Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The perfect job ???

What is my "perfect" job? I wonder if one even exists.

Today I thought the following job sounded pretty good. I will have a number of friends on the market for faculty positions in the next couple years. When they start their new labs, I think they could all use someone to perform the following functions:

1) grant/paper editing
2) grad student experimental training
3) lab management (as in organization and ordering)
4) technical troubleshooter

These are 4 things I am very good at. I can't do my own experiments to save my own life, but I'm great at giving advice, showing people the ropes, and keeping things in good running order. The kicker is that I'm good at editing, not only that I enjoy it, and I think that's a skill I should figure out how to market to someone or some institution.

This job doesn't officially exist, and I'd be hard pressed to find just anyone that would be willing to hire someone with a PhD and postdoc experience to do it (they would have to pay me too much money). But I might be able to convince one of my friends that investing in someone to keep their lab-boat sailing smoothly over the short- and long-term would be wise.

Would working with (or for) a friend be problematic though?

1 comment:

Geoffrey said...

You are fantastic at editing. You are a writing GOD!

The job you've described is a Sr. Research Associate. It does exist. I work with one. That's basically her job description.