The blog has fell silent for a number of months, mainly because my work and other endeavors has consumed all of my time. The work in the lab has taken on new dimensions, with our staff significantly expanded at the beginning of the semester. This has translated into a lot more time spent training and managing, rather than directly generating data. But I also spend a significant amount of time pushing some of my own projects forward.
On the professional development front I have been working on expanding my skill sets in statistics and programming, which mostly involves taking some courses (university, online, and books) and just putting in a lot of time getting my hands dirty with R. My work in the lab has started to shift to this area and I’ve spent many hours getting comfortable with a whole new set of tools.
One nice part with Dr. S is that even though I lack a PhD., I’m not treated any differently than those that have more degrees. So as one of the people in the lab with the most hands-on experience with a number of important protocols and experiments, it is often necessary to make recommendations and help with troubleshooting, as well as offer advice based on past experience. It’s been a nice challenge in shifting to a job that includes a lot of project management instead of primarily generating data.
Also, when I get a chance I keep up on a number of blogs in the science area, which mostly includes a lot of young PI’s, postdocs, and graduate students. It’s always interesting to hear how your experiences in science in compare with people at other universities and companies.
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