My average days-when I first started

Xykademiqz made a good point in my last post that I posted my current hours when I was asked by a student about industry hours.  I've moved up at a rate much higher than the average, and have been taking the learning lumps that goes with being underqualified for a position.  I started in a role similar to a lot of people straight out of grad school, if not just a little higher since I had a good amount of industry and national lab experience before I tried to earn my letters.  I got my first big promotion about 8 months in, and at my meeting with the head of my company for the promotion I pitched a new type of idea for medical device design.  One that has paid off big for my company.  He made me in charge of this new group (which I still lead).  He set aside a small amount of money and within a year our budget increased by 10x because of the results my group had.  It was three of us, and we're easily responsible for all the upcoming products in our company's pipeline.  Everyone in my group gets promoted at 2x what everyone else does because of our success.  Any success I have is 99% luck from this meeting with the head of my company.  My hours changed dramatically at this stage.  I wanted...needed...to make this concept work.  I have a surprising amount of free time, especially outside of work, rarely working  outside of the office.  I had a ton more free time (and fewer gray hairs) when I first started here.  Though I would never trade my current position for my old one.  Without further ado, here's my hours when I first showed up:

Very laid back day:
9am Arrive
9-11am Experiments/design
11am-1pm Lunch
1pm-3pm Reading...occasional short meeting...emails
3pm-5pm Emails, calls, some design work or experiments
5pm Gone!

Laid back day
8:30am Arrive
8:30-9am Emails and day planning
9am-10am Meting
10am-11am Experiments
11am-noon Small group stuff, experiments, design stuff
Noon-1pm Lunch
1pm-4pm Work (experiments, design, etc)
4pm-5pm Email, reading
5pm Gone!!!

Busy day
8am Arrive
8am-9am Meeting
9am-10am Computer stuff
10am-noon Experiments
Noon-1pm Look at data while eating
1pm-3pm Experiments...maybe some small group meeting stuff
3pm-4pm Meeting
4pm-6pm Experiments and prototyping
6pm-7pm Emails, reading, transcribing notes
7pm Gone

Average day while traveling
5am-6am Check email during breakfast
6am Report to hospital
6am-8am Prepare equipment
8am-1pm Run animal study
1pm-2pm Lunch
2pm-7pm Run animal study
7pm-8pm Put equipment away
Do this 5 days in a row.

My percentages were probably like so, on average:

20% VLBD
60% LBD
5% BD
15% Travel

Those students out there: if you're worried about the hours, mine were definitely better than grad school.  And my starting salary was definitely higher than my old advisor's...but there are trade offs :)

Working your own hours

I remember reading a quote once from a professor who said, "I love that I can make my own schedule in academics. I can work 80 hours a week, any time that I want."

I agree with this principle tremendously. Who cares when or how long you work as long as you get your work done?  Some cultures have a work-til-you drop mentality, where I'm supposed to spend 100 hours a week working, and you're put on a pedestal if you do so. Most medical device companies are like this. And I am not. 

When I'm on my death bed I'm 100% certain that I won't be wishing I spent more time at work. Or reminiscing about what I did while in the lab (except for the fun conversations and screwing around). Untimately, for most us, our impact will be mostly nothing: our work to sit in the Annals of Crazyfield or Society of Upturned Noses Letters getting cited every once in a while. My current work is sitting in patents and products that are actually saving peoples' lives, and making stockholders rich. The products will go down in history, but my name will be forgotten. Now, some scientists and engineers reach great heights, but to reach great heights in specialized fields causes great personal sacrifice. I can't imagine the sacrifice for the rock-stars like Bob Langer at MIT. However, as he's stated, it's a labor of love. A hobbie. I really really love spending all my time with friends and family and hobbies. And even though my work is awesomely fun, it's still not as fun as the things I do outside of work. 

My mentality might be grim, but life is way too short to spend all of it working. If that's what's fun for you, then fine, but I choose to be reminiscing with family and friends, instead of spending Thankgivukkah alone. When I accepted my industry position, my old advisor said something like, "you only get 10 days of vacation?!?".  The minimal vacation time is alright, but making my own hours is the thing I miss the most. If I feel like taking a long lunch to recharge my batteries before the afternoon then I should be able to. And for some reason, every single person that's overworked seems like a total douchebag, and not someone I strive to be. Even if they are leading the company. 

I brought this up with my former advisor and he said not to mention that in any interviews (haha, ME getting interviews), or it'll look like I'm lazy. I don't think it's possible, but there must be a way to prove that you don't have to be addicted to work to be successful.