Thread by @stuartcantrill

As part of #YoungScientistNetworking (thanks to @QuantumTessera for organizing this) I'm going to share my career journey; this will be a (very) long thread & personal in parts in an attempt to put some of the decisions into context (1/n)

I did pretty well in high school, but the last few years were tough; my Dad died when I was 15 and, at 17, I broke my leg in a car accident (it's all good now & I wasn't the driver BTW). But thinking long & hard about my future just didn't seem like a priority at the time (2/n)

I applied to universities but was not able to visit them (hard with a broken leg), so I picked something I thought I would enjoy based on my A-levels (non-Brits might need to Google that). I ended up at The University of Birmingham doing a Physics & Astrophysics degree (3/n)

I just don't think I was ready though; it was all quite overwhelming and I dropped out after a week. I didn't like the look of the course, but more than that, I think the trauma of the previous few years finally surfaced. I went back home (4/n)

I applied again to a bunch of different universities for a range of subjects (not physics though; sorry physics) and went on actual university visits. A year after I first left there, I went back to the University of Birmingham and figured I'd try chemistry next... (5/n)

My first chemistry lecture was from @sirfrasersays (yes, really) and I was hooked from that point. I spent summers working in his lab and, in my final year, I wandered into his office and asked if I could do a PhD with him (6/n)

He said 'yes'. And then he said 'but'.

He told me to check out research groups at other universities to make sure that this was the right choice for me; maybe I should broaden my horizons?

The thing is, I was so sure this was what I wanted, I didn't do that (sorry Fraser) (7/n)

And so, I began my PhD in chemistry in Birmingham and assumed I'd be spending another 3 years there.

And then about 6 months after starting, Fraser announced he was moving the group to @uclachem... (8/n)

There were reasons to go & reasons to stay in the UK. I talked with family & friends... and ultimately decided to go. This meant leaving behind some people who were very close to me (more on that later). But I was off on an adventure... (9/n)

The first 6 months in the US were tough and I missed home. But Fraser (and his late wife Norma) did everything they could to ease the transition for all of the group (including interest-free loans to pay deposits for appartments) (10/n)

I settled down and had a great time at UCLA. I was ultimately gonna head home though and I had a UK-based postdoc position all lined up (something sorted out after chatting with an academic at a conference – the power of networking folks...) (11/n)

And then I met someone and my personal life, not for the last time, had a major influence on my professional life. I was staying in the US & needed a new plan! I started contacting profs at SoCal schools & after initially having no luck, I got an e-mail... (12/n)

Although the first response came back that he had no money, a short time later (pre-Nobel) Bob Grubbs e-mailed me back to say he now had money and would I like to join his group at Caltech?

Yes. Yes I would. (13/n)

Even though it was only across town (in LA terms), I found moving from PhD to postdoc tough at first. Don't get me wrong, the Grubbs group were lovely, but it felt like I was starting all over again. Learning new names, new chemistry. It took a while to settle in (14/n)

It was also a strange time in the world; the Sept 11th attacks happened during my first 6 months in the Grubbs group. To this day, I remember the 1st group meeting after it happening and @JenLoveChem suggesting a moment of silence before we began (15/n)

I made some great friends while at Caltech, did learn some new chemistry and got to see that there are different ways to run a research group (Bob & Fraser were very different in this regard). But after ~18 months or so it was time to think about what was next... (16/n)

I forget the exact details, but I think someone in Bob's group applied to the synthesis group at a biotech company not too far from Pasadena & although they were offered the job, it wasn't the only offer they received & they chose a different path. (17/n)

I was put in touch with the head of that synthesis group (a former Caltech postdoc) & was encouraged to apply for this still-open position. And so I did. Interview seemed to go well & I was called & told they were putting an offer together for me! (18/n)

It started dragging on though & an offer never came. Turns out that not long after my interview, the biotech company canned its entire synthesis group. I mean, that's an extreme way of turning me down, but hey 😂 – seriously, glad my interview was not a few months earlier! (19/n)

So, what now? Not long afterwards I a saw teaching-faculty position advertised in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal State Northridge. Applied, got an interview and it went well. Had a few follow-up chats & thought this might be the one (20/n)

At roughly the same time, @sirfrasersays contacted me about running an office of Organic Letters for him at UCLA, which would be 50% of my time, topped up with a teaching role & a position in the California NanoSystems Institute (21/n)

Did I want to go back to UCLA or strike out on my own? Turns out the decision was made far easier when the then Chair of the CSUN chem dept called to offer me the job. They would not give me time to consider the offer; I was asked to give a yes/no right there on the call! (22/n)

To this day, I remember my answer:

"If you need a yes or no answer now, then the answer is no."

No time to think it over, let alone any chance to negotiate. And did I want to work somewhere where there was a chance that that's how people were treated more generally? (23/n)

I appreciate I had the luxury of saying no because I had another option; but I still had a little time left on my 2-year postdoc contract, so I think I would still have said no and carried on looking even if I hadn't had the UCLA option (24/n)

So, I took the UCLA offer & my first job in editorial: running Fraser's Org Lett office. I also organized events & wrote reports for the NanoSystems Inst, taught intro organic to classes of 300 and also supervised undergrads doing research in Fraser's labs (25/n)

After a couple of years back at UCLA, my personal circumstances changed again... and I no longer had a compelling reason to stay in the US. I was also doing 4 different jobs and I figured it was time to nail down an actual career... (26/n)

I really enjoyed the editorial work I was doing and so figured this might be a good way forward. Someone I knew well at the @RoySocChem let me know of three open positions there & also this new journal called @NatureNano was being launched & they needed editors (27/n)

I applied to both and scheduled interviews back in the UK, just returning back to UCLA the day before I started teaching my Fall class. I thought both interviews had gone well (there's a funny story about the Nature one I'll save for now), so I waited for news... (28/n)

The RSC got back to me pretty quickly (thanks, but no thanks), but I had better news from @NatureNano. They were interested, but they wanted me to have a chat with the chief ed (who had just been recruited himself & so hadn't been part of my interview) (29/n)

So @drpeterrodgers, sitting at his desk at his old job in Bristol (I believe), called me in my teaching office at UCLA & we had a good chat about nanotech & football (soccer). Mostly football, I think. Must have gone well because I was offered an associate editor position (30/n)

I accepted, moved back to the UK at the end of 2005 and started at @NatureNano in January of 2006. It wasn't too long before the idea of a @NatureChemistry was being thrown around and the decision to launch that was taken in 2007 (31/n)

The idea was to launch @NatureChemistry out of our Boston office, but after having left the US not long before, I wasn't keen to go back. I figured I'd apply to be the chief ed anyway, but make it clear in my cover letter that I would want to do it from London (32/n)

Besides, remember when I left the UK for UCLA saying that I left behind someone very close to me, well, not this time. I'd said goodbye to @Vikki_Cantrill once to bugger off to the US, I wasn't about to do it again... (33/n)

I must have said something right in my application; I got offered the Chief Ed position at Nature Chem and was allowed to do it from London. I started early 2008 and it's the job I still have now. (34/n)

I should say @drpeterrodgers was a great boss and encouraged me to apply for the Nature Chem role; he continued to mentor me in my new position while he remained the chief ed at @NatureNano & even once he left Nature Towers (35/n)

What does all this mean? I'm not unusual in that anyone's life is the result of a series of personal and professional decisions. I'm just struck by how different it could have been. I could have been a physicist! I never dreamed I would do a PhD in the US... (36/n)

...I might have ended up in biotech or a teaching position at Cal State Northridge. But no. Even though it took a while, it turns out that I quite enjoy being an editor. Of course, nobody really grows up aspiring to be.... and editor! (37/n)

Being an editor at a scientific journal keeps me close to the science & I get to interact with the scientific community, which I enjoy immensely. I have made some great friends through it. (38/n)

Having said all of that, I'm still not completely sure what I want to do when I grow up.

Thanks for reading what should have been a blogpost. Happy to answer any questions you might have. (39/n)

Tweet 37 should finish 'an editor', not 'and editor'... and because I am an editor, it royally pisses me off that I made that typo. But something else I've learned these last 15 years or so... little mistakes happen & the world continues to turn (40/40)

OK, not the end. First postscript. I didn't do any of this alone. I had great friends, colleagues & mentors along the way. None more so than @sirfrasersays, to whom I will be eternally grateful. Also Bob (Grubbs), RIP. And many more. (41/40)

Postscript 2, prompted by a friend who DM'd me to say: "I was struck by how one personal event 11 years ago didn't feature [in your thread]"; that personal event being the arrival of the crazy bundle of energy that is @theacantrill of course (42/40)

I had already been in the Nature Chem job for more than 2.5 years before Thea was born, so she didn't impact my career path getting to that job, but once she came along, things changed. (How Thea changed @Vikki_Cantrill's career path is for Vikki to tell if she wishes to) (43/40)

Once Thea arrived, I became much more aware of how work had infilitrated my life beyond Mon-Fri and I became much more disciplined in separating the two (the last two years have, of course, blurred things again – for everyone I imagine; thanks COVID) (44/40)

Anyway, I started travelling less, I stopped working on weekends (I never did that much beforehand, but I did some), I deleted my work e-mail account from my phone. Thea's bedtime influenced my commute times. (45/40)

I have also taken 4-week chunks of parental leave; a Governmental scheme we have here in the UK where you can take 18 weeks of unpaid leave from your job in the first 18 years of your child's life. (46/40)

Again, I appreciate I am in a privileged position where I can afford to do that and I am so very grateful that I can and did. Those 4-week stints have been amazing. And the thing I'm looking forward to most in 2022 – another 4-week block in summer! (47/40)

And in a bit of personal/professional life blurring, @theacantrill got to meet a bunch of really interesting people from around the world in the #SocialIsolationSocial events that @DrLCsquare and I ran for much of 2020/21 (48/40)