Becoming an assistant professor early

[tortuga87]

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It seems that a lot of people who do a research track residency dont end up becoming assistant professors from looking at multiple alumni websites. Many seem to leave research (which is understandable), become forever-fellows, or become clinical/adjunct/adjunct of adjunct of assistant of adjunct professors. On the other hand, there are a few stars who seem to become normal assistant professors very early. Hence the question...

If you wanted to become a research track assistant professor/win a k-award right after residency (so no fellowship), are there any insider ways to do this? For example, defining a clinically applicable research direction early on, going into a new field, doing less basic and more translational work, applying for many fellowships all the time?

 

[gutonc]

Wear your kneepads and crotchless underwear.

 

[debateg]

I only know of one person who successfully pulled this off. He finished medical school, did not go to residency, and started on a postdoc immediately. During his postdoc, he did mostly computational work that was very unique at the institution. In the process, he began collaborating with dozens of PIs and got quite a few grants, which necessitated him hiring more people to assist him. He got institutional support to do this prior to his postdoc because there was obviously a need to provide the services he could. By the time his postdoc was done, he had essentially founded his own lab with something like a ten people working for him. Now he has a lab of some 30 computational biologists.

While in fields like computer science, you can go from PhD to professor, I do not think this is possible without a postdoc anymore though in biology. I have a PhD-only friend who had an incredibly successful PhD with lots of collaborations and is the only guy at my institution who can do certain techniques, also in high demand. The chair of the department promised to hire him into a fast track to faculty quasi-postdoc, and he took it. Three years later, the chair has backed out of his offer and he is miserable as a postdoc going nowhere. I also know two residents who have managed to somehow carve out a lot of protected time during their residency to essentially do a post-doc then, but they are in derm and neurology, where fellowships are not the default path. It's unclear how exactly their careers will play out.

 

[dl2dp2]

It seems that a lot of people who do a research track residency dont end up becoming assistant professors from looking at multiple alumni websites. Many seem to leave research (which is understandable), become forever-fellows, or become clinical/adjunct/adjunct of adjunct of assistant of adjunct professors. On the other hand, there are a few stars who seem to become normal assistant professors very early. Hence the question...

If you wanted to become a research track assistant professor/win a k-award right after residency (so no fellowship), are there any insider ways to do this? For example, defining a clinically applicable research direction early on, going into a new field, doing less basic and more translational work, applying for many fellowships all the time?

You are not thinking about this the right way. If one wants to be a clinician, there's no advantage to become an assistant professor, and an adjunct professor position with more time to make $$ as a clinician or developing administrative experience is much more important. If you want to be a researcher, being a fellow is actually not a bad idea because it delays your tenure clock.

You can go on the market at any time for a basic science job in academia--just provide a CV that is comparable to other candidates' on the market. If you have that CV, a lot of funding will be accessible to you (i.e. K99, NIH early independence, VA, large foundation grants etc.. But the minute you hit that job, your tenure clock starts, and you need an R01 soonish. The entire advantage of a K level award is that you have 4-5 more years to apply for an R01 while you work as a AP/superpostdoc, with a MD level salary. In the medical center system, being continuously funded by grants is basically all that is necessary to get "tenured", which simply means that in case your grant doesn't come through, they'll make every effort to create a clinical position for you, which may or may not be desirable at that point.

I encourage you to think about your life after MD/PhD not in terms of advancing to specific academic ranks but as cycles of pitching ideas to get funding and getting funding to do research and publishing the research. This is because currently the medical center system does not usually have hard money research faculty jobs, except for very rare endowed positions. The academic rank system puts an additional time constraint to getting funding, but ultimately it's always about the funding. Think in terms of when do I get a K, when do I get my first R, when do I get my second R, when do I get my first R renewed etc.

Now looking back the only thing I see that makes becoming an assistant professor "early" attractive is the salary level, which is usually 30-40k more than a fellow (at least). But that's a separate issue.

I realized that it would be nice to be in a job sort of like a humanities professor, where you match after PhD to a tenure track position, then just cruise until tenure review, without having to worry about grants and stuff, and just focus on writing and teaching. But the biomedical research enterprise is just a different beast.

 

[Neuronix]

I encourage you to think about your life after MD/PhD not in terms of advancing to specific academic ranks but as cycles of pitching ideas to get funding and getting funding to do research and publishing the research. This is because currently the medical center system does not usually have hard money research faculty jobs, except for very rare endowed positions. The academic rank system puts an additional time constraint to getting funding, but ultimately it's always about the funding. Think in terms of when do I get a K, when do I get my first R, when do I get my second R, when do I get my first R renewed etc.

Now looking back the only thing I see that makes becoming an assistant professor "early" attractive is the salary level, which is usually 30-40k more than a fellow (at least). But that's a separate issue.

I think sluox is right on. tortuga, you are getting hung up on titles. An "assistant professor" title may come with low salary, no startup resources, and not be on tenure track at some institutions. So what is the difference between assistant professor and instructor? None. It's just a name.

If you are interested in fast-tracking into a research career as a principal investigator, you have to be lucky and charismatic/brown-nosing. The fastest paths are going to depend on the specialty. For example, in radiation oncology we have the "Holman Pathway" residencies which give 1.5 years of protected research time in residency. This is probably not enough time to obtain significant research funding, so you're probably going to be looking at trying to get a K-award at 1-2 years into your fellow/instructor/assistant professor position. Want to speed that up? Tailor your PhD research to the field of interest and hopefully get lucky enough to be able to continue it or related research in the future. If you can continue along an arc for several years from PhD through a research residency you *could* be in a position to obtain significant funding for your first year after residency. But, it's still unlikely. There are a lot of obstacles involved, some of which are out of your control.

In other specialties you have to complete a fellowship to start getting funded. For example, in internal medicine, the first 3 years are largely clinical, though you can fast-track to get to fellowship sooner. Again, that 2 years of research time in fellowship may not be enough to get that K-award, so you're again looking at hopefully obtaining your first significant funding 1-2 years into your extended fellowship/instructor/assistant professor position.

That's if you're lucky. If the funding doesn't materialize or your research doesn't work out, then you could easily end up in forever fellow/instructor land. It's quite common these days. The physician-investigator path can be considered a "leaky" pipeline because physician-scientist trainees are lost at all levels due to significant roadblocks. This is why I always tell students to get through their PhD as quickly as possible. It's unpopular on these boards, but I generally recommend getting started on the MD/PhD program sooner rather than taking years off. You may get stalled later, that research work after the MD/PhD program is more important for launching your future career, and in the end there's only so much time in life.

 

[gbwillner]

...

Now looking back the only thing I see that makes becoming an assistant professor "early" attractive is the salary level, which is usually 30-40k more than a fellow (at least). But that's a separate issue.

I realized that it would be nice to be in a job sort of like a humanities professor, where you match after PhD to a tenure track position, then just cruise until tenure review, without having to worry about grants and stuff, and just focus on writing and teaching. But the biomedical research enterprise is just a different beast.

Sloux is right on. It is not difficult to get an Asst Prof job without a research fellowship. You just won't get time/space/funds from the department. You need to earn those by showing that you are productive with both papers and grants. yes, getting a K08 is like a golden ticket for a research heavy Asst prof job. But those don't grow on trees. You need papers and preliminary data to get a K. Most people have to wait 2 cycles before actually getting one, provided their submission is a fundable score.

Don't think as the post-doc or instructor position as purgatory. Think of it as bonus time for you to come up with ideas, papers, and grants to propel you into your first real job. It sucks that this is the way it is now, but there really is no other way.