- Pro: I have the most glorious office evah. Con: But that is just one of three offices I'm expected to occupy on a regular basis.
- Pro: I have four bosses. That presents an opportunity for major mentorship and collaboration. Con: It runs a major risk of turning into a serious clusterfuck, or alternatively, letting me fall through the cracks.
- Pro: I'm working with people far outside of my field. So far, everyone has been super nice and accommodating. In addition, because I am the only expert in my area in our group, there is no one to second guess me. Thus, at least I feel confident about the things I do know. Con: It's a bit intimidating, and I'm worried about making sure I can pull my weight with these high-tech heavy hitters.
- Pro: They got me a fancy new laptop! Con: It's a mac. So far it's great (so fast! so quiet!) but I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about some of the software I rely upon. That's a real problem.
- Pro: My abs were sore by the end of the week from laughing so much with my new colleagues. Not only are they funny, but they think I'm funny too. Imagine that! Con: These people work crazy, crazy hours and I think they expect that I will too.
- Pro: I get to expand my PhD work into a new area that is right on the bleeding edge of what's being done in the field. Con: I have SO MUCH to learn! Eek!
So far I'm super happy with my job, and really excited to get the science ball rolling. Stay tuned.
12 comments:
When I got a Mac, I was also concerned about the many PC-only programs I rely upon. -- Then I found Parallels. It's a bit cumbersome to setup properly, but is a total lifesaver because it lets you run Windows on a Mac. (The most major drawback is that you do have a shell out the $$ for both the Parallels program and Windows...)
-Long-time reader that rarely posts
What are the windows programs that you can't live without? I second anonymous- you should get Parallels for whatever you can't find a suitable Mac version of, but for me that's just GIS software. I'll gladly help suggest useful Mac programs if you want suggestions! Just ask. I'm sure many of your other readers could help too.
Mac ares AWESOME. you will never go back. if you don't want to shell out the money for Parallels or Fusion, you can just use bootcamp, the drawback being you have to shutdown and restart to switch between windows and mac.
Sounds like an exciting job! 4 bosses, wow, I'm considering a postdoc with 2 bosses and thought that might come with tricky aspects (and good ones, sure!).
I love my mac, but then, I was using 99% Linux and 1% windows before ;)
As a Mac user may I recommend Sun's Virtual Box? I use it to run a Window's XP environment as an app basically, while in the Mac OS. So I can be on my Mac, open all the other stuff it comes with, and then basically have this window open to run anything that requires Windows...I love it. I have a folder on the desktop of my Mac and one on the "desktop" of the virtual box that is shared between the two, and this eliminates the need for rebooting or switching between OS's completely.
I hope you do figure out a way to use the programs you need, and I echo the suggestions in the others' comments. Macs can be wonderful to use, and at least you will not have to worry as much about keeping your laptop running in good condition! I made the switch to Mac 2 years ago and I'm really glad that I did.
Sounds great! I hope the pros will win against the cons ...
And it sounds a bit like how I imagine my postdoc will start (me being the only specialist in my field, 6000 new things to learn, probably a new operating system, and so on). I'm curious to know how you proceed, but you will srely post about it :)
Congratulations, EGM. It sounds like an exciting ride. Glad to hear you can laugh with your co-workers (definite PLUS in my book!)
And four bosses?! Oh, wow... But you'll have four supervisor recommendation letters at the end of it all!
You will settle in. Sounds like there's lots of potential. :)
COngratulations on your new digs! The four bosses...whoa. That's almost one for every office. :) Also, it's great that your co-workers seem so awesome. It's a treat being surrounded by people who are funny AND who think you are funny. Woohoo.
Congrats on the new job! (I haven't found any problems finding mac equivalent programs, but I've heard good things about parallels.) Oh and make sure you check out Papers! Love that program for organizing all my pdfs.
I think it's funny that out of all the stuff I wrote, most of the comments are about the mac! So far I really like it, but I'm still not quite sure about the software issues. Yesterday I did some stuff with the non-mac software I like (on my old computer) and it really impressed my boss, so I'm hoping that will convince them it's worth the money to buy it for me. I'll keep you posted.
I intend to get Papers today!
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