Surely I'm not the only one who procrastinates by reading blogs? Or perhaps that's why you're reading this now?
While not exactly a blog, it reads like one: This week, our Educated Woman, Micella Phoenix DeWhyse, writes about how she's settling in to postdoc life and finding it a bit ... unsettling. "Why can't I stay upright and ride off to the next stage?" she writes. "Why do I feel the need to keep having someone set me up again? Why does it feel like I still haven't quite started out, when by all outside accounts I'm already pretty far down the road?"
She goes on to observe that there just aren't any gold stars in postdoc life--no rewards for showing up every day, nothing for performing successful experiments, and no encouragement from those around her. Sometimes all it takes is the tiniest nod from a supervisor or adviser to boost the self-esteem. Micella notes that it's weird that there are so few gold stars in training for a career that's all about winning the approval of others.
After you've read this week's Educated Woman, wander over to The Daily Transcript for the 6th edition of What's Up, Postdoc? -- the carnival of postdoc life where bloggers submit their favorite posts about lab life. (Links to previous editions can be found here.)
Some highlights:
Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous notes that things aren't always cheery in postdoc life, but he takes a look on the bright side in Seriously, I'm enjoying myself immensely right now.
I'm not sure whether he meant it to be so uproariously funny, but I found myself laughing out loud at Sunil of Balancing Life's post, Survivor - Biochemistry Lab. "Well, I don’t know about deserted islands, but let us say I had to choose to be abandoned all alone somewhere," Sunil writes. " ... There is only one place I can think of where I think I’ll be able to do just fine. And that would be a well equipped biochemistry/biology lab."
And Propter Doc writes about what the perfect postdoc looks like. "What do I think the perfect postdoc looks like? You know what, I'm going to really hate myself for my answer because my perfect postdoc looks scarily close to what I've got in some regards, but very different in others. But similar enough to make me cross with myself." For more on that topic, check out The Perfect Postdoc: A Primer on Science Careers.
Comments
Post a comment