First day at work: more

Conclusion to my first day at my new job:

Went back upstairs at 8:30am. A handful of people were there; filled out paperwork.

Met with the main manager guy. His philosophy for research assistants is to give everyone three projects: a short-term, "personally owned" project that's over pretty quickly; a larger, group project; and a grant application. That way, the R.A. gains experience with all stages of the process. Seems like a good mentoring strategy to me. :)

My short-term "my project" is a survey examining "family-friendly" workplace policies. The larger project (or rather, one nearing completion) is an public relations survey for a large corporation (i.e. asking the locals how they feel about the factory). No grants, as of yet.

Also, when things settle down a bit here, I'll probably be handed three or four data sets and asked to see if I can find possible research papers embedded within. Neat-o!!!

As I mentioned, I'm officially four days a week. Specifically, 8 hrs./day, including clocking out for the 45 minutes of lunch.

Met with the co-director, who said that if I want five days I week, there's enough work to go around. I said that long-term, I'm interested; short-term, I want to use the extra day per week to finish off my Dissertation revisions. He agreed that that would be strategic.

Ran around meeting with people re: the background to the "family friendly" survey: 1pm meeting w/ the co-director; 1:30pm, meeting with another. And today, a 9am meeting with one person, 10am with another. Plus, introduce myself to one more person, and set up a meeting with her.

So, already in the thick of things... :)


Was in a remarkably good mood all yesterday, including the evening. I guess I must enjoy being part of a larger thing, something bigger than myself. Makes me feel important, usefu. (And something that's not my dissertation!!!) ;)


--GG