Tony Patelunas

Perpetually curious naturalist; PhD @UConnMCB MPP @UConnSPP

[Michael Girdley @girdley]

You get two job offers.

You’ll likely think money or title or role.

But, you should first consider:

Who will be your boss?

Working for the right person, even for a single year, can transform your career.

The 15 things wise employees know: 🧵

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@FromPhDtoLife I've met many that don't know what "service" entails or how university committees typically work.

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@Kyle_Ireton Sounds like something a bot would say...

[Jason "boundless delight " Williams @JasonWilliamsNY]

We could get @nanopore in every high school, community college, and undergraduate institution in the country. Not just teaching students but also generating scientifically valuable data for health, agriculture, and environment. It’s possible with the right support! @ARPA_H @NIH @WHOSTP @NSF

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@dancastranova How do I buy all of these?

[Michael Girdley @girdley]

What's tougher?

a) CEO of a 50,000-employee company or
b) CEO of a company from 0 to 10,000 employees?

Both are demanding jobs, but the answer is (b).

The CEO of a company from nothing to 10,000 people is the most complex professional challenge possible.

--

CEOs who take their company from founding to 10,000+ employees are rare.

But that doesn't explain why people like me are in awe of those that do it.

Why?

--

The CEO's job changes radically as the company grows.

The job will be 7 or 8 different jobs over that period.

Many stages require precisely the opposite mindset and skills of the previous step.

--

Let's look at who the CEO manages at each stage of growth:

0 employees: As a founding CEO, you are a player. An individual contributor (IC) usually builds stuff.

10ish employees: As the company grows (10 people), you do more managing. You’re doing IC work and managing people. So, a player-coach.

50ish employees: The company grows again (let’s say to 40-50 people). Your CEO job changes again to manage only middle managers.

150ish employees: To grow again up to 150+, your CEO job changes to team building and culture and strategy. You’re leading VPs who manage middle managers. It's about vision and leadership now.

500ish employees: Again, at 500+, the company reaches a ceiling where suddenly SVPs/GMs get involved. Now there are four layers of reports. You need to elevate again to survive.

As each layer of management gets added, your job shifts upwards and changes again and again.

—

So far, I’ve explained this by discussing who the CEO manages.

But other things impact the CEO's job drastically, too:

• From one product to multiple.
• From managing generalists early on to specialists.
• Investors from founder-led to institutional.
• Culture changes from entrepreneurial to corporate.
• Company goes from a nimble go-kart to a supertanker that takes years to alter course.

And much more.

—

It takes incredible self-awareness, capacity to change, and ability to produce to make those changes.

All while the company grows rapidly.

I know -- I failed as a CEO several times to get to the 50-ish employee level.

--

And that is why people speak in reverence to people who went from tiny to huge as CEO.

It requires a unicorn of a person to pull it off.

I stand in awe.

[Chris Marsicano @ChrisMarsicano]

With all this talk of conference realignment, let's revive my favorite thought experiment:

The Ivy League decides to expand. Current rules on scholarships still stand. Two questions:

1) Who do they invite?
2) Who says "yes?"

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@ChrisMarsicano This is such a great thought experiment! Duke? Vandy? You'd have close insight on both. Strategically it would stay east coast but expand south, maintain academic rigor and athletics.

[Michael 英泉 Eisen @mbeisen]

A central problem in the interpretation of the scientific literature is that people (both in and outside of science) systematically fail to recognize that peer review is not, and has never been, about validating facts. It is about certifying conformity of approach.

[SpringfieldAthletics @SC_Pride]

Diana Gallagher Named Next Head Coach of #SpringfieldCollege Women's Gymnastics Program https://t.co/8xWLLj8939

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

🚨 BREAKING: Code Interpreter is FINALLY rolling out to all ChatGPT Plus users.

It's the most powerful feature OpenAI has released since GPT-4. It makes everyone a data analyst.

Here are 15 mind-blowing use cases of Code Interpreter:

[@parichylab.bsky.social @parichylab]

This is quite a good piece on the need to review papers sensibly, with an eye towards fostering careers of junior scientists, and making sure dev bio can sustain itself. https://t.co/xca1RHhqQz

[Amjad Masad @amasad]

Not only have they mapped out the fruit fly brain, but they actually boot it up in a computer and made it “eat” and “groom” 🤯

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

This is good advice for finding a mentor. You need to have some idea of what you want and direction for yourself. I can give guiding questions, but I can't mentor unless the person is putting in work on themselves.

[Michael Girdley @girdley]

My DMs are filled with variations of this question:

“Will you be my mentor?”

I say no to all of them.

Most of you are doing it wrong.

Here is my counterintuitive advice for finding good mentors/advisors:

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@Kyle_Ireton Congratulations!

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@Kyle_Ireton @DOCjobsDotCom I'll also note the types of jobs deck: https://t.co/Ei5A3iFCgB

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@Kyle_Ireton Consulting gets one bucket, but there are different types and need different skills. Technical consulting would rely more on specific expertise; strategy consulting relies more on being able to critically think. @DOCjobsDotCom has a primer: https://t.co/4n0JGNcGel

[Tony Patelunas @TonysPants]

@ErinJimenezPhD @JohnsHopkins Congratulations!!! Much deserved!!!