Alex Palazzo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Toronto.
Inspired by a conversation with Awesome Mike.
Your science career, what type of video game is it? At times it might resemble a labyrinth full of demons that you must slay. (Or maybe it's like Grand Theft Auto? Well since I've never played that game nor Halo, I'll stick to the metaphorical game that's running through my head.)
Level 1: Undergraduate
The first level is the easiest. Stay focused and you'll get to the end. Final monster at the end of the round? Those exam finals? Psht.
Level 2: Grad Student
This level bit trickier then the previous one. The first major obstacle is choosing the right lab. Pick a postdoc laden lab full of premadonas and you may end up loosing many bonus lives unnecessarily to all sorts of nasty creatures hiding in each corner. Pick a lab where the work is interesting and where you'll receive a good training and you may gain valuable extra powers that can be useful in higher levels. The last dragon to slay in this level is the thesis. In many ways this is the hardest part of this level but in no way near the most challenging.
Level 3: Postdoctoral fellow
In comparison to the previous level, the choice of lab is even more critical. You want a good environment with good connections that has a history of postdocs moving on to the next level. You also want to have a project that you can bring with you. The final dragon to slay at the end of the round? Surviving the eighteen headed monster that is the job market for academia. Unlike in the previous level this monster is brutal. But if you've laid down the proper ground work and have an interesting (and findable) research plan, you'll slay this monster (hopefully).
I am in the process of slaying the multi headed dragon. (Yes this post is a hint as to what's been happening in my science life besides travelling across Europe). But level 3 is as far as I've reached in this game. You can fill me in as to what is to come in the next. But I can imagine ... Level 4: Assistant Professor, Level 5: Full Professor and Level 6 ... Grand Poobah?
Education & Careers
Comments
I think a better video game comparison for most of grad school would be the concept of "grinding":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind_(gaming)
Grinding is a term used in computer gaming to describe the process of engaging in repetitive and/or non-entertaining gameplay in order to gain access to other features within the game.
Tens of thousands of minipreps later, this seems appropriate.
Posted by: David Crotty | July 16, 2008 11:25 AM
OK, this isn't a video game, but works along a similar line:
My grad school labmates and I thought that it might be interesting to have a reality show that pitted two laboratories against each other. Toss out an interesting question and give the two laboratories a certain amount of time (probably an inordinate amount of time on reality-show-based timelines) and examine how each laboratory tackled the question. Obviously a lab with a biophysics bent would approach it differently than one with an emphasis on structure (or whatever). Not really sure how we'd determine who "won".
Something tells me the Discovery channel won't be calling anytime soon....
Posted by: MicroTUBEules | July 17, 2008 12:46 PM
Like in any game (or job search, for that metaphor), you can't win if you don't play.
Keep at it, one bit of writing, one application at a time.
Posted by: gwc | July 17, 2008 2:51 PM