A year in Cambridge comes to a close

The year in Cambridge has been eventful, both on the personal side and from work perspective. I started thinking I was just a visitor, and would just do my own thing. I felt restless and before I could do anything about it, I was ask to take the lead in S4T project, which was a real surprise to me. Having been in it for awhile, I have woken up to a few things.

1. Cambridge has an 'outsider'-'insider' culture -Being an outsider and yet having to lead a cambridge project has had some uncomfortable moments and I don't like it.

2. It doesn't matter how brilliant you are. The cambridge brand is so strong, everyone is dispensible. It also makes everyone rather self-interested and self-preserving in their behaviors.

3. There's very little 'team' and a lot of individualism

4. The cambridge brand may be strong, but quite a lot of research is crap

5. 800 year old institutions have 800 year old rules. Unbendable, inflexible and certainly not helpful for a rather entrepreneurial person like me.

At the end of one year, I guess I have no more illusions about Cambridge. It's just another university.

It's also the first year of my AIM fellowship and I have worked really really hard this year, culminating in enough material to write 6 papers which I hope to complete by October. That would take care of my AIM obligations I think, and I can spend my second fellowship year on building capacity, building opportunities and networking. I hope 2 of the papers would be top tier A grade journal but you cant tell with these things. I had a good chat with Jaideep Prabhu from Judge and he has some really useful advice about my work. I hope to do a seminar in Judge in the autumn. Who knows, the links at Judge could come up to something...?

I have also been thinking about what I want to do after the fellowship. Currently, there are no plans to move from exeter but in 2 years, I hope to look for a good chair somewhere around the midlands or the east. I need the 'A' publications to get good jobs which is why I'm working to get outputs out now as the review process etc. would usually take more than a year. Alternatively, I could move into a 0.5FTE with Exeter and work on my research and use the other half to build up my consultancy. With my consultancy and other teaching engagements, I could make up the income difference and build a company as well. Dont want to think about that for now... just focus on getting the publications and opportunities would hopefully come.