Female Science Prof had a recent post about career/productivity trajectories before and after tenure. My tenure experience was so demoralizing that I definitely had a dip in productivity and motivation, although you could easily not recognize it from my CV unless you were looking for it and knew me well.
And then I decided to have a baby and totally enjoy her post-tenure. Which I have.
But the funny thing about it is that post-baby I am finding that I am working a lot less but doing some bigger things. It is like I found some chutzpah in having a child, or that I don't want to spend my timeaway from her doing rinky dink things. Or maybe I care less about the risk of failure/rejection?
Well, we'll see how I feel about the importance of my work once I finally get this manuscript submitted to kind-of-big journal, which will hopefully be within a couple of weeks and get the nasty reviews back (they flat out rejected a previous paper of mine as not being a topic of broad enough interest, and then promptly turned around 2 months later and published a paper written by big-name-asshole based on the a subset of the exact same population talking about a much smaller point...) Anyway, I finished re-writing the discussion section today so now we are dangerously close to a draft that is good enough to giveto other people for comment!!!
Yay, good luck! I think that the big journals are TOTALLY rigged. There is no way I could get a paper published in them even if I explained everything in the universe, with no error term left over. But the big wigs can publish all the faulty data and non sequitur conclusions that they want. I am just bitter, because I've gotten my share of those reviews (e.g., an editor of PNAS once wrote to me, "these data need to be reexamined by experts in the field"!! As though that isn't what review is FOR??? I mean, could he have said any more clearly that my name just wasn't big enough to publish there?). Anyhoo. I hope you are big-wig enough now to get the paper in the damn journal. Parenting as a job-insecure postdoc comes with its issues, and I'm happy that you and M and baby x are on the tenure side of that fence!
ReplyDeleteVery exciting! Congratulations! It makes sense what you say about not wanting time away from baby to be wasted on insignificant things. If you get your article published, I'd enjoy reading it. :)
ReplyDeleteI guess it makes sense actually that you do more with the time post-baby, because it forces you to be more productive with the time, so you can get back and spend time with her :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the manuscript! I really should be finishing one today and not reading blogs...!
I think having kids puts everything into perspective; many things that seemed so important before no longer are, or simply matter less.
ReplyDeleteI am very ambitious and every rejection (proposal, paper) hits me really hard. But with the kids and my wonderful even-keeled husband I remind myself that I should be unbelievably grateful that I have a steady, secure job that pays well so I can take care of all these wonderful children in my life. Having a proposal rejected then seems trivial...
And there is also the added efficiency when you have kids, which you have noticed. The fact that you have your time constrained makes you more focused during the time you do devote to work!
Fingers crossed about your high profile submission! Kick some butt!
Isn't there some research showing that when people try to work extremely hard they actually get less done? I wonder if that's what was happening here.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the pregnancy.. this is so exciting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post here. I don't care if I don't get NIH funding anymore (yikes!)..well, maybe I care a little. I have my baby and that is my top priority.
Wishing you lots of luck on the submission and hoping you receive mainly positive feedback! Completely understandable that you want to really focus your work if you're away from baby during that time & definitely a pro!
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