Inspired by Sarah Bisbing's excellent post on her first year as a faculty member, here are the questions I remember asking myself during my first six years:

Year 0: What science do I want to do?

Year 1: What the hell am I doing all day and why am I always so exhausted?

Year 2: Why don't my grad students know how to do anything yet?

Year 3: What does this data mean?

Year 4: Why are grant and paper reviewers so dumb?

Year 5: Why are grant and paper authors so dumb?

Year 6: Will I get tenure, and if so, do I really want to be doing this for the rest of my life?

--titus