Bean-Mom interviewed me! Here are her questions and my responses.

1. If you weren't in science, what do you think you'd be doing?

It's difficult to picture myself doing something totally outside of science. However, it's possible to imagine a fulfilling career doing something besides research. For example, I could see myself working for a consulting firm or regulatory agency. In the last couple of years I've thought about having a business that provides professional development training for scientists. I envision such a business being something like the dissertation coach's job, but I'd expand beyond dissertations to time management, career strategy, and all the other things we regularly talk about on our blogs. I'm not sure what kind of training or qualifications I'd need to pull that off.

I have a list of dream jobs, but most of them are not things I think I would/could actually pursue. Maybe financial advisor.

2. What's your dream job?

Professional dancer. I imagine it every day. After that, it's voice over actor, professional development coach for scientists, and financial advisor.

3. Okay, you've just defended your thesis and as a reward your fairy science godmother is going to give you an all expenses paid month vacation to do whatever you wish. Trekking in the Himalayas, chilling on a beach, exploring Europe with ecogeoman.... whatever. Also, you can bring along whomever you want (fairy godmother will pay for them too). What would you do and who would you bring?

That's easy. I'd go to Far Off Land with EGM and whoever else wanted to come along for part of the time. In fact, we're trying to find a way to take an extended visit there in the next year. I have a major fantasy wherein we graduate, secure post docs, give up our apartment since we'd be moving for post docs anyway, and then spend 2-3 months in Far Off Land. In my fantasy we spend part of our time working on papers lingering from our dissertations and part of our time exploring the country. I'd like to get to know the place a little better and spend more time with his family and friends. I've been trying to save so we can do at least a short trip there, although it's the kind of place where you go for at least 2-3 weeks since the trip takes so much time and money.

4. Name a book that has affected you deeply.

This is tough. The Jungle really stuck with me, especially after I later read Fast Food Nation and discovered all the same hardships and injustices are still at play. For reasons unknown, I'm fascinated by stories set in the Gilded Age, especially those that focus on working class people.

5. What do you think of the city where you are now living? (I ask this because I am familiar with the place, and just curious as to what you think of it!)

I love it here! It's such an exciting place to live. A post doc in our lab once said it feels like the lid is just barely kept on this city -- that it's on the verge of chaos at any moment, but in a mostly good way. I think part of that comes from the diversity -- I can see women in burqas in the grocery store, same-sex couples walking down the street holding hands, a whole spectrum of skin colors in classes at my university -- which means there is lots of different stuff going on all the time.

Because of that (and because of the huge market here), you can find almost any activity or food you can imagine. Best of all, lots of it is in walking distance. I live smack in the middle of the kind of super livable neighborhood that Ruchi recently described. I love that there is good public transit (although I hate actually taking it). I feel like the city is very accessible -- easy to get around, hard to get lost in -- and that it was easy to find ourselves a little nest within it.

However, I've been thinking about this question a lot lately as I start to investigate potential post doc opportunities. There are so many things I love here, but the city has major drawbacks as well and those are starting to grate on me. The winter weather blows. A little topography would be nice. It's really expensive, so I feel like a lot of the cool stuff to do is out of reach. And although I said it was easy to find a little space for us, it has been difficult to make friends here. People from the university are so spread out that it's impractical to hang out with some of the students I'd like to build relationships with. It's easy to get lost in the crowd. But mostly, I'm really sick of my commute. Furthermore, I feel like it takes forever to get anywhere. And it's so damn hard to get out of the city to natural areas. Once you do, they are crowded with everyone else from the city. It'd be really cool to live someplace where a nice hike would be a day trip instead of a long weekend with reservations required three months in advance. Thus, I'm torn about whether I'd like to stay here longer or move on for the next stage of my career. Not that I think I'll have much control over it.

Thanks to Bean-Mom for the interesting questions! Readers, if would like me to interview you, let me know in the comments.