Innovate Today! - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 130

Risk Being Evaluated: Accepting a Visiting Professorship in Department
of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT)

Pros Cons

Establishment of new relationships
with key researchers in my field (4)

Will require me to be separated from my
husband (5)

Opportunity to focus only on
research for 18 months without
teaching and service
responsibilities (5)

Currently going through the tenure
process and don't want this to be
perceived as lack of commitment to home
institution (4)

High visibility as a Visiting Scholar
at MIT (3)

Don't know anyone within three states of
Massachusetts (1)

Prestige of National Science
Foundation Funding in
Professorship (3)

May produce moderate financial strain
due to requirement to maintain two
households (3)

Access to quality equipment, lab,
and resources (4)

Daughter is in first year of college and I
won't be near her campus (3)

Different culture that I'm not at all
familiar with given it's a private institution
and in the N.E. (2)

Might improve changes of being
selected to be an astronaut (2)

Low levels of diversity in gender and
African Americans (2)
Total: 20

Add credibility to my reputation (3)

Total: 24

FIGURE 6.1 Risk quotient balance sheet example

2. Considering timing and our other priorities
Timing is a major factor in decision making, and it seems even more
important for women when considering family issues such as child bear-
ing, parenting, and consideration of a partner's career. Consider your career
management plan, long-term vision, and family plans in the evaluation of
the appropriateness of the timing for a decision. For example, in my evalu-
ation of whether or not to go to MIT, if the opportunity had come a year
earlier during my daughter's senior year in high school, the timing would
have prevented me from accepting the opportunity.
3. Listening to our gut sense (this is the most important aspect of the quo-
tient) or inner voice.
This evaluation criterion requires us to take time to get in touch with our
thoughts, feelings, and emotions about an idea. For this it is best to set aside
time to spend alone and in a quiet, comfortable place to focus on the idea and
what it means to you. In this time, you should get a sense of what the pursuit
of it really means to you on a totally personal level.