This newsletter is distributed the last Thursday of the month and contains a variety of resources, links, and reflections on graduate-level career & professional development, higher education, and an occasional detour into neuroscience topics, the area I formally trained in as a graduate student and postdoc.
Missed the inaugural newsletter from January 2021?
Events that unfolded prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted me to seek out a new career opportunity. Here, I highlight the importance of a strong support network in helping one land an initial position post-postdoc. I addition, I reflect on whether one's working environment values your contributions and is place you can see yourself at long-term.
In this study, the authors leveraged National Science Foundation data (Survey of Earned Doctorates & Survey of Doctorate Recipients) to understand how postdoctoral training length, compensation, and location varied across the physical sciences/engineering and life science. In addition, they showed that movement between employment sectors after postdoctoral training was quite varied and fluid, dispelling the notion that postdoctoral training outside academia restricts opportunities for securing tenure-track faculty positions in the future. They report many of their findings by race/ethnicity, sex, and US citizenship status highlighting how career trajectories and salaries can differ amongst these populations.
SmartSkills is a free, virtual course for postdocs who are members of the NPA. Monthly classes are taught by experts and focus on building skills critical to career and personal success.
Note that most US institutions of higher education have a sustaining membership to the NPA, which you can use to access a FREE affiliate membership with your .edu email address. Learn more here.
The goal of Becoming a Resilient Scientist is to help the postdoctoral community develop the resilience you need to navigate challenging situations at work and in life. The series will consist of five webinars, each followed by a small group discussion the following week. Each discussion will center around the resilience of postdocs and postdoc office admins but will also include ways to apply the session material as participants move towards becoming mentors in their fields.
Seeking out a postdoctoral training position should involve considerable thought and deliberation to ensure it will further your career and professional development.
I reflect on my own experience as a postdoc to highlight what I loved about it and how it can be beneficial despite the well documented drawbacks of postdoctoral training.
I encourage you to find ways to give back and get involved in your community, however you define that. You will learn and grow as a person from doing it.
