Shaping my career

Thursday, 14 January 2010 13:53

Hi everyone.

This is my first post so I figured it would be a good idea to introduce myself and talk about my steps in research, as it is “possibly” similar to many other post-docs or PhD students or people in the same (or in a similar) track.

I am Patricia, and I recently joined the NKI for a post-doc less than 4 months ago. I have a PhD in Sciences/Oncology, which was completed half in Brazil half in the U.S and after I defended the thesis, I had a very long vacation waiting for the VISA to come here to the Netherlands.

Now that I think carefully, wow, I have doing research for 12 years already! I started in a molecular biology lab when I was an undergrad. I did the undergrad internship and the master studies in the same lab in Brazil and then I moved on to try a PhD in Pharmacology in another university in a city nearby. However, I spent only 2-3 months there, when I decided I wasn’t very interested in the research I was getting involved and I quit. That was out of the blue, an impulse, which I don’t regret at any moment, as after completing the PhD I am very sure you really have to love what you are doing to be motivated and consequently successful! And sometimes quitting in time, or changing tracks at the right moment, is very important.

I then moved to São Paulo, joined a new lab and started a very challenging and interesting project, which I really liked. However, after 2 years I had the felling that things were not good enough, the research was not moving forward and that the resources were very scarce. One afternoon, I was sitting on my desk reading some papers when I realized that I was “trying to reinvent the wheel”, meaning, I was trying to establish a model that was already successfully established somewhere else. I was always reading papers from this group and I gave it a shot! I sent an email to the head of the lab, where I described my work and my ideas, and asked if I could join his lab for part of my PhD. Surprisingly and unexpectedly, he said YES! After one month I was moving to Philadelphia. I went back to Brazil just to defend the thesis after 2 year.

Those 2 years were tough, the most difficult years of my career in science. But it gave me a lot of experience and opened me many doors and opportunities. I interviewed in 2 places before deciding to move to Amsterdam, and what made me choose here was 1) the research of the lab; 2) the lab itself (people/institute); 3) and the city. Right now I do not know if I made the right decision or not, time will tell. But I am very excited and already liking it a lot!

What I know is that there is always plenty of opportunities, coming and going, but what makes the difference is if you see it and grab it or not. I took some opportunities, but probably missed others. In the end, I think our career is shaped by the opportunities we take, and the ones we miss.