Live and Learn on Purpose.
“We want you to come, Tony.” I’d just been offered a job that would mean leaving my current position, packing up, and moving my family across the country. What started a few months earlier as “just looking around” had become a very real, and very […]
25 applications and 26 interviews. That’s the story I’ve been telling for years. When I first entered the job market after my post-doc, I applied to 100 jobs. The problem was that I got zero phone calls for interviews. Zero. When no one contacted me, I […]
I recently made the decision to change jobs (and states). Interestingly enough, at age 34, this is the first time the decision was mine to make. This post reflects on that experience, and I hope it will help you see that sometimes the best thing […]
After three amazing years as a mechanical engineering professor at Temple University, I’m excited to announce that I’ve accepted a new faculty position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas! This is an amazing opportunity to expand on what I’ve been doing at Temple, and […]
“How do we stop people from texting while they drive?” I remember the speaker asking this question during a seminar on creative problem solving like it was yesterday. The audience instantly jumped into brainstorming mode, listing solutions such as “automatically lock phones over a certain […]
The first thing I can remember borrowing real money for (other than student loans) is a TV. I followed this with a brand new car, a furniture set, a vacation, and (my favorite) the moving bill to move all of that stuff across the country. […]
This past weekend my mother-in-law was kind enough to buy me a few shirts as a gift. Their purpose? Something to wear while rock climbing, running, hiking, and other outdoor activities. They’re made of specially-engineered materials that wick away sweat, dry quickly, inhibit odor, and […]
We made it: it’s summer!!!!!! Here’s a season where everyone gets a chance to let off the gas a little bit and recover from the grind that the first months of every year seem to hold. I’d like to offer you a bit of advice […]
This is the 200th post at tonyferrar.com! I started writing here in August 2016, just under three years ago. I set out to create a place for students to find advice from a positive voice. What I didn’t realize is how much I would grow […]
One of the worst feelings in life is that deep tired, almost an ache in your chest that sets in after pulling an all-nighter and watching the sun come up. The last few weeks of the semester used to be such a grind for me, […]
