Post-Tenure Perspective

At the Blue Lab Coats blog, DrdrA says post-tenure life is hardly what she expected it would be. "My life, my job, and my career continue to be filled with all kinds of interesting surprises, twists and turns, new tasks that keep me out of my comfort zone," she said. While DrdrA is now "unfireable" as she puts it, she has encountered a new emphasis on service commitments and "on political correctness" in her career. "I’m not sure I paid attention to how politically correct I was being pre-tenure. This was mostly because I didn’t have any energy left to be politically incorrect, or give it any thought even — I was writing nearly 30 grants, trying to get papers out, blogging, and mentoring a bunch of people," DrdrA says. Now, however, "I find that there are some silly barriers that get in the way of projects going forward that have to be solved at levels outside my lab group," she adds.