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livNow I actually have a contract in hand, I can talk about this online: I have the most exciting new job, starting on Monday. I'm going to be working in genomics education, as Education Manager for the online courses programme.
This is basically exactly where I hoped to end up when I took the gamble of moving away from my tenured academic job to work on an educational project. I needed to fill a gap in my CV and be in a position to demonstrate successful leadership. It got a bit scary for most of 2019, because I did indeed successfully lead a project, but I didn't have a job lined up when the original project finished in February, and then I got a 5 month extension, and I still didn't have a job lined up at the end of that five months. I didn't completely lose heart, because I was able to apply for interesting and more senior education jobs as I'd hoped, and I was sometimes getting shortlisted, but then again I was only finding relevant job ads about once a month, and being second choice is good for the ego but it doesn't amount to actually having a job.
So I left my job when my contract ended at the end of July, and I have had really quite a nice two month break. A bit like those long summer vacations you get as a child, though I ended up with so many grown-up responsibilities that I don't quite know how I would have managed if I'd also been working full time...
Anyway, about a month ago my former line manager and close colleague sent me this job advert for a dream job I hadn't quite realized existed. The thing is that as a little kid I was completely obsessed with genetics, certainly from the age of about 3 when I got distracted from learning about where babies come from because I was much more interested in how they resemble their parents and how they develop from a single cell. In the 90s I glommed on to all the popular stuff about genetics and the race to sequence the human genome, which was especially prominent growing up in Cambridge in the shadow of the Sanger Institute. I was in the middle of a biochemistry degree when the actual human genome sequence was announced, and I continued to hope that I might one day get to work on something that exciting.
And I did get the chance to pursue biology research for about 15 years, a PhD with another of my childhood heroes, a post-doc at the Karolinska, and then a tenured job at Keele. That was an amazing joy in many ways, but also I'm not cut out to be a traditional academic; I love the research, but I hate applying for grants and dealing with university politics. The thing is, I've identified as a teacher for just as long as I've wanted to be a scientist, and when the research career didn't work out, I knew I wanted to be doing something related to education. I still can't quite believe that a job exists which requires me to be an education expert and have a serious background in molecular biology.
The plan is that I'm going to be developing a suite of online courses relating to genomics, and integrating them with in-person courses and most excitingly, the international development programme. So I am going to be getting sent out to partner countries in the developing world to help set up genomics education programmes there. It's going to be all about building educational community, too. I do have some geek negativity towards becoming a "manager" rather than the person who actually does stuff, but I'm pretty sure this is the right thing for me because it means I can use my skills in supporting and facilitating, but in a context where I also have respect and prestige.
The interview was kind of ridiculously good, I was building a good rapport with all of the panel and it was obvious I ticked all their boxes perfectly. There was a fair amount of faff with HR, so I've been kind of hinting at having a job but not actually announcing it online until I actually had the contract in hand.
There are a couple of downsides: the Genome Campus is in the middle of nowhere so as a non-driver I'm going to have a bit of a grim commute, I'll have to be on a bus at 8 am sharp every morning. And it's a one year fixed term thing providing cover for the original post-holder who has had to take long-term sick leave. But I'm pretty hopeful that I'll be placed to do something exciting at the end of the year, either extending the post or moving on to something else where the Sanger name and the international experience will open doors.
Heartfelt thanks to everybody who has supported me through the last few years of being uncertain of my career direction.
This is basically exactly where I hoped to end up when I took the gamble of moving away from my tenured academic job to work on an educational project. I needed to fill a gap in my CV and be in a position to demonstrate successful leadership. It got a bit scary for most of 2019, because I did indeed successfully lead a project, but I didn't have a job lined up when the original project finished in February, and then I got a 5 month extension, and I still didn't have a job lined up at the end of that five months. I didn't completely lose heart, because I was able to apply for interesting and more senior education jobs as I'd hoped, and I was sometimes getting shortlisted, but then again I was only finding relevant job ads about once a month, and being second choice is good for the ego but it doesn't amount to actually having a job.
So I left my job when my contract ended at the end of July, and I have had really quite a nice two month break. A bit like those long summer vacations you get as a child, though I ended up with so many grown-up responsibilities that I don't quite know how I would have managed if I'd also been working full time...
Anyway, about a month ago my former line manager and close colleague sent me this job advert for a dream job I hadn't quite realized existed. The thing is that as a little kid I was completely obsessed with genetics, certainly from the age of about 3 when I got distracted from learning about where babies come from because I was much more interested in how they resemble their parents and how they develop from a single cell. In the 90s I glommed on to all the popular stuff about genetics and the race to sequence the human genome, which was especially prominent growing up in Cambridge in the shadow of the Sanger Institute. I was in the middle of a biochemistry degree when the actual human genome sequence was announced, and I continued to hope that I might one day get to work on something that exciting.
And I did get the chance to pursue biology research for about 15 years, a PhD with another of my childhood heroes, a post-doc at the Karolinska, and then a tenured job at Keele. That was an amazing joy in many ways, but also I'm not cut out to be a traditional academic; I love the research, but I hate applying for grants and dealing with university politics. The thing is, I've identified as a teacher for just as long as I've wanted to be a scientist, and when the research career didn't work out, I knew I wanted to be doing something related to education. I still can't quite believe that a job exists which requires me to be an education expert and have a serious background in molecular biology.
The plan is that I'm going to be developing a suite of online courses relating to genomics, and integrating them with in-person courses and most excitingly, the international development programme. So I am going to be getting sent out to partner countries in the developing world to help set up genomics education programmes there. It's going to be all about building educational community, too. I do have some geek negativity towards becoming a "manager" rather than the person who actually does stuff, but I'm pretty sure this is the right thing for me because it means I can use my skills in supporting and facilitating, but in a context where I also have respect and prestige.
The interview was kind of ridiculously good, I was building a good rapport with all of the panel and it was obvious I ticked all their boxes perfectly. There was a fair amount of faff with HR, so I've been kind of hinting at having a job but not actually announcing it online until I actually had the contract in hand.
There are a couple of downsides: the Genome Campus is in the middle of nowhere so as a non-driver I'm going to have a bit of a grim commute, I'll have to be on a bus at 8 am sharp every morning. And it's a one year fixed term thing providing cover for the original post-holder who has had to take long-term sick leave. But I'm pretty hopeful that I'll be placed to do something exciting at the end of the year, either extending the post or moving on to something else where the Sanger name and the international experience will open doors.
Heartfelt thanks to everybody who has supported me through the last few years of being uncertain of my career direction.
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(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-10 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2019-10-10 05:00 pm (UTC)We actually went to the Genome Campus a couple of weeks ago for one of their Escape Room events for my wife's birthday, and it seemed like it would be a brilliant organisation to be part of. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-10 05:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2019-10-11 06:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-11 10:30 am (UTC)[I'm on campus Mon/Wed/Fri these days, if you'd like to grab coffee at some point]
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-12 12:13 pm (UTC)Also, yay for a job that's got your enthusiasm!
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Date: 2019-10-12 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2019-10-17 02:46 pm (UTC)