institutions and with faculty of different rank.

Imagine YOUR Life As A Professor
This process works to create a clear picture of what YOUR life as a professor would look like. This is the easiest way to answer the question of whether you should do it or not. Being a professor is an awesome job, and I truly love it. But I recognize it is not for everyone. My last piece of advice is this – once you decide that you should become a professor, don’t waste any time! Put your full effort into making your dream become a reality – I already know you CAN do it, why not prove me right?

Acknowledgement: This guest blog post was graciously provided by Dr. Jim Pfaendtner, Associate Profession in Chemical Engineering, who was the keynote speaker at OPA sponsored professional development event Set Up for Academic Success: Getting Funding For Your Research Program in April 2017.

How Prof. Tim Essington Works

Tim Essington, Professor

Department/program: School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Research focus: Marine Biology and Conservation

Tim Essington is a marine biologist whose research focuses on fisheries policy tools and fisheries management. In a recent feature article by the Whole U, Essington explained how comedy improv helped him learn to embrace mistakes. Now, he teaches an improv course for students in the environmental studies department, aimed at helping them communicate their research.

Work

Give us a one-word description of how you work:

Positively

How do you manage your to-dos?

I am completely reliant on Todoist. I keep multiple to-do lists going, one for short term (daily), another for medium term (weekly +) and then another for long term (quarterly). Most importantly, I never use my email as a de facto to do list. All emails are either assigned to the ToDoist app, responded to, or deleted immediately.

What are your essential apps, software or tools?

R, iCalendar, Chrome, Adobe Acrobat, MS Office, Matlab, Todoist

Where do you most often work?

On campus, in my office.

How do you manage your time?

I schedule time for everything. If it doesn’t go on my calendar, I won’t do it. I try to get blocks of dedicated time for particular activities, keeping in mind that my mind is usually mush between 2 and 4 p.m. but is much sharper from 8—11 a.m.

What is your best time-saving shortcut?

Saying “no” to interesting opportunities.

What are some of your productivity strategies you’ve honed over your years in academia?

Scheduling time to do things that are important, and delegating tasks as much as possible. Like most people, I find the challenge lies in seeing the forest beyond the trees.

Life

What mundane thing are you really exceptional at?

I am very good at trying to reduce the amount of North Italian white wines in the world.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

Oh gosh, I laugh all the time. I perform at a local comedy improv theater, so every practice and every show I’m surrounded by very funny people. I’ve noticed that ever since I started doing this, I see the funny in everyday life much more clearly.

How do you recharge?

Exercise, work-free days with my spouse, and learning new things.

What’s your sleep routine like?

Rigid!

Inspiration

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Say what you do and do what you say.

Who’s your support system?

My amazing spouse. She’s simply amazing.

What pitfall do you consistently see students falling into?

Worrying that they aren’t doing “enough” and being overly critical of their own work.

What do your most successful students do?

They take ownership and leadership over their research, take risks and have a decent work/life balance.

How UW Works was inspired by LifeHacker’s How I Work.

How Laura Koehn Works

Laura Koehn, Ph.D. Student, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

Neighborhood: Fremont
Area of study, as you would tell your advisor: Fisheries management
Area of study, as you would tell your family: Marine ecology

Laura Koehn studies interactions between forage fish, predators and forage fisheries in the California Current. She is the recipient of several scholarships and grants, including a North Pacific Marine Science Organization travel award and a Pacific Seabird Group Travel award this year. In 2015, Koehn received an honorable mention for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. As an undergraduate at the UW, she studied penguins in Argentina with Dee Boersma and The Penguin Project.

Work

Give us a one-word description of how you work:

Effectively

How do you manage your to-dos?

I write to-do lists in a notebook or day planner.

What are your essential apps, software or tools?

R studio, Dropbox, Excel, Gmail

Where do you most often work?

My office.

How do you manage your time?

When I have a bunch of things that need to get done, I tackle what I’m most interested in working on first, unless there is something with a nearer deadline. I also like to give myself deadlines for smaller tasks that make up a bigger task.

What is your best time-saving shortcut?

I use the people around me as resources when I don’t know answers instead of endlessly Googling/searching.

What are some of your productivity strategies you’ve honed over your years in school?

Focus on small chunks of work to accomplish bigger tasks, that way you feel good about completing something sooner. Take breaks — if you really can’t focus, it’s better to take a 15 minute or so break and get some fresh air than continue to try and struggle through. Alternate between tasks you find fun and those that are mundane or hard.

Life

What mundane thing are you really exceptional at?

Riding the bus.

What are you currently reading? For pleasure, if possible.

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

When I was cooking an egg tonight and went to flip it and dropped it off the stove.

How do you recharge?

Going for little adventures around town — trips to bookstores, new breakfast restaurants, etc.

What’s your sleep routine like?

I usually get to bed around 11 p.m. and wake up around 7:30 a.m. I get at least eight hours of sleep the majority of nights. However, my cat wakes me up a lot in the middle of the night so my sleep is interrupted, which I don’t recommend.

Inspiration

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Know how to communicate your science to any audience.

Who’s your support system?

My boyfriend and the other ladies in my lab. And my cat.

What do you wish you had started doing sooner in grad school?

Stating my thoughts, opinions and ideas more readily and openly at group meetings, with my advisory committee, and during collaborative projects — i.e., being more confident in my own ideas.

Stopped doing sooner?

Neglecting my health. I wish I had stopped not leaving time to exercise and take care of myself.

How UW Works was inspired by LifeHacker’s How I Work.

How Alex Bolton Works

Alex Bolton, J.D. ’16, (former) GPSS President

Department/program: Law
Neighborhood: Ballard and Orting
Area of study, as you would tell your advisor: Law
Area of study, as you would tell you family: Law, with an interest in state government and higher education

Alex Bolton, J.D. ’16, bleeds purple and gold. He earned his B.A., a M.P.A. and his J.D. from the University of Washington, and was named to the Husky 100 in 2016. Keeping with his service to the UW, he was President of the Graduate & Professional Student Senate from 2015-2016. He has worked as a legal intern for the Washington State Senate Committee Services and as a Law Clerk for the Washington State Office of the Attorney General.

Work

Give us a one-word description of how you work:

Strategically.

How do you manage your to-dos?

Prioritize, delegate, write lists and use email as a de facto list.

What are your essential apps, software or tools?

Email, calendar, Twitter

Where do you most often work?

I do my GPSS work at the office, and my school work at the library.

How do you manage your time?

Prioritize and review my calendar each morning.

What is your best time-saving shortcut?

Being in the office and available — I think it helps avoid emails and additional meetings.

What are some of your productivity strategies you’ve honed over your years in school?

Learning how to prioritize, and often realizing that not everything is going to get done. Properly valuing sleep has helped as well to make sure that I am more productive while awake. I have flirted with the minimal sleep boundary a little too much this year.

Life

What mundane thing are you really exceptional at?

Listening.

What are you currently reading? For pleasure, if possible.

Astoria by John Jacob Astor and Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Thomas Jefferson

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

The Grinder.

How do you recharge?

Sleep, spending time with my girlfriend and her two daughters, traveling, hiking, Husky sports.

What’s your sleep routine like?

This year, not enough during the week. I try to get no less than six hours a night. Before this year, I shot for eight hours, and usually got seven hours.

Inspiration

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Nobody’s going to die if you don’t do it perfect.

Who’s your support system?

My girlfriend, best friends from undergrad and friends I have made through GPSS. Coach Petersen.

What do you wish you had started doing sooner in grad school?

Prioritizing working out (I still haven’t).

Stopped doing sooner?

I weaned off of coffee somehow and switched to tea during law school. I wish I would have done that sooner.

How UW Works was inspired by LifeHacker’s How I Work.

Beyond “Plan B”: Crafting Your Career Journey

With today’s careers, it is more common than ever before to change directions multiple times in your life. This can happen in the course of a graduate program where perhaps the career you came looking for now looks different to you as your experiences have grown. We have an on-going theme in Core Programs of exploring diverse career trajectories. Below, we emphasize a few lessons shared by Philosophy alums at a recent panel, who are working in very diverse sectors.* Whether or not you are in a Humanities, Social Sciences, or a STEM field, these insights may be of use to you:

Beyond Hoops. We know there are many obligations and milestones to completing a graduate program. Rather than (only) thinking of these requirements as hoops to jump through, take some time to reflect upon the career skills you will gain from them over time—transferable career skills you can utilize for many jobs inside and outside of academia. For example, even when it’s not apparent to you at first, one skill set you develop when completing a thesis or dissertation are project management skills. Skills under project management can include, organization (outlining and prioritizing tasks that need to be completed), time management (setting up and meeting deadlines that are realistic), synthesizing complex ideas and details succinctly (writing up your project), and communication (meeting with advisors to state, clarify, and/or revisit your goals and expectations).

Beyond Job Titles. Instead of focusing solely on job titles during your job search, consider the kind of work you want to do and the kind of setting you would like to work within. What strengths do you have, and where are those best expressed? Recruiting expert Christian Lépolard offers these guiding questions to help you think expansively about your job search, “What is your ultimate career goal, inside and outside of your current organization? What hard skills (practical and theoretical), knowledge, and soft skills do you need to possess in order to get there? What skills do you already have and which ones do you need to acquire? What skills will this next role bring you?” Read more from Lépolard’s article. We would also add, what kinds of tasks and projects fuel your passions? What contribution do you want to make? How do you prefer to spend your time? Reflecting on these questions can help you find a range of ways you might be able to do your best work, rather than limiting yourself to certain job titles.

Beyond a “Career Path.” If we shift our thinking away from the idea of a “career path” (often imagined as linear) towards the notion of a career journey, then we open ourselves up to change, flexibility, and opportunity. Sometimes you just need to get your foot in the door at an organization or institution. Start out with a short-term internship (or in other instances, see if there are volunteer positions), as this experience will help you determine if you will enjoy working there and if the work and the workplace culture allow you to thrive. The right kind of entry-level position can open more doors quickly once you shine. It may not be a straight shot through to your dream job, but you increase your professional networks and get to showcase your talents along the way! Also, think broadly about a range of jobs that match your technical and transferable skills. Career strengths assessments such as this free one can help you do just that.

Spring can be a job search season for you, or perhaps a chance to line up more growth opportunities once summer arrives. It can also be a time to consider making a 1-1 appointment with a UW career advisor who can help give you feedback on your resume or CV. We are cheering for you – let us know how it is going!

Best,

Kelly, Jaye, and Ziyan

*Acknowledgements to panelists Summer Archarya, Dustyn Addington, Karen Emmerman, and Ann Owens from the Philosophy Branches Out event. This event was held on February 28, 2017 at UW Seattle and was co-sponsored by the UW Philosophy Department, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and Core Programs in the Graduate School.

How Prof. Scott Freeman Works

Scott Freeman, Principal Lecturer

Department/program: Biology
Research focus: Teaching — course innovations and their impact on student learning

Scott Freeman is known on campus as a champion of active-learning strategies. A lecturer in Biology, he employs flipped-classroom learning techniques in his courses, and students are responding with higher GPAs and lower fail rates. A former UW graduate student himself, Freeman earned his Ph.D. in zoology in 1991, and after a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton, returned to the UW as Director of Public Programs at the Burke Museum. Freeman was a recipient of the UW Distinguished Teaching Award in 2010.

Work

Give us a one-word description of how you work:

Lots.

How do you manage your to-dos?

Hand-written notes, also sticky notes on my computer start-up screen.

What are your essential apps, software or tools?

Microsoft Office Suite (standard stuff), Acrobat Professional, DropBox, Google Docs (less so).

Where do you most often work?

My office in Hitchcock Hall.

How do you manage your time?

Start work in the very early morning, when there few distractions. Be disciplined about web surfing.

What is your best time-saving shortcut?

Bike commute as exercise.

What are some of your productivity strategies you’ve honed over your years in academia?

Say no to travel (or research or service) opportunities unless they are particularly high impact. Teach the same courses over and over and make them better each time, versus many new preps.

Life

What mundane thing are you really exceptional at?

Telling Toyvo and Lena jokes.

Who are Toyvo and Lena?

Sometimes called Ole and Lena jokes, they are jokes told in a heavy Swedish accent about first-generation Scandinavians in Minneysotor. I mean Minnesota.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?

Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

Changes every few minutes.

How do you recharge?

Work in the woods (reforestation project); raise puppies for a service dog agency. Weekly dinners with family from the area.

What’s your sleep routine like?

In bed by 10 p.m., up by 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. Sleep until 7 a.m., or even 8 a.m. on weekends. Here you can find catalog when you can purchase peptides easily, fast shipping from US

Inspiration

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Get back up, and keep going.

Who’s your support system?

My spouse, family and friends.

What pitfall do you consistently see students falling into?

Self-doubt is number one; for some, poor time management.

What do your most successful students do?

Focus. And believe in themselves and the importance of their work.

How UW Works was inspired by LifeHacker’s How I Work.

Finding a Cultural Fit with Your Employer

It can be so exciting to get a job offer or to find a postdoc position that it can be tempting to look no further. However, finding the right “fit” involves many dimensions beyond just the research focus. Universities, companies, governmental agencies, and non-profits each have their own cultures. Furthermore, individual departments or even specific research groups may operate with their own norms and practices. Regardless of your sector, you will spend a lot of your waking life at work. Doing your research on the work environment will go a long way towards determining your long-term satisfaction and success.

Often, people believe an organization’s culture is the same as its mission. However, the culture goes beyond statements to understanding how work gets done and what work gets valued, and by whom. You will be making a big decision for both your short- and long-term future. Therefore, you should reflect on the things that matter most to you in a future employer and job responsibility. With this information in hand, you will be set up for a successful transition, and hopefully, a long and satisfying career.

How do you find out if something is the right fit for you? Here are a few questions you can ask.

Where Do You Fit? First ask yourself what you need to not just survive, but to flourish. Not sure? Here are some self-assessment questions to get you started.

Do you agree with the company’s stated mission, vision and values? All employers publish their mission statement. Make sure it fits with your own convictions. Do your due diligence and interview current (or former) employees to see if and how those values are practiced or demonstrated day-to-day. Find out how the organization is viewed within the community where it resides.

With which management style are you most comfortable? For example, do you like decisions to be made autocratically or independently; based on consensus building or at the whim of a single individual? There are many methods of communication — do you like meetings and face-to-face interactions or would you rather respond to written requests (e.g., email and task lists)? What is your place within the organizational chart, and will you have enough access to your supervisors and decision makers?

What is the work-life balance you are seeking? Do you “live to work” or “work to live”? These two choices are very different, and they will affect personal relationships at work. For example, are you free (and willing) to work late nights or on weekends? Will you feel left out if your colleagues regularly go to happy hour while you have other after-work commitments? Importantly, is the job located in a part of the country or the world where you can be happy?

What are the day-to-day practices at work? You should be aware of general policies governing your workday: e.g., dress code, benefits, annual review, methods for evaluation and improvement, etc. How transparent and equitable are the practices for receiving recognition and promotion? It’s important to gather as much information prior to transitioning to a new job so you’re not surprised on day one.

Do Your Homework: Treat your job search like a research project. Gather as much information as possible to inform your decision. Don’t think, “I can tolerate anything — how bad can an organization’s culture be?” This is simply not true, and you want to set yourself up for success!

Check references: When discussing a potential job offer, ask to review employee surveys. Make use of your interactions with current employees during the interview process to ask pointed questions about their experiences and whether they’re truly happy. Importantly, ask about employee turnover rate — this number will be low in successful organizations with satisfied employees.

Set priorities: It’s unlikely a single opportunity will satisfy all of the things you’re looking for in an organizational culture. Therefore, after your self-assessment, ask yourself what the 1-2 things that are most important to you? If you are not sure how to assess or prioritize, check out Doug’s Guides for a few short self-assessments that can help you learn more about your own work style and work culture preferences.

Acknowledgments: Insights shared here were featured in a workshop by Claudia Adkison and Kevin Grigsby at the National Postdoctoral Association meeting, March 2017 San Francisco.

How Prof. Pepper Schwartz Works

Pepper Schwartz, Professor

Department/program: Sociology
Research focus: Intimate Relationships, Sexuality, Gender, Communication

Got love problems? As a sociologist and sexologist, Pepper Schwartz has some solutions. She is the author of 16 books, including The Great Sex Weekend, The Lifetime Love and Sex Quiz Book, and Everything You Know About Love and Sex is Wrong. She’s the national Love & Relationship Expert & Ambassador for the AARP, and has written advice columns on love and sex for decades. Got time management problems? Schwartz helps us tackle those, too, with a few tips for getting things done.

Work

Give us a one-word description of how you work:

Focused

How do you manage your to-dos?

I make a lot of lists and constantly revise them (especially when I continually don’t meet my own expectations of what I hope to accomplish on a specific day). I sometimes put them on my phone, but I really am still a paper and pencil girl, so I usually have a sheet of paper near my desk about what I hope to do and what is on the horizon. I am often wildly optimistic and have to deal with the often experienced reality that everything takes longer than you think it will.

What are your essential apps, software or tools?

I use my computer and my iPhone. I am not a technophobe but I am a late adopter to say the least.

Where do you most often work?

I go back and forth between my home office and my office at the University. I almost always working at a desk. I think I am trained to work at a desk. When I am working with someone else it will often be at a table. A few times I have gone away with a co-author just to get away from anything but the project at hand.

How do you manage your time?

Sometimes well; sometimes not so impressively. I tend to write every day, but the time of day changes depending on what else I have to do (teach, see friends, family stuff, traveling). I am very efficient and focused on airplanes. I think of them as big floating offices and get a lot done on them.

What is your best time-saving shortcut?

I have someone else to do some of the library research for me. When she or he has assembled either summaries of things I need to read, or arranged the articles for me to read them, I can write speedily and well. I also try and hire student workers for just about everything I can: to write letters, follow up on lecture commitments, get supplies, you name it.

What are some of your productivity strategies you’ve honed over your years in academia?

I have worked a lot with graduate students which, of course, helps us both. I love having someone to think with; sometimes they write the first draft, but I often do, or edit quite heavily. I also write a lot late at night when it’s quiet in the house and I can get mesmerized by what I am doing without interruptions.

Life

What mundane thing are you really exceptional at?

I write first drafts very quickly.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?

I have decided just this year to read fiction again — a seriously guilty pleasure. I read Circling the Sun, a fictionalized story about Beryl Markham, the woman pilot in Africa who was part of a fascinating group of people. I am in a book club and this helps me try out things I wouldn’t ordinarily read. I do love historical biographies too and will go through binges of reading them — and then stop when I need to use that time for something else. I also do some travel writing and research, so I love to read travel writers and travel magazines.

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

Amy Schumer in Trainwreck. It was a hysterical movie — she is crude and funny and very smart. I love movies that are not tragic or violent — that sculpts my choices down a bit.

How do you recharge?

I ride my horse, play with my dogs, have dinner with my guy, meet a friend for coffee. I love almost any kind of romantic travel.

What’s your sleep routine like?

Uneven. When I am with my fiancé we go to sleep at about 10 p.m. When I am home alone I tend to read or work or watch a movie too late. When I am home alone, my dogs gather ‘round me and my German Shepard takes Fred’s place on the other pillow. Wherever I am, I wake up about 7 a.m.

Inspiration

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Never sell yourself short. Another thing that sounds bad but was invaluable was when my mom told me, “remember you are always alone.” She meant that you had to be true to yourself and not do things just to be liked or fit in. Ultimately you are alone with yourself, and you better learn how to like that and be comfortable with that.

Who’s your support system?

I am lucky, and I have worked hard to have depth and quantity in my support system. It includes many close women friends, a few close male friends, my fiancé, my son and daughter. When I was younger I had an extraordinary colleagueship and friendship with Phil Blumstein. He was my colleague, co-author and best friend for many years. Tragically, he died of AIDS and like many gay men of his time was robbed of the full length of life he deserved. He was amazing and we were continually with each other for twenty years. I have another close friend who teaches in L.A., Janet Lever who has been my friend and often co-author since undergraduate school days. I am close to several ex-students and people who have worked with and for me.

What pitfall do you consistently see students falling into?

Doing their dissertation on something that is not their passion and not something they can build a deep research agenda around.

What do your most successful students do?

Get passionate about a research area, snag a professor to help them develop it, publish early and stay excited about their work.

How UW Works was inspired by LifeHacker’s How I Work.