The postdoc experience: hopes and fears

What is it actually like to be a postdoc? Do the pressures to publish, secure funding and network keep you awake at night?  Or do you relish the challenge?

Holly Else from ‘Times Higher Education spoke to six postdocs who work in a range of disciplines at UK universities about their hopes and fears, and the reality of life in the choppy waters of the academy immediately after completing a PhD.’

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Filippo Contesi – ‘Some people have a plan B. I don’t. I am not going to make a plan B until I feel myself not getting what I want’

Elena Riva – ‘The baby changed my life quite a lot…I loved research but when you find something that makes you happy, you follow it’

Ozlem Edizel – ‘Sometimes all the deadlines from both universities come at the same time’

Bert van Landeghem – ‘I have moved around a lot already. It is nice to move around but you cannot keep on doing it for ever’

David Loudon – ‘You can’t keep carrying on being a postdoc without trying to progress in some way’

Adina Feldman – ‘I know that there are problems with academia but there are also good things. I like the flexible work environment’

 

You can read the full interviews here – https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/the-postdoc-experience-hopes-and-fears?nopaging=1

What are your experiences? What advice would you offer someone completing their PhD and considering a postdoc?

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