I Heart Industry: Week 1 Recap

"It's going to be an adjustment!" Many people told me gleefully. "No more sleeping in or taking naps or working from home! It's 8-5 for you from now on, so enjoy the money because you're going to have to earn it!"

I did worry, frankly. My penchant for keeping flexible hours and having periods of high productivity followed by days of rest has been long-standing and much enjoyed. But when I left early the other day, Adam responded that it was no problem. So, today, I just asked one of the women in my group how it worked.

"People arrive between 8 and 10, I'd say," she replied. "Leave around 5 most of the time. But we don't work 40 hours. After things pick up, you'll be here longer and take work home."

"Are we allowed to work from home?" I asked, heart fluttering with hope.

"Of course," she replied. "If we have a lot of writing to do, you'll often see emails come in that somebody is going to be home for the day and only available via email and cell phone. It's very normal."

"So it's not a strict schedule?" I confirmed hopefully and she shook her head firmly.

"It's very deadline driven though," she warned. "So you'll run into problems if you can't get projects done on time. Otherwise," she shrugged, "work how you work, be open to suggestions and you'll be fine."

I love it here.

In terms of other first impressions, since I'm apparently alone in enjoying personal drama from some bloggers and you people actually like me when I'm content, there is a definite hierarchy. And degrees mean very, very little. In fact, nobody's asked at all about my education so my typical conversational openings of 'where'd you study?' or 'who'd you work for?' are inappropriate and haven't been used. Instead, it's very profit driven and deferring to the leadership is what we do. Which, honestly, is fine with me.

I guess I always struggled with the subjectivity of academic research. If two or three people don't like your paper, no publication for you. If five or six people can't agree you're done, you don't get a degree. Funding agencies are playing different games because they're under tight budgets and it's always seemed a little opaque and scary to me.

Here, in contrast to my post-doc, I walked in with the blessing of the Important Ones. We've either met or had a phone conversation and they're warm, but quick - Important Ones are Busy! - with their greetings. This environment, for some reason, is also much easier for me to read. I can see the power structure very clearly and I find that, perhaps naively so, comforting.

The diversity within the pool of talent is staggering. I hear multiple languages every day as conversations go on outside my office. Even the different artwork and pieces of clothing reflect tastes from many, many countries. Yet there is at least a superficial willingness to all work together. Even if the goal is profit, it's one we share and so you don't find people chasing first authorships as much as good performance reviews. And how you play with others is part of that so the people who grow important tend to be good at it.

People wear jeans and t-shirts. Others wear suits and ties and beautiful shoes. I will confess that I found a memo when I was cleaning out my desk. The previous occupant apparently favored rather loud shirts and was asked to tone it down a bit when customers were around. I made a note to check my wardrobe, realized I don't own anything wild and crazy and nodded happily. I rather like dressing up for work, though I am running out of variety pretty quickly. But that's working out beautifully too.

We're much less independent than academics though. It doesn't bother me in the least, but that set of warnings does seem to hold true, at least in my initial impression. I suppose I'd argue that scientists outside industry are lately being forced to work on fundable problems. But given that you're able to devise one of those, you're good to go. I've been a student and postdoctoral trainee though - I worked on what I was told anyway. It seems better to get a cool title and lots more money to do it.

A job decision a personal choice, obviously - we're all trying to work on something we love. An endeavor we see as worthwhile and valuable. I wanted to spend my days with people I considered bright, funny and kind. I wanted to earn a salary that afforded me a house and new car with enough left over to be comfortable. I was excited about the ability to travel without having to fill out forms and check grant statuses. I'm kind of giddy over the idea of a corporate credit card. I'm also put in the position of always learning, which is so utterly cool I sometimes have to just think about how blessed I am. I'm supposed to collect information from all these different sources, keep up with new developments, put that information together in a way that makes sense for my particular division.

The mentoring component of academic research always gave me pause. Perhaps it's because I struggled so much - I really don't know how I'd tell students to tackle grad school or research. Balancing classes with time in the lab is tough. Feeling inadequate and awful - the crises of confidence - are painful and I hate them, but I never did figure out an avoidance strategy. I went through several periods of depression - I got little done, cried a lot and stopped answering calls and emails. Hell, I did the same thing in my post-doc. So the thought of being responsible for someone while he/she was going through that always worried me. I tend to be better at nurturing than pushing and that's not always the best way to motivate people.

While I'm sure there will be bad days, I feel lucky - hugely and profoundly blessed - that I'm here. And that I like it. I was worried, of course. I am Katie. But it's even better than I expected. So fear not what ye do not know! Industry is rather awesome so far.