Judy Olson on her career and blooming where you are planted

Judy Olson is Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences in the Informatics Department at UC Irvine. Judy reflects back on her career, on changes she has seen particularly the increasing expectations of hiring committees, on common issues people deal with, on blooming where you are planted, on paying it forward, on dealing with imposter syndrome, on the value of good colleagues/collaborators and on her work plans after retirement later this year. 

“What would Olson do? Follow your passion. Hang out with good people.”

She talks about (times approximate) …

01:40 Her career trajectory

06:20 Changes in academia, embracing interdisciplinary work

08:00 Being proud of working 25 years on long distance collaboration and broader impacts

10:10 The stress of getting a job now and the increasing expectations of search and promotion committees; Needing to talk to senior faculty, start a dialogue and collect data to change this

17:00 Common issues she has mentored people about – when you can say no, time management

19:55 The T-Shirt – ‘What would Olson do?’ … finding the things you really like to do

23:20 Bloom where you are planted, figuring out where you fit, what you can do and the choices along the way

25:10 Imposter syndrome, getting nervous before every talk, always rehearsing a talk

27:55 Retiring, getting to like writing grant proposals, and writing about couples who work together

32:10 End

My summary of what Judy says is about being authentic, being strategic, not being afraid to make changes and finding good colleagues.

Final notes:

‘Learning from Notes’ was a CSCW92 paper written by Wanda Orlikowski 

‘Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time’ is a time management book by Brian Tracy, published 2007. 

ACM-W 'Ask Judy' column - example post

Liz Gerber's project - Design for America