Mid-Career Researcher, huh?

Abstract

You just got promoted to Associate Professor. Like most things in life, whether joys or sorrows, the joy of this accomplishment will not last forever. However, that doesn't mean that you should not look back and reflect on years of hard work and tenacity that you have put in which have earned you this promotion, so first of all, congratulations! Take a moment to savor this accomplishment. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to not ask the question, what just changed about me. Let's see. You now have tenure and you have been promoted to a senior rank. In one sense, that translates to less stress, but in another, you do have to wonder whether it necessarily does mean less stress. On the flip side, you should also take advantage of the opportunity to ask, what are some new freedoms I have just earned. The stress component is driven by partly knowing, but also partly being unsure of, the expectations from a newly minted Associate Professor. The freedom component stems from knowing that you are now tenured, which hopefully means that you can embark on more daring, high risk projects, even if you don't feel like you know quite how to negotiate the trade-off between risk and impact.