I'm only a year out of a relatively short postdoctoral fellowship, but I suppose this isn't a bad time to look back to see whether any wisdom can be gleaned from the experience.
My postdoc stint was hugely educational, but not in a scientific way. I learned a lot about myself--what I want in a career, what kinds of situations make me unhappy, and which parts of my life I'm not willing to give up for the sake of a career. I learned that hives and insomnia can both be triggered by stress, and that they make a truly unpleasant combination.
If I have any useful advice to give regarding doing a postdoc, it would be to do it for the right reasons. And what are the right reasons? Because you want to learn something new. Because it gets you one step closer to the position you really want. Different people will have different sets of right reasons.
So perhaps it's more informative to discuss what the wrong reasons are. Because that's just what people do after grad school. Because that's what your PI and thesis committee members counseled you to do. Because you didn't fully explore all your other options. Because you didn't know what else you wanted to do. Me, I chose (e) all of the above.
Doing a postdoc may be the path of least resistance for a PhD, but trust me, it isn't worth it unless it's what you really want, or it's necessary for getting what you really want. There's no question I would be much further along my current career path, and have spared myself a lot of frustration, if I had chosen more carefully instead of just going with the easiest option.
But I don't regret my postdoc experience. Like I said, I learned a lot and made some good friends. And if many itchy, sleepless nights are what it took to get me to where I am now, then so be it.
Postdoc Carnival
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7 hours ago
4 comments:
I can't say that I completely agree with your advice. I certainly empathize with your stressful postdoc experience, and agree that you shouldn't do it just because it's what post-PhDs are 'supposed to do'; however, the truth is that many of us choose to postdoc because we aren't sure what we want to do next. Doing a postdoc provides a great deal of flexibility -- it offers the opportunity to try something new without a long-term commitment. It provides a chance to experience the world of scientific research without the stress of classes and committee meetings and thesis defenses. It provides the opportunity to experience a new mentor and a new lab environment, and hopefully, to learn something along the way. One of the things that you may learn is that you hate the path that you are on - and there's nothing wrong with that. But some of us learn that we enjoy it and that we want to continue along the path of academic science. I certainly didn't know what I wanted to do in the long-term, but doing a postdoc provided me with the opportunity to explore the possibilities without being locked into a terminal decision. Even you can attest to that, right?
I completely agree that a postdoc can be an opportunity to gain new experiences and can help people figure out if the academic research path is right for them. This would all fall under my provision for different people having different sets of "right reasons" to do a postdoc.
For example, "I'm doing a postdoc because I'm not sure I want to do academic research, and a postdoc will help me figure it out" is a perfectly good reason for doing a postdoc. "I'm doing a postdoc because I can't think of anything better to do" is a bad reason.
I'm not advocating that people not do postdocs at all. Had I known back then that my current career path existed, I would still have done a postdoc, but I would've done a very different one.
All I'm saying is that before jumping into a postdoc, people should think hard about (1) why they're doing a postdoc, (2) what they hope to get out of the postdoc, and (3) how the postdoc will help them achieve their career goals or find the right career.
Funny, this is exactly what I say about grad school. :) Don't do it unless you know what you'll get out of it, it's not worth it.
Jenny--I guess it just took me longer to come to that realization than it took you! :-)
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