Move to the Dark Side I should?

Wednesday, 19 May 2010 08:37

I would describe the postdoc retreat ‘Put your career in perspective’ in Heeze as the best three days I spent on shaping my career path. As a postdoc I was at a point in my career where I had a pretty good idea about science, but none about working outside the academia.

At the end of my PhD-thesis I was convinced to stay in science and move forward on the same subject. I even submitted a grant proposal and the first review looked promising, so I was quite sure I could stay in the same lab and continue what I was doing. I even made plans to move to Rotterdam (Erasmus MC). And there was the news, the proposal was not good enough for funding and the plans I made all went out the window.

My PhD-project (and therefore also my appointment) ended, I was unemployed. At first I thought that would be a vacation, but I got smacked in the face. For about three months I was looking on the web for vacancies, sending out applications and receiving rejections. I always looked in the academia for vacancies first. And around the tenth application letter I was getting the hang of writing application letters. Many applications later and I found my next position in science as a postdoc at the Radboud University Nijmegen.

This was a position for three years and my problems were solved, i.e. for now. One year past, two years past and the worries of employment started to rise up again. And there came the question: “Should I stay in science or should I move outside of the academia, to the Dark Side?”. I call it the ‘Dark Side’, because I had little knowledge about what was happening outside the academia. I only knew that at research companies positions would be permanent, whereas in science the positions are temporary. When I came upon the Postdoc Retreat, organized by the PCDI, I grabbed the opportunity to find out what my options are and talk to scientist that moved outside the academia. I used these three days to gather evidence that it would be best for me to work at a research company. At the retreat there were people from both sides speaking about their career path. Four examples of people that moved outside the academia, one didn’t have the patience to do experiments and became an investment banker with an interest in biotech companies. Another found science not dynamic enough and applied at a biotech company. And a third and fourth found out they had other interests and pursued a career in science communication and graphic design, both kept a link with science. This shed light on the Not-So-Dark-Anymore Side, but I could not find myself in all the motivations I heard.

So in the three days I spend at the postdoc retreat I found no evidence that it was best for me to pursue a career outside the academia. Therefore, I decided to stay in science and use the tools I learned at the retreat to shape my career. Currently I have applied for a grant and accepted a position as reviewer for a small scientific journal to increase my visibility (a trick I learned at the retreat). That last decision was something I didn’t plan to do before the retreat. I figured, it wasn’t Science or Nature, so why bother? But after the retreat I realized I was wrong, if you don’t start somewhere you never get where you want to go. I don’t have a fixed point where I want to go, but in this blog I will report on my navigation through the maze that is called science.