Last year I was one of the lucky PhD-students who visited the PCDI retreat in wonderful surroundings of Heeze…trying to broaden my scope as a scientist and plan my future career, I left my hometown Groningen for a few days 'abroad'.
It seems strange, but changing my surroundings already cleared my mind and forced me to think about other things than my lab work. I was determined: these three days in Heeze were dedicated to me and my future only! Many workshops, presentations, discussions and meet-and-greets confirmed my thoughts: my future lies within the academia.
During this period I initiated the next step within my career: applying for a postdoctoral position in the USA. My blog deals with many things PhD-students and postdocs deal with; working in the academic world, career planning and issues, job interviews, working abroad, and many other subjects.
From April 2010 I will live in Philadelphia where I will work as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. In my blog I will continue to write about this new adventure and experience of working abroad as a postdoctoral fellow.
Postdoc hunting
14 January 2010
posted by Sabina Lukovac
So, almost two months later, ten times busier and slightly more stressed, here I am with an update on my USA postdoc hunting trip! In two weeks I will be sitting in the plane, heading for New York, all by myself, probably wondering if I am ready enough... The first lab visit is already the day after my arrival, at the University of Yale in New Haven…now I wonder if I should have reserved some extra time in case of a huge jetlag….well, too late now. A proper scientist should perform well under any circumstances, I guess. My second lab visit is few days later at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In between, I stay over for a weekend in New York to do some sight-seeing. It will be my first time in the Big Apple, and I already can feel that this must be the perfect place to relax a little bit, get adjusted and get prepared for my second lab visit.
As a young girl of twelve, in 1992 I came to the Netherlands from my home land Bosnia with my parents and sister. It was easy to get adapted to the Dutch (and Frisian!) society since people here are very generous and helpful. After finishing my high school in Friesland and almost being able to speak Frisian, I decided it was time to move at least a little a bit abroad to the dynamic city of Groningen to study Medical Biology at the University of Groningen.
