Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Sao) I

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)

I always heard, "listen to your inner voice." I heard many reasons why you should listen to this inner voice, such as "it's God speaking to you," "it's your subconscious aware of something you're not." Whatever the reason for listening to this inner voice, the first lesson I learned in my experience with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is that I did not listen to my inner voice.

I remember the day I interviewed at the SAO well. It was a beautiful May afternoon. I was dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase. The SAO was located in an older building in Cambridge. I had driven by the night before to see where it was located since I was not too familiar with the area. I entered the building a little before the time of my interview. I proceeded to take the elevator to the second floor. As I exited, I looked for the correct room number. My initial reaction was that the place was old and quiet. I found the correct room and was greeted by an older gentleman dressed in khakis and a button-down shirt. I extended my hand and introduced myself. He showed me to a table where we sat and proceeded with the interview. I remember the interview going fairly well, but there were definite times of awkwardness. For example, when he showed me the lab where some of the work was done, our conversation lagged and we struggled to have some sort of dialogue. When we returned to the room, he went to do something and I had a chance to look around the office. There were two offices connected and they both were overly cluttered and messy. As he returned to offer me the job, I knew in my heart, that inner voice, that I should not accept it. Something within me knew I would not fit in, but I needed the job. I had responsibilities, so I accepted the job.

After a month on the job I was sent to San Diego, CA to learn a scientific software called Tex. "Tex (IPA: / t-x / as in Greek, often / t-k / in English; sometimes written TEX in imitation of the logo) is a typesetting system created by Donald Knuth. Together with the METAFONT language for font description and the Computer Modern typeface, it was designed with two main goals in mind: first, to allow anybody to produce high-quality books using a reasonable amount of effort, and, second, to provide a system that would give the exact same results on all computers, now and in the future. It is free and is popular in academia, especially in the mathematics, physics, computer science, political science, and engineering communities. It has largely displaced Unix troff, the other favored formatter, in many Unix installations, which use both for different purposes. TeX is considered by some to be the best way to typeset complex mathematical formulae but especially in the form of LaTeX and other template packages, is now also being used for many other typesetting tasks." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex)

TeX was foreign to me. Math and science were never a strong point for me in school, but I was open to learn something new. I went into learning TeX a little naive. I was not aware of how complex and scientific it was. I thought it would be just like learning MultiMate, a software, I learned and used at my prior job. But to me it was complicated, one had to create a code in order to type in what one wanted it to display. But I came to realize that with perseverance and determination I could learn to use this typesetting.

The training was a week long. I attended class with people from all around the country. Most of them were also administrative assistants. They all had a little experience with TeX. I was the only one who had no experience whatsoever with it. The class was conducted like a regular classroom. The instructor gave us some background on TeX and then we practiced using it. I found it harder than I thought, but eventually felt like I was getting it. It was a long week and in some ways draining. My classmates were a great support. They would ask questions that I learned from and also helped answer questions I had. The small group of us became friends and agreed to keep in touch once we got back home.

Being in San Diego was an experience in itself. I had never been to California, so to be in a different part of the country was exciting. They provided me with a Mustang convertible and I had time to parasail, visit the San Diego Zoo and sightsee. The whole experience made me feel like I had worked hard at my prior jobs, kept applying for better jobs and it had paid off. But at the same time I did not realize the importance of my job. I was now going to be working for a Senior Astronomer/Harvard professor and a group of his students. I still did not comprehend the magnitude of the job. I did not have any proper training in administrative assistant work and that fact would be a problem later.