What's Up Postdoc? (Edition #6)

Postdoctoral fellows of the world
Unite and take over
- The Anonymous Postdocs

Before we get started I need to make this special announcement: If you would like to host a future edition of What's Up Postdoc? please email Propter Doc.

Now on to the main event ... Welcome to edition number 6 of What's Up Postdoc?, the carnival of postdoc-hood and all related matters.

Starting off.

In the US there seems to be a crisis (so they say) - not enough young Americans are choosing scientific careers. Is this so? And why? You can join the discussion over at Eye on Science.

Lou over at A Scientist's Life discusses how he became a scientist and then how he decided where to postdoc. Over all it worked out for Lou:

I think, that without my postdoc supervisor, I wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been keen on science still (I told people that I was dabbling in academic science, that I would give it a try, before quitting and doing something else after my first postdoc). I wouldn't have applied for another postdoc. I enjoyed the experience so much.

That's great, but with so many labs out there, where should you postdoc? Veo Claramente at the The Ways and Means of the Immune System tells you How to Choose a Postdoc Lab.

One of the most important factors in making the best of your postdoc is to find a good future advisor. Gufo over at The Owl's Hide points to a recent article in Nature on mentorship.

Another important aspect of this career choice is financial security. Last month I blogged about Jack Parker who asked How much is a postdoc worth? Not enough it would seem.

Ok I'm now a postdoc, what to do?

Read the literature, draw up a game plan, and test your hypothesis. But data collection and interpretation can be difficult. Gufo over at The Owl's Hide discusses the importance of good data.

Once you've settled down as a postdoc and collected some of that precious data, you'll want to go pout there and present it to your colleagues. Over at Adventures of a postdoc, mxc305 recounts how his mentor wanted to meet with him to plan future lab meetings. Read the rest of this Seinfeld-esque episode in his post entitled The ultimate oxymoron: productive meetings.

You may even want to attend some conferences. Dr. Brazen Hussy at What the hell is wrong with you? is off to such an event and shares with us some Random Bullets.

Working as a postdoc means staying in the lab for long intervals. But what if you were permanently trapped in the lab, could you survive on lab supplies alone? This is what Sunil asks in his post, Survivor - biochemistry lab. (If this sort of thing interests you I've also thought about this issue and have my own post on this topic, Survivor, lab edition.)

Looking back.

Every once in a while it's good to drop your pipette and look to see what's going on with your postdoc career. Propter Doc looks back and tells us "What do I think the perfect postdoc looks like?"

Is postdoc-hood all slave labor? Could it really be this bleak? Chris Rowan over at Highly Allochthonous places our rants in the right perspective (in my opinion):

Like many academic bloggers, and young academic bloggers in particular, I am prone to the occasional rant about some of the less desirable qualities of a university-bound career. My purpose in doing so is partly to blow off some steam, partly to get my own thoughts straight on these issues (writing it down always helps me to do that), and partly to fish for other peoples' perspectives on them, with a thought to maybe somehow amassing a will and a way to make things better.

However, it does seem that it has the unfortunate side effect of painting an entirely bleak picture of the academy for people even lower down the pecking order, which can't help but depress them. For example:

I get more and more pre-emptively bitter about trying to make it in academia...and i'm not even done w/ PhD yet. Ugh.

So, in the interests of balance, I think I should make it clear that from my perspective, whilst things may not be perfect, a lot of the time they're pretty darn good.

To read more on why postdoc-hood ain't so bad, read the rest of his post: Seriously, I'm enjoying myself immensely right now.

**** Update (7/25) ****

From Chris I learn of another ode to Postdoc-hood at Minor Revisions entitled Dr. Bright Side.

***** end of update ****

OK that is all for this edition of What's Up Postdoc? Again if you wish to host the following or any future instalments of this monthly carnival email Propter Doc.