In a few hours two visiting friends from NL arrive. Before those two weeks of lots of tea, gossip and travel I’ll write down 6 things that are important to me in a job, as suggested by lin. This is also inspired by the fact that I’m 1 year in New Zealand and thus in my current job. And although everything started out fabulous, I’m having a bit of a low on work currently. Probably induced by the fieldwork and the unimaginable mount of samples waiting to be processed.
1) independence. Nobody telling me what to do, but the trust that I’ll get the job done by myself
2) a friendly non-competitive atmosphere
3) no strict work times or control over what to do when
4) recognition of what I do
5) opportunities of getting somewhere (travel-wise and career-wise)
6) a balance in computer-lab-fieldwork (which is NOT 33% computer, 33%lab and 33%fieldwork obviously, more a weighed balance of 60% computer, 30%lab, 9% fieldwork preparations and 1% fieldwork)
Overall I think I’m not doing very bad with my job. I only miss the complete freedom I had in Freiburg, compared to an Ian who constantly talks about Nature and Science papers, high impact papers, keeping the paper-motor running, and obviously his preaching on working harder in the field and spending too much money on analyses. I had another slight misunderstanding with him when we discussed analyses and he basically said “we don’t have the money”. Although a few weeks ago he was telling me I should nail down (analyze) ALL possible things to test my hypothesis to make it Nature-material.
I’m not sure if science is the thing for me. The constant struggle for time, money and recognition. And I just don’t really care quite enough. I’m excited about my work, but at the end of the day, it’s worthless to me. Just something I enjoy more than something else for the time being.
This brings me to my recent struggles with the job. I am sick and tired of doing everything with nothing. And I don’t care about Nature papers. I just want to do some science, run some experiments, tests some hypotheses, write it down and send it to an appropriate journal. If that is the NZ journal of hobby soil scientists with impact factor -10, so be it. This is also where Ian and I need to sit down and talk a bit better, because he is an ecologist and I am a soil scientist and he publishes in ecology journals and I in soil journals. When he yells at me “My latest paper in Ecology Letters got published!” I have no idea why he is so excited, I’ve never heard of the journal and it sounds silly. Letters about Ecology?! Similarly, he was about to turn down a postdoc application because the woman had published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry and he’d never heard of it. “ehm, it’s ranked number 1 in soil science… ” I said.
Anyway, this was not supposed to be another complaining post about Ian. I still like him a lot and it is great to work with him, just tiresome. But who isn’t tiresome to work with. I’m probably driving him crazy too.
Lately I was thinking how the year has been in New Zealand. I realized it was a year of strange “firsts”. No, I’m not even talking about my first (and second) major earthquake.
It is the first time I haven’t seen my family and friends for more than 10 months. The first time I haven’t been to any other country in a year.
That last part actually bothered me a bit especially at first. The first six months here were in fact pretty boring. I was just at home all the time. I did some fieldwork, I did some hiking and exploring, but not much. Mostly at home, reading. I really missed going someplace else, a different culture, different habits. I think I got used to NZ pretty fast and felt stuck on the islands. Isolated and slowly going mad.
But with Thomas, the earthquakes, the trips we’ve made together, the people we’ve met, things haven’t been boring lately. Although I still feel island-panic. Nowhere to go. Left all alone.
Therefore it will be good to see my friends and go on a little trip, even when it is just more of the same island.
1) independence. Nobody telling me what to do, but the trust that I’ll get the job done by myself
2) a friendly non-competitive atmosphere
3) no strict work times or control over what to do when
4) recognition of what I do
5) opportunities of getting somewhere (travel-wise and career-wise)
6) a balance in computer-lab-fieldwork (which is NOT 33% computer, 33%lab and 33%fieldwork obviously, more a weighed balance of 60% computer, 30%lab, 9% fieldwork preparations and 1% fieldwork)
Overall I think I’m not doing very bad with my job. I only miss the complete freedom I had in Freiburg, compared to an Ian who constantly talks about Nature and Science papers, high impact papers, keeping the paper-motor running, and obviously his preaching on working harder in the field and spending too much money on analyses. I had another slight misunderstanding with him when we discussed analyses and he basically said “we don’t have the money”. Although a few weeks ago he was telling me I should nail down (analyze) ALL possible things to test my hypothesis to make it Nature-material.
I’m not sure if science is the thing for me. The constant struggle for time, money and recognition. And I just don’t really care quite enough. I’m excited about my work, but at the end of the day, it’s worthless to me. Just something I enjoy more than something else for the time being.
This brings me to my recent struggles with the job. I am sick and tired of doing everything with nothing. And I don’t care about Nature papers. I just want to do some science, run some experiments, tests some hypotheses, write it down and send it to an appropriate journal. If that is the NZ journal of hobby soil scientists with impact factor -10, so be it. This is also where Ian and I need to sit down and talk a bit better, because he is an ecologist and I am a soil scientist and he publishes in ecology journals and I in soil journals. When he yells at me “My latest paper in Ecology Letters got published!” I have no idea why he is so excited, I’ve never heard of the journal and it sounds silly. Letters about Ecology?! Similarly, he was about to turn down a postdoc application because the woman had published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry and he’d never heard of it. “ehm, it’s ranked number 1 in soil science… ” I said.
Anyway, this was not supposed to be another complaining post about Ian. I still like him a lot and it is great to work with him, just tiresome. But who isn’t tiresome to work with. I’m probably driving him crazy too.
Lately I was thinking how the year has been in New Zealand. I realized it was a year of strange “firsts”. No, I’m not even talking about my first (and second) major earthquake.
It is the first time I haven’t seen my family and friends for more than 10 months. The first time I haven’t been to any other country in a year.
That last part actually bothered me a bit especially at first. The first six months here were in fact pretty boring. I was just at home all the time. I did some fieldwork, I did some hiking and exploring, but not much. Mostly at home, reading. I really missed going someplace else, a different culture, different habits. I think I got used to NZ pretty fast and felt stuck on the islands. Isolated and slowly going mad.
But with Thomas, the earthquakes, the trips we’ve made together, the people we’ve met, things haven’t been boring lately. Although I still feel island-panic. Nowhere to go. Left all alone.
Therefore it will be good to see my friends and go on a little trip, even when it is just more of the same island.
