I was born in the US, in Connecticut, but I was raised in a small town in Vermont. At the age of 25, I came to the Netherlands, because I fell in love with a Dutch guy and doing science was a good excuse to stay. When applying for a PhD position, I thought they would rather hire a Dutch person than a foreigner without a residence permit. Lucky for me, I was wrong.
I started with a PhD project at the Department of Rheumathology. I would have to say the lack of supervision in the beginning was the biggest problem. My supervisor was not really involved with my project. However, it worked out all right. Without any intervention on my part, I became René Toes' PhD student when he started working for the Rheumatology Department. He got very involved and saved my project for which I am extremely thankful.
After finishing my PhD, I started my first postdoc position in Nijmegen, which was a very challenging job. I experienced all kinds of problems, such as financial problems, interdepartmental politics and poor communication with my supervisor. After a while, I became disillusioned. Although it was really difficult, I finally gathered enough courage to leave science and do something wild and this was walking the Appalachian Trail, which had always been a dream. Suddenly it was clear to me that staying in Nijmegen and not doing what I wanted was a waste of time. So I took half a year off to hike from Georgia to Maine in the US and think about what to do next.
After walking the trail, I returned to science mostly out of habit. I did think about having another type of career, something creative and artistic, but I needed the money and applied to science because I knew I was good at that. If I had enough training in art-related topics, I might have dared to make the leap to change careers.
Luck was with me. After sending out a few application letters my dream project literally appeared. When I was at a retreat (not PCDI ) a couple of years ago, we were asked to describe our dream project. For me this involved a project about Toll-like receptors, Tregs and probiotics. That is precisely what I'm studying now in a TI Pharma project! If I would not have gotten this job, however, I probably would have chosen to have a less stressful career. For instance, I was also offered a job as medical writer in the US.
I enjoy my second postdoc at lot, but I was surprised to find myself being transformed from a researcher spending most of her time in the lab to someone functioning more as a group leader, with two AIO's and plenty of educational duties. I am enjoying becoming more of a leader, but I am finding that it's hard to work in the lab next to these responsibilities.
Looking back now, from my 'older and wiser' position, I see that I could have done a few things differently. Knowing what I do now, I probably wouldn't have waited so long before making the decision to leave my first postdoc job and, as a PhD student, I would have complained about my lack of supervision.
It is clear to me now that being happy with what you do should be first and foremost. Thus, it's important to make the things you need clear to your supervision so that you can perform your function with pleasure.
Tips and tricks….
The best time saving trick I found up until now (and all PhD students should learn) is how to use excel and especially the "pivot table"-function: click the 'data' pull down menu and select pivottable and pivotchart report which allows you to analyze huge data sets much more easily!
A golden tip for balancing family life and work? Hmmm, hard question. To me it feels impossible to have science not influence all parts of your life, since it's not a regular 9 to 5 job, but a job that demands 110%.
I strongly believe that being happy with what you do is so much more important than the end result of what you do. For instance, if you work extremely hard on an article to get it published in a top journal, but you don't like working on it, in the end you may have that article but be an unhappy person.
Choices, decisions….
When doing my Msc., I did not think I would become a lab scientist but would have a job outside, maybe doing ecological research. Why didn't I become an ecologist? How do I put this without insulting the ecologists? To me immunology is a more attractive subject than ecology, because you can address more complex questions and scientific processes using controlled experiments compared to the methods used in ecological research. But I did not consciously choose this subject, I fell in love with a Dutchman and I was lucky that immunology was something I learned to love.
The best decision I made in my career was to leave science and then come back. But I do see myself having another career in the future. As much as I love science, I am always developing plans to do something more creative. When will I do something else? No idea!
If asked 'where do you see yourself in 10 years time?', I would say that I don't know and actually don't really care as long as those years are 10 happy years. Long term goals are good, but you should not forget to take care of yourself during the process of getting to that goal. For me career development is about learning how to have a good career and a good quality of life.
I have never attended a PCDI activity, but would be interested to join. I would like to know more about the different positions one could have in industry. Specifically those related to marketing. It will take some time, though, to clear my agenda and get the money to attend a retreat.
How to go further in science…….
In my opinion, it's important to be enthusiastic. Actually, without enthusiasm it's hard to get others involved and interested in your work. The science itself is important. It should be top quality. But without a way to sell it, it goes nowhere. If you're not excited about your work, no one will be. This is something that I always keep in mind. People think scientists are not social. I think all scientists (unconsciously) develop many social skills. You have to, if you're all crammed together in too small offices and labs. It's important to be conscious of these acquired skills. Ultimately, it's necessary to be a leader if you wish to get ahead. Despite the importance of interpersonal skills, the one skill I would like to improve in myself would my ability to use statistics correctly.
Future of science….
Money is always an issue for research. In my opinion, researchers should focus more on getting their science applied in some kind of product. Products generate money! This idea is the focus of academic-industry collaborations, like the Top Institute Pharma consortium which is a great initiative to generate money for research.
In order to get the general public more involved in science, one should focus on children. Holland could start by having a cool children's science TV program, like '3-2-1 contact' which was broadcasted in the US during the 70's and 80's.
I was born in the US, in Connecticut, but I was raised in a small town in Vermont. At the age of 25, I came to the Netherlands, because I fell in love with a Dutch guy and doing science was a good excuse to stay. When applying for a PhD position, I thought they would rather hire a Dutch person than a foreigner without a residence permit. Lucky for me, I was wrong.
) a couple of years ago, we were asked to describe our dream project. For me this involved a project about Toll-like receptors, Tregs and probiotics. That is precisely what I'm studying now in a TI Pharma project! If I would not have gotten this job, however, I probably would have chosen to have a less stressful career. For instance, I was also offered a job as medical writer in the US.