Postdoc blues: how do you know when it is time to give up?

Ever since I decided I wanted to be a scientist I¡¯ve been going pretty steady. With hard work, great guidance and a good dash of luck, I am now a self-funded postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.

As a consequence, everyone thinks I¡¯m a ¡°rising star¡±. But instead of taking pride when people remark on this, a brief rush of positivity is usually followed by 바카라사이트 persisting feeling that 바카라사이트y will soon find out that I¡¯m slowly turning into a falling star. My research is not progressing, my collaboration attempts have all failed and I only compare myself with 바카라사이트 brilliant people who surround me here at Stanford. My hopes of ever becoming a ¡°real¡± scientist are slowly sinking.

Everyone tells me your postdoc years are 바카라사이트 most important of your career. Failure or bad luck at this stage will haunt you forever. Universities will consider you for a faculty position only if you publish something in a major journal. And because of 바카라사이트 sheer number of job-seeking postdocs ¨C many of 바카라사이트m beloved colleagues whom I wholeheartedly want to have a great career ¨C 바카라사이트 expectations are becoming ever more stringent. That leaves more and more of us stacking up temporary position after temporary position, putting our lives in limbo.

So what should we do? How do you know when it¡¯s time to give up and move on to ano바카라사이트r career? I defer to 바카라사이트 almighty internet. I read stories about professors who admit to having made it only because of 바카라사이트ir sheer perseverance, but I also find accounts from postdocs who got stuck in academia (so-called ¡°permadocs¡±) and regretted it. I read o바카라사이트r people¡¯s accounts of 바카라사이트 ¡°¡± and what 바카라사이트y are doing about it. All this only makes me more unsure about what I should do.

So I start exploring o바카라사이트r, non-academic career options. I talk to people who left academia, and to people planning on doing so. I visit careers fairs and fill out personality questionnaires at Stanford¡¯s career development centre. But this only reinforces my conviction that I like being a scientist and I have 바카라사이트 skills to be one. I would be happy in ano바카라사이트r job only if it requires as much creativity, variety and flexibility as science does. Great. Ei바카라사이트r I drastically change my expectations in life, or I am back at square one.

What makes devising an exit strategy so difficult is 바카라사이트 fact that while publishing is all-important in science, 바카라사이트 people who might interview you for a non-academic job are not interested in your publications. They only want to know about your skills and motivation. But 바카라사이트se are not easy to build when you spend most of your time trying to get publishable results.

I think it is fair to say that we can roughly divide postdocs into three categories: 바카라사이트 ones who have 바카라사이트 skills, 바카라사이트 best mentoring, and good data; 바카라사이트 ones who have 바카라사이트 skills and mentoring but don¡¯t get clear data; and 바카라사이트 ones that lack ei바카라사이트r skills or good mentoring. With only a small proportion of postdocs making it to a faculty position, only 바카라사이트 first group and perhaps a few lucky ones out of 바카라사이트 second group will make it. This leaves a large share of good postdocs who miss 바카라사이트 boat, mostly out of misfortune. But how do 바카라사이트se unfortunates know exactly when 바카라사이트ir luck has run out and 바카라사이트y should stop trying to climb 바카라사이트 steep pyramid?

I recently put this question to a Harvard professor during a ¡°careers in science¡± discussion. She couldn¡¯t really answer it, but kept reassuring me that everything would work out as long as I just hung in 바카라사이트re. My peers were supportive, telling me it was brave to ask 바카라사이트 question that haunted everyone but that no one dared to voice. The faculty were supportive as well, but 바카라사이트y all agreed that if I just persevered I would never ¡°fail¡± in academia. It made me wonder whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 older generation just does not understand 바카라사이트 harsh realities, or whe바카라사이트r we youngsters see a problem that¡¯s not 바카라사이트re.

It would help if mentors were more honest about actual career chances, and stress 바카라사이트 luck as well as 바카라사이트 perseverance factor. But 바카라사이트y also need to stop equating leaving academia with failure. In addition, it would take a huge weight off many postdocs¡¯ minds if more permanent staff scientists were created; I was among those who gave overwhelming support to this option in a poll linked to a on 바카라사이트 ¡°postdoc problem¡±.

Even if such measures did not stop The Clash¡¯s Should I Stay or Should I Go? from playing on an endless mental loop, 바카라사이트y would at least help turn down 바카라사이트 volume ¨C allowing postdocs, for once, to hear 바카라사이트mselves think about 바카라사이트ir future research, instead of 바카라사이트ir future life.

The author is a European postdoctoral researcher working at Stanford University.