31 January 2010
By Carolina Arancibia
I am going through a crisis. After 5 years (!) into my second postdoc I am starting to feel like a hamster on a wheel. My longest contract has been 18 months long and, although the contracts keep being renewed, there are no possibilities of obtaining a permanent position. In the mean time, I have to keep up with my projects, colleagues' projects, grant writing, equipment failures, freezer sorting, peoples’ meltdowns and generally being the go-to person. All that and be sane and fit when I go home to husband and small children. I have to say that I love being a researcher but as with relationships sometimes love is not enough. I also feel frustrated by the lack of reward, the lack of a role model and lack of security. So I decided to take the first step to change... and went to my Careers Service willing to go through the booklet on “alternative careers in science”. I cannot say that it was very useful mainly because if I am not holding a pipette I don’t know what to do but they told me about Vitae. Now apparently my crisis is shared by a large number of researchers, my crisis is not mine anymore but it is a communal one. I have yet to figure out if this is good...
Tennie Videler Edited: 01 February 2010 at 02:13 PM
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Dear Carolina, Yes, many people are in a similar situation to you, as you can read from several posts on this blog. So this means you are not alone, which is probably a good thing. It also means that other people have gone through a similar ‘crisis’ before you and therefore you should be able to learn from their experiences. But your situation is of course uniquely your own and that is probably a good thing too! I am not a careers advisor/ expert at all, but in my view, there are different aspects to consider: what do you want to do? and what are your skills? Your statement ‘If I am not holding a pipette I don’t know what to do’ sound like it refers to the former rather than the latter! If holding a pipette is what you want to do there are lots of options. You may or may not be geographically restricted. On the second aspect, have a good think about all your skills and list the evidence you have for them, include project management, team working, writing and presentation skills, freezer clear-outs, etc. You wouldn’t be where you are without a whole stack of very high level skills…. Careers advisors should be able to help you think through both sets of questions. I hope you’ll look back on this period as a time to take stock, maybe even an opportunity, rather than a crisis…. Good luck (I’ve been there…) Vitae resources: www.vitae.ac.uk/rdf researcher development framework www.vitae.ac.uk/careerstories for ideas of what other people have done
Carolina Arancibia 02 February 2010 at 12:13 PM
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Thanks Tennie! Yes, I am all pumped up to drop the pipette and take the bull by the horns...
Nick Dickens 03 February 2010 at 09:46 AM
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Oh dear, I can say that the crisis is not a good one. I also agree that love (of science) is not enough, but it will help you ride out the bad times and maybe even be enough for you to stay together. Being a post-doc isn't really a career (in science at least, I've heard different opinions from the non-scientists on the blog and I can't really comment outside of science), I don't like handing out advice but if I could give you any 'tip' then if you are spending a lot of time managing multiple projects (including those of others) and writing grants then you might as well start looking for a PIs position...easier said than done I know...looking for faculty positions will eventually give you a more stable contract and will probably mean that you get more of the credit (personally) for the things that you are doing. If you love science, and it seems that you are doing a lot of the job anyway then why not give it a go?
Carolina Arancibia 03 February 2010 at 04:16 PM
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Thanks for you posting, Nick. I think you have spelled out one of the main issues (in my view): " Being a post-doc isn't really a career" Well… why not? I think we (postdocs in academia and our predecessors) have perpetuated this state of semi-training (mea culpa too, when I received my first pay-check I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for doing something that I liked so much). We do not consider ourselves professionals with any other expectation but to be a PI. What if we don’t want to be a PI? Why can’t be rewarded in other ways, like in any other discipline or profession? As soon as we get our first degree we should have been considered part of the professional pool… but no, then we sort of revert into students, and then we are postdocs in training and then career developers and then in we keep at it in the academic bubble. Having all of us wanting to be PIs is like having all musicians wanting to be orchestra directors or all politicians wanting to president. I don’t know, I am thinking aloud (and still in the process of soul-searching) but maybe we should start viewing academia more as the private sector where effort is rewarded and it doesn’t necessarily mean that one is promoted to CEO.
Blanka Sengerová 04 February 2010 at 06:40 PM
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>> " Being a post-doc isn't really a career" Well… why not? I think the reason for the post-doc contracts being time limited is that the funding bodies simply cannot guarantee longer term funding and by giving you a fixed term contract, they avoid having to make you redundant at a massive cost to them (and indirectly the tax-payer). At a 'Careers in Academia' event I went to a few years ago, there was one guy who was being a serial postdoc (and looked to be in his late 40s), always living off some short-term contract or a small grant or something similar. But I think you have to be prepared to live with the insecurity. In my opionion, it helps if your partner is not in science (and does have a permanent contract), then the possibility of having a few months without a job aren't quite so daunting, but of course this is not a situation that will be available to everyone!
Hannah Dee 05 February 2010 at 10:55 AM
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The problem is that right now there seem to be two choices for those of us keen to stay in academia - * serial fixed-term contracts, and serial relocation... or * get a personal fellowship or lectureship that enables you to become a PI I don't really consider the first of these a "career", and given the current economic situation the latter option is increasingly hard. Indeed, I don't know about other areas, but right now, lectureships in my area are as easy to find as rocking-horse poo. So maybe it is time to start looking into these "alternative careers in science"...
Carolina Arancibia 05 February 2010 at 06:51 PM
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Just the name "alternative careers" sends chills down my spine.... why do we call them alternative? We get a degree and these are all the things we can do with it. It is just semantics but implies that academic research is what we must do and everything else is, well, alternative. It is not only a matter of a funding body not allowing you to have a fixed contract but some sort of reward system, promotions to different grade point, performance reviews, etc... wouldn't be so bad.
Sarah Davies 09 February 2010 at 09:20 PM
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I'm really enjoying the comments on this thread - and Carolina, I entirely empathise with your annoyance that being a 'postdoc' (or researcher) can't be a career. Why not? As you say, we are professionals with a highly developed skill set: why isn't this recognised in the way that it is in, say, medicine? You don't get doctors being forced onto short term contracts until they reach consultant level. Unfortunately, fixing these issues is a long term goal which requires change at research council and university level. Not a lot of help for you - or me - right now. And I don't think we should be relying on our partners, or other independent income - this can only perpetuate the disparities that already exist in academia (incredibly middle class)...