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Author here; that's an excellent point, thank you! With this specific post, I wanted to outline how long the road for most of us is...in social media, you only

Author here; that's an excellent point, thank you! With this specific post, I wanted to outline how long the road for most of us is...in social media, you only see the big hits; here, you also get a glimpse behind the scenes. But I should also stress that this is not the end of the road for me, so I expect that more posts on balance and demands will come!

kleiba 5y ago
Congratulations on scoring that job, though. I'm in a similar position that you were in but by the looks of it will now be forced out of academia after >20 years due to lack of short-term funding, and no permanent position in sight. That idea didn't scare me in my 20's but now with three kids, a wife, and a mortgage, it is nerve wrecking. Also, I cannot as easily pack up and move to a different city now which in academia seems to be expected, unless you're tenured.
- Topolomancer 5y ago
  Thanks a lot! I am sorry to hear stories such as yours...this is indeed a massive problem in many research areas. FWIW: if you want to reach out, I'd be happy to give you my opinion and maybe some inside scoop on the Swiss/German systems if that is helpful.
  - kleiba 5y ago
    Thanks. If you're really interested in helping others out and since you're located in Germany, I suggest to get involved in the following initiative: https://mittelbau.net/ https://mittelbau.net/
    - Topolomancer 5y ago
      Will check it out, thanks! BTW: I also tried to get one of these position in Switzerland. No success...they are quite rare :(
nextos 5y ago
You have a nice CV, IMHO certainly good enough for a PI position. I must say that many rejections or ghostings will come from positions that have been advertised but in reality have some predefined candidate in mind... I am surprised some interviewers commented on the lack of journal (vs conference) publications. This might come from their ignorance about ML publication structure, which is very different I am interested in applying to Helmholtz for a PI position as well next year. Can you comment on the overall process there. Did you find the place attractive? Have you considered EBI/Sanger and BDI@Oxford?
- Topolomancer 5y ago
  Thanks for your kind comments :) I was also surprised by the questions I got---this was only one place though, and I have some more 'salty' points to make privately. Suffice it to say that the interview process in that particular place was not nice for many reasons. Concerning your other question, feel free to reach out to me for more details :) What I can say briefly is that the process was (a) very quick, (b) very efficient, and (c) very friendly. Essentially, they screened candidates and quickly invited 10 of them to a scientific symposium day (online). We then had interviews with a larger audience as well as one-on-one interviews. All in all, the total selection process took about 3 weeks. People were extremely open and interesting. Truth be told, I anticipated that I would not have a great chance at such a place; for me, this opportunity is highly appreciated because of the research centre structure---this makes certain things like funding acquisition easier than when being embedded at a university. So, yeah, the offer was extremely enticing! EBI and BDI were not on my list at this point; I don't think they had vacancies at my level. I would have considered them as well, even though I am only aware of BDI so far...

kleiba 5y ago

Congratulations on scoring that job, though. I'm in a similar position that you were in but by the looks of it will now be forced out of academia after >20 years due to lack of short-term funding, and no permanent position in sight. That idea didn't scare me in my 20's but now with three kids, a wife, and a mortgage, it is nerve wrecking. Also, I cannot as easily pack up and move to a different city now which in academia seems to be expected, unless you're tenured.

Topolomancer 5y ago
Thanks a lot! I am sorry to hear stories such as yours...this is indeed a massive problem in many research areas. FWIW: if you want to reach out, I'd be happy to give you my opinion and maybe some inside scoop on the Swiss/German systems if that is helpful.
- kleiba 5y ago
  Thanks. If you're really interested in helping others out and since you're located in Germany, I suggest to get involved in the following initiative: https://mittelbau.net/ https://mittelbau.net/
  - Topolomancer 5y ago
    Will check it out, thanks! BTW: I also tried to get one of these position in Switzerland. No success...they are quite rare :(

nextos 5y ago

You have a nice CV, IMHO certainly good enough for a PI position. I must say that many rejections or ghostings will come from positions that have been advertised but in reality have some predefined candidate in mind... I am surprised some interviewers commented on the lack of journal (vs conference) publications. This might come from their ignorance about ML publication structure, which is very different I am interested in applying to Helmholtz for a PI position as well next year. Can you comment on the overall process there. Did you find the place attractive? Have you considered EBI/Sanger and BDI@Oxford?

Topolomancer 5y ago
Thanks for your kind comments :) I was also surprised by the questions I got---this was only one place though, and I have some more 'salty' points to make privately. Suffice it to say that the interview process in that particular place was not nice for many reasons. Concerning your other question, feel free to reach out to me for more details :) What I can say briefly is that the process was (a) very quick, (b) very efficient, and (c) very friendly. Essentially, they screened candidates and quickly invited 10 of them to a scientific symposium day (online). We then had interviews with a larger audience as well as one-on-one interviews. All in all, the total selection process took about 3 weeks. People were extremely open and interesting. Truth be told, I anticipated that I would not have a great chance at such a place; for me, this opportunity is highly appreciated because of the research centre structure---this makes certain things like funding acquisition easier than when being embedded at a university. So, yeah, the offer was extremely enticing! EBI and BDI were not on my list at this point; I don't think they had vacancies at my level. I would have considered them as well, even though I am only aware of BDI so far...