3 year post doc? I hope not!
I started replying to a comment left on my blog the other day and then realized it warranted a little more than just a footnote on my last entry.
This comment was left by "Mikael":
I definitely agree that it's worth doing a post-doc, even if you decide you don't want to go on through the academic pathway. I'm beginning to think that the best time to make that decision (ivory tower vs indentured slavery) may actually be during your post-doc, since that will be the closest you come to being a professor before making the decision. As a graduate student, I'm not sure I am fully aware of risks and rewards of the academic lifestyle. (I haven't yet taken a course on the subject, and one only gets so much of an idea through exposure to professors.)
However, at this point, I can't stand the idea of doing a 3 year post doc. After 6 years of undergrads, 2.5 years of masters, 3 years of (co-)running my own company, and about 3.5 years of doing a PhD by the time I'm done... well, 3 more years of school is about as appealing as going back to the wet lab. (No, glassware and I don't really get along.)
If I'm going to do a post-doc (and I probably will), it will be a short and sweet one - no more than a year and a half at the longest. I have friends who are stuck in 4-5 year post-docs and have heard of people doing 10-year post-docs. I know what it means to be a post-doc for that long: "Not a good career building move." If you're not getting publications out quickly in your post-doc, I can imagine it won't reflect well on your C.V, destroying your chances of moving into the limited number of faculty positions - and wrecking havoc on your chances of getting grants.
Still, It's more about what you're doing than how long you're doing it. I'd consider a longer post doc if it's in a great lab with the possibility of many good publications. If there's one thing I've learned from discussions with collaborators and friends who are years ahead of me, it's that getting into a lab where publications aren't forthcoming - and where you're not happy - can burn you out of science quickly.
Given that I've spent this long as a science student (and it's probably far too late for me to change my mind on becoming a professional musician or photographer), I want to make sure that I end up somewhere where I'm happy with the work and can make reasonable progress: this is a search that I'm taking pretty seriously.
[And, just for the record, if company needs me to do 3-years of post-doc at this point, I have to wonder just who it is I'm competing with for that job - and what it is that they think you learn in your 2nd and 3rd years as a postdoc.]
With that in mind, I'm also going to put my (somewhat redacted) resume up on the web in the next few days. It might be a little early - but as I said, I'm taking this seriously.
In the meantime, since I want to actually graduate soon, I'd better go see if my analyses were successful. (=
This comment was left by "Mikael":
[...] you can still do a post-doc even if you don't think you'll continue in academia. I've noticed many life science companies (especially big pharmas) consider it a big plus if you've done say 3 years of post-doc.
I definitely agree that it's worth doing a post-doc, even if you decide you don't want to go on through the academic pathway. I'm beginning to think that the best time to make that decision (ivory tower vs indentured slavery) may actually be during your post-doc, since that will be the closest you come to being a professor before making the decision. As a graduate student, I'm not sure I am fully aware of risks and rewards of the academic lifestyle. (I haven't yet taken a course on the subject, and one only gets so much of an idea through exposure to professors.)
However, at this point, I can't stand the idea of doing a 3 year post doc. After 6 years of undergrads, 2.5 years of masters, 3 years of (co-)running my own company, and about 3.5 years of doing a PhD by the time I'm done... well, 3 more years of school is about as appealing as going back to the wet lab. (No, glassware and I don't really get along.)
If I'm going to do a post-doc (and I probably will), it will be a short and sweet one - no more than a year and a half at the longest. I have friends who are stuck in 4-5 year post-docs and have heard of people doing 10-year post-docs. I know what it means to be a post-doc for that long: "Not a good career building move." If you're not getting publications out quickly in your post-doc, I can imagine it won't reflect well on your C.V, destroying your chances of moving into the limited number of faculty positions - and wrecking havoc on your chances of getting grants.
Still, It's more about what you're doing than how long you're doing it. I'd consider a longer post doc if it's in a great lab with the possibility of many good publications. If there's one thing I've learned from discussions with collaborators and friends who are years ahead of me, it's that getting into a lab where publications aren't forthcoming - and where you're not happy - can burn you out of science quickly.
Given that I've spent this long as a science student (and it's probably far too late for me to change my mind on becoming a professional musician or photographer), I want to make sure that I end up somewhere where I'm happy with the work and can make reasonable progress: this is a search that I'm taking pretty seriously.
[And, just for the record, if company needs me to do 3-years of post-doc at this point, I have to wonder just who it is I'm competing with for that job - and what it is that they think you learn in your 2nd and 3rd years as a postdoc.]
With that in mind, I'm also going to put my (somewhat redacted) resume up on the web in the next few days. It might be a little early - but as I said, I'm taking this seriously.
In the meantime, since I want to actually graduate soon, I'd better go see if my analyses were successful. (=
Labels: future, Grad School, rant
2 Comments:
Fair enough!
(=
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