Day in the Life of an Academic #6: new job

This is quite an unusual ‘day in the life of an academic’ blogpost, as it focuses on the first day at my new job and, admittedly, changing jobs is not something that I do frequently.

 

This is what I got up to last Wednesday, November 16^th.

 

I got up at 6am, as usual. Though, this time, it wasn’t to do some writing in the early morning. Instead, it was to get myself and the household organised so that I could leave to London, for my first day at Brunel University. I joined Brunel as a Reader in Marketing (somewhere between an associate professor and a full professor, in the North American system).

 

I want to try different commuting options and, today, I opted for public transport. I am planning to use public transport for a few weeks, to see if it works. The plan is to do some work on the way in, and then relax with a podcast on the way back. This means that I may need to add a few podcasts to my list. Do you have any good suggestions?

 

First, I took a bus. The journey wasn’t too bad, but as I don’t cope well with reading on the bus, instead I thought about possible projects for a research funding call that I came across, and made some notes for it.

After the bus, I got the tube and, from there, I walked. It was pleasant, but it did mean that, overall, I spent close to two hours getting there, which is completely unsustainable. I need to look into other options.

My first stop was the Human Resources department. While I was waiting for my induction to officially start, I sent off some e-mails related to the idea for the research project that I mulled over during the bus journey. I also read a paper about information sharing on different social media platforms, and how the volume and type of content shared varies with the size of the network. Quite interesting – I must blog and snapchat about it.

 

By half past three induction was over and I was, finally, settling down in my office. I went around the floor introducing myself to my new colleagues. One of my new colleagues gave me a couple of plants for my office -how nice was that?!

 

I also realised that I had completely forgotten about lunch. So, I went outside to get some food. Though, at time of the day, there weren’t many appetizing options. So, I ended up having some yoghurt and muesli. After that, I went back to my office and did some more reading for a paper that I am working on.

 

Then, at about 6ish, I headed to London for another unusual twist on my already unusual day: a reception at the Embassy of Portugal, with the Portuguese ambassador and the President of Republic.

 

So, that was my big day. I am looking forward to reading your podcast recommendations.