Exciting career update

Signed! It’s official - I am incredibly excited to announce that I have accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry position at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles!
There are many milestones in the path to and through academia, and I know there are many more ahead (e.g. tenure promotion), but this one, more than any before, makes me feel the most monumental. The most like “I made it!” But there’s a lot of luck involved so don’t feel bad if you don’t “make it” - so much is out of your control and I really hope that me celebrating doesn’t make you feel less worthy. Also, there are many ways to “make it” as a scientist, and a tenure-track job (in my case, at a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI)) is just one of them! And it’s the one I’ve always wanted.
There is a lot of luck, but also a lot of hard work. And the job application circuit process can really be an emotionally-exhausting full-time job as you constantly feel on the edge waiting, knowing committees are judging you and you could get an email or call at any time. So many flashbacks to grad school app cycle, but way more intense*
Although I will miss SMC, and forever be grateful for my time here (as both a student and a faculty member), I am excited for this next step in my career. I absolutely loved LMU when I visited last week. I think it has a really ideal teaching/research balance for me (still teaching (biochemistry and chemistry), but with more research than at SMC (same research topic and still undergrad-centered!) and the faculty and staff I met, the student body, and the facilities were amazing. They were even really supportive of my bumbling biochemist work (they even brought it up at my research talk to students even though I wasn’t planning on it!), and are active in creating and using open educational resources (OER) such as free textbooks (a passion of mine), and committed to green chemistry (making chemistry more environmentally-friendly and sustainable).
I was scared to tell my current colleagues, afraid I’d let them down for leaving, but they have all been incredibly supportive and understanding and truly want the best for me. I’m looking forward to this last semester working with them and hope we can stay in touch well into the future. I credit SMC with getting me this far and know that all I learned here will help me greatly as I start my career at LMU.
I’m really excited to begin at LMU this August and am so grateful for the opportunity! And grateful for how welcome my future colleagues have already made me feel. I really feel it will be a great new academic home for me and will provide tremendous opportunities for me to grow as a teacher-scholar.
I’m also grateful for everyone who has supported me throughout my academic journey, with all its ups & downs.
Have I mentioned I’m feeling really grateful? Thank you!
*PS I definitely had no idea what was involved beforehand, so if anyone’s curious, the typical process for most places is: finding place to apply to (Chronicle of Higher Education is a great place for this, and you can set up alerts for new listings); online application (cover letter, teaching statement, research statement, sometimes DEI statement, CV, rec letters, transcripts); Zoom panel interview (hopefully); on-campus interview (hopefully; 1-2 days including teaching demo, research talk, one-and-one and potentially panel interviews, lunch with students, tour of facilities, meals with faculty & staff, sometimes HR-ish meetings).
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