Paths to independence for postdocs

[CharonY]

I am starting this as a split from another thread.http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/71115-finally-in-college/

 

 

 

In the academic area one of the major issues (IMO) is that there are no real mid-level positions (with very few exceptions). Either you are on the path of getting tenure, or you are stuck on temporary positions. A postdoc is essentially a cheap waiting loop until you either score a TT or find something outside academia. Obviously there cannot be sufficient tenure positions to absorb all graduates (or even just the majority of them), and since there is the political will to increase the number of graduates, the situation is likely to become worse.

 

Sad thing is that I know quite a few people who would actually be content with the equivalent of postdoc positions, despite the low pay. However, the way the system is set up, a long postdoc is likely to hurt your career and make you more dependent on the goodwill of your supervisor (but that is another issue entirely.

 

 

 

Totally. A major issue I have with the current system is the impossibility of getting your ideas funded as a postdoc, especially a foreign postdoc. There no NIH or NSF platforms which would fund a proposal I wrote with me as the PI. This means that if I have an idea I really want to persue, I have to hand it over to a tenured professor to act as PI, even if I write the grant. This gives them curatorial control over both the project and the funding, leaving the postdoc who thought of the idea extremely vulnerable. In an absolute worst case scenario, a PI could let the postdoc write a grant, then choose to not hire that postdoc for the project and leave them out in the cold. I've been lightly scorched on a grant I wrote, and I know many postdocs who have been burned by PI's on grants that were the postdoc's idea - ranging from funding being spent on other projects, to core components being farmed out to other lab members as the PI sees fit as the demands of running the PI's lab and facilitating the postdoc's project collide.

 

It's a system which actively discourages young scientists from persuing independent lines of research in academic settings which I find extremely frustrating.

 

Actually I can think of a worse scenario, write grants that do not hit and then get urged to write further grants for the PI without actually having time to do research of any sorts (and obviously without crediting in the grant). After two years these postdocs may very well leave the position with nothing to show.

 

Also, as a correction to a an earlier post of mine : the NIH grant towards independence is the K99/R00 mechanism. Non US citizens are also eligible for that. I think there was one more for postdocs but can't remember). Then there are those for junior scientists, but they require sponsoring (or a position other than postdoc). H1B was also ok for those.

 

There are several major issues that postdocs are facing. One is the lack of independence, which is a bit of a bigger issue in the USA. The other, more global issue is the lack of not time-limited positions (which I called mid-level positions).

A third issue is that long postdoc actually count against you. In other areas, especially in private sector, years of experience allow you to rise in position as it demonstrates industrial experience. In academia the worth of postdoc drop sharply after around 3-6 years (depending on field). After that time a postdoc may be considered a failure as he/she was not able to secure tenure track within that time (again, I am talking about the US system for now). Together with the potential lack of independence it is not easy for the postdoc to get out of that mess.

 

One thing to realize is that careers are generally not made on ones own. There is always the requirement of support from the PI (ideally) or securing the support from the community. Unfortunately most junior postdocs still solely focus on productivity (i.e. publishing papers), but that is not enough. Creating visibility is obviously the major obstacle and I would like to discuss some methods to achieve that as well as maybe discuss strategies to deal with PIs of various types, as well as how to become a good PI yourself.

 

 

Edit: I do not know how to quote

Edited December 7, 2012 by CharonY