Becoming a Professor: How to Follow-Up a Postdoc FAIL
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Postdocs are the hired guns of academic research. They come complete with technical expertise and motivation to tackle a new scientific challenge. The postdoc is regarded as a training position and for those who desire an academic career, this period is a springboard to that opportunity. In theory, a postdoctoral fellowship is not meant to be a prolonged period, in which dirty words like “decade” and “comfortable” come into play. Rather, a more focused approach would do us well- get in, get what you need, get out. But what happens if your experience ends up being more like get in, get stuck, get depressed? Is that the end of your academic dreams?
Sadly, the prospect of finding ourselves three years into a postdoc with little to show for it is not terribly uncommon. Uncertainty is an inherent part of research. In fact, if there was no uncertainty, research would be incredibly boring. It’s precisely the fact that we don’t know what will happen in any given experiment that provides the excitement of chasing the results. Polls have also shown that luck is a significant contributor to scientific success. The point here is that we know some portion of research is out of our control, so yes, bad things can happen to good people.
But for should we find ourselves several years into a postdoc with grim prospects for the success of the project, what should we do? Certainly, there are a number of factors that may influence the decision, but let’s assume for this poll that the ultimate career goal is to become a professor. If you found yourself in a similar situation, what would be your next step?
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Do you think multiple postdocs on a CV helps or hurts your job prospects?
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@chrisadieni
wrote on April 9, 2012 at 9:53 pm
It's a shame that the selections are radio-button (once answer only) as opposed to checkmarks (multiple possible answers). I'd select to find another postdoc (after allowing the first one a reasonable amount of time to work or not work), as well as applying to other faculty positions anyway.
InBabyAttachMode
wrote on April 10, 2012 at 8:43 am
I think luck is an important factor in success, but also your ability to know when to stop working on a project that is not going to work. I think if your project is really failing (with nothing that's even remotely publishable); three years is a long time. If you've spent three years on a project that went nowhere and you didn't work on anything else as a side project, I don't think you will succeed in finding a faculty position (but I might be wrong, since I'm not there yet). So I would go for another post-doc and try to get a paper and your own ideas in order to apply for a faculty position.
newprof
wrote on April 10, 2012 at 9:04 am
I agree with the above commenters, but also think that the advisor is somewhat to blame here, as well. If the postdoc really is an unmitigated failure (meaning in my field, no publications and none on the horizon), it's time to find a new lab. Maybe also time to do a meta-analysis, or take a figure or two and write a letter or note up for publication, which could be done in the old or new lab. If it's important to you, and the hours/compensation aren't a big problem, I see no issue with more than one postdoc. I had three postdocs over almost 5 years, but I also had almost 10 papers out of this time (combo first and supporting authors). So just like anything: it depends.
@chrisadieni
wrote on April 10, 2012 at 10:18 am
Newprof, what do you mean take a figure or two and write a letter or note up for publication? I'm very curious. I spent two years in a postdoc with no publications that came out even though I feel there were a few good data points that could've gone into one (either by myself or combined with someone else's data). Do you think it's possible to take some data from that would-be publication and write something up?
newprof
wrote on May 23, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Many journals in my field have "notes" which are short (~1000 word) publications often with one figure. I was also thinking of letters to the editor, as in Nature. I know nothing is certain, but a small, lower impact pub is better than no pub. There are also some great papers all taken from public data (the cryptomycota paper comes to mind), so in some fields you only need your laptop to make an advance and help salvage your own career.
alan@benchfly
wrote on May 24, 2012 at 10:55 am
Excellent points! It's easy to get stuck thinking that a paper has to be "all-or-nothing". Communications, letters to the editor, and similar options may not have been the original goal, but there's nothing wrong with changing strategies to keep the CV growing. Being flexible and taking initiative are essential for success, in academic research or any field.
Muppet
wrote on April 10, 2012 at 10:03 am
A couple of failed postdocs – closes the road to research or academics – oh boy – you are DONE !! Miserable situation – Where is the way to go ? – that become another new topic of research ! Thanks for sharing a terrible situation of failed researchers. Its a no gravity space – where they find them, after investment of several years !
Anonymous
wrote on October 24, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Stress from PI, competition for faculty positions, and fear of stable career – these things really kill the basic tool for doing science – a creating mind. As psychologists have repeatedly pointed out, creativity favors the calm mind. If you really think about it, you can feel the ratio of (applied creativity)/(potential creativity) dropping quickly in academia. Postdocs get hurt the most, because they are too old to be ordered around by PI's and often have lots of unfulfilled dreams built-up from graduate student days.
Anonymous 2
wrote on July 12, 2013 at 4:31 am
what you said is 100% correct