How to make the postdoc experience better.

There are two ways to think about how to make the postdoc experience better. The first is from a personal point of view – i.e. determine what you can do as a postdoc to alleviate the current difficulties you face. The second is more systematic and requires an overhaul in the academic structure as well as a paradigm shift. This blogpost will focus on the former.

I talked with a number of people in my field (n>10; current postdocs, assistant professors, senior faculty well established in their field) and almost all agreed that the postdoctoral experience is “the best of times and the worst of times.” And 80% of those who now had tenure or were tenure track said that it was more of the worst of times.

Given that you are operating under the worst of times, what can you do to make life easier for yourself? Here is a list of things that I have complied from talking with friends and colleagues.

1. Remember quitting is an option. It does not mean you failed.

As postdocs, we have something that Assistant Professors (at least immediately) lack - mobility. Right now, sitting in my inbox are 12 different ads for postdoctoral positions across the United States and Europe. I’m qualified to apply for all 12 of those positions. Although faculty positions may be scarce and the competition for those faculty positions is enormous, there seems to be a ton of postdoctoral positions (at least in my field), perhaps largely coming from stimulus funding.

It may be heartbreaking to have to think about this one and it will depend on your circumstances (visa requirements, a partner, kids, etc) but you can get out of academia. A senior faculty at a prestigious LargeUniversityinUSA, extremely well-respected in his field, said that now is the time to apply to industry jobs. Since most academics have their heads up their ass, they don’t know how to go about applying to industry- so they make a half-hearted attempt. This faculty member also believes that the faculty job situation will only get worse because the economy will not get better. Competition is minimal right now for those industry jobs, but in 5 years there will be a scramble from PhD graduates and postdocs to apply to these jobs. One thing is true is that if you do suffer from a two-body problem, most industry jobs are in big cities, which means that there is a greater probability that both of you will find jobs.

The psychological benefits to thinking about your next job are enormous. First it is an opportunity to reflect on what isn’t working about where you currently are and to figure out what you seek in your workplace. Second, it will boost your confidence in your own abilities and help you look forward to better things.

One postdoc friend of mine applied for a couple of industry positions when he thought his funding was going to run out. He had a couple of interviews and the interviewers told him that his resume was quite impressive. He spent maybe two hours on the application and apparently copied the format from one of my old resumes. During this interview, he realized how smart he was and how much he knew. This friend also applied to be an economic analyst at a bank in New York. His reasoning was - I’m not an economist and I’ve never worked in a bank but hey I keep my money in a bank and I like money. So why not? Fuck, it’s brilliant. Of course he never heard back (as far as I can tell) but the idea is that he put it out there.

Academia is a 10-tonne truck that crushes your self-esteem. Applying for other jobs may help you realize just how good you are and that you do have options.

2. Use the time to get to know academia at a distance.

I believe that it takes at least year to get to know people and places. After a year at SmallUniversity, I’d say that I understand how funding structures can impact the politics of a department. I now see how each professor relates to those political and funding structures within a department. Although as postdocs we have no power, we can witness the inner workings of a department without any investment in that structure. We aren’t applying for or seeking eventual tenure at this institution, and our labs and the people associated with those labs don’t live or die if we do or don’t get grants.

And no matter how challenging this past year has been, we are both grateful for the experience. Why? Now we recognize the subtle signposts of a difficult personality and can intuit political ambitions from the interpersonal dynamics in academic department. We also know what questions to ask of the faculty in the department to understand those political structures. And we know what type of colleagues we want and which ones we don’t.

3. Minimize your interactions if your supervisor is a fucknut.

One description of this personality type in academia, offered by an Assistant Professor at another institution, is that s/he is a power-crazed silverback, who will beat his/her chest and stomp the ground until they feel you understand in your gut that s/he is the alpha male.

Spend as little time as possible around this type of personality. If s/he is a brilliant gorilla, then chances are they have very little time for you in the first place. You can also go to other professors in the department to discuss and help you with the science.

A second way to protect yourself is to change the nature of your communications. If most of your communication is through email, then you’ve got a written record and it minimizes the instability you feel from the ground shaking as a result of the stomping.

If and when you do have to meet with the silverback, one way to approach the situation is to act confused. Being confused is non-confrontational and can’t be seen as a threat. Ask them to be explicit and if necessary act like you don’t understand and get them to draw or write out what they want you to do (keep this for future reference). Don’t call the silverback on their inconsistencies and just leave everything as an open question. When they change their mind from the previous meeting, pull out the piece of paper you had them write on and ask gently, “I’m confused could you explain which of these directions you think we should go on the manuscript?” Never lead the way, let the silverback do it.

4. Get two types of communities: one within the university and one outside the university.

Joining with other postdocs, regardless of the department, will make you feel less alone. It will be a place to share your experience and hear other experiences. In the long run, a community will provide you both support and a voice during a very difficult time. Furthermore, it may lead to the establishment of a group or union that will ensure the university develops consistent policies on how postdocs are treated. In Connecticut, California, New Jersey and now Massachusetts, postdocs have organized unions to establish guidelines on compensation, visas, intellectual property, hire arbitrators, and ensure that postdocs are treated fairly. A recent issue of The Chronicle, reported that a panel of deans at the annual meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools said that research institutions should be prepared for the fact that postdoc unions will likely become more commonplace.

At the University of California, where 6,400 postdocs won union certification in August, union officials are negotiating with the university over pay and other issues. Christine Des Jarlais, an assistant dean at the University of California at San Francisco who also spoke on Thursday's panel, said negotiations were aided by the fact that the university already had put in place system wide guidelines for postdocs.

In discussions with unions, universities must preserve the ability of faculty members to make final decisions about the academic performance of postdoctoral researchers, she said. If a case is sent to arbitration, outside arbitrators should not be able to substitute their judgment on academic matters unless a faculty member has failed to follow an established procedure, she said.

"Faculty absolutely have the right to recruit, appoint, reappoint, not appoint, to communicate and mentor, to set the standards for work performance," she said.

Universities do have an advantage when dealing with postdoctoral unions, compared with other unions, she said, because postdocs are less likely to strike than other groups.

"That's what's so unique about the postdoc world," she said. "It's almost like the university has the upper hand now, because postdocs who want careers are typically not going to go out on strike. They're just not going to do it."

While there doesn’t seem to be any teeth to a union that has no leverage, it is still a place to feel like you have a voice.

Although I believe that you need support within the academic environment, I think it’s just as crucial to have a support system outside the university. This may come in the form of a university counselor, family or friends or all of the above. One of my postdoc friends is having a really great postdoc experience. But she has set up an complex friend and family network outside her town that she can visit. What this postdoc has done is essentially spread the risk. No one friend is her total support, instead, she can call upon various people to support her without the risk that she will drain one particular person. Plus for some people friendships and social interactions can be a way to re-energize.

5. Eat well, take some weekends off, and find a creative outlet for your anger and frustration.

I know this seems obvious, but in our life styles it is typically the first thing to go, especially if you are depressed. We think that given the context of the competitive environment and the ever-contracting job situation we can’t afford to follow hobbies or exercise or eat well, but actually we can’t afford not to. Productivity falls off when you are exhausted, depressed, anxious, stressed, or unhealthy. What makes you laugh? How do you replenish your energy and provide for your heart? How do you take care of yourself? Are you eating processed and/or take out food or do you spend time making healthy meals for yourself?

Working with a silverback, makes you think that you have no time for anything, especially if he is riding you about your tempo. But you know what - a fucknut is a fucknut no matter what. So whether you spend that extra evening or weekend in the lab, it is unlikely that this will change their behaviour. One postdoc friend I knew spent weekends, long evenings, and even their Christmas vacation in the lab getting data. And yet her supervisor told her that she had no passion. You can’t win with someone like this so instead of trying, why not spend your time finding what replenishes you.

A second reason for eating well, taking some weekends off, and finding a creative outlet for your anger and frustration is that you will be in a better position to make decisions about your life. In a situation where you are frustrated and angry because it seems like you have no control over your life, it is so important to find a way to discharge that emotional energy from your system.

Imagine that you have two scales: emotional state and a cognitive abilities scale. On the emotional scale, 1=minimal to no frustration and 10=blind rage, while on the cognitive scale 10=on the ball, 1=can’t think because a fog exists in my brain. A person in a blind rage is essentially in a brain fog and thus has reduced cognitive capacity. So the key is keeping the emotional scale low. One way to do that is to recognize and become aware of when the emotional scale is starting to increase, catching it, and dissipating the energy so the scale drops. Finding a creative outlet for this energy like painting, playing a musical instrument, washing the car, cleaning the house, baking bread, baking cookies, offers the added benefit that you now have something to show for that anger, frustration.

6. Change your attitude – live beyond approval.

We are trained from the time we are five in a study of how to seek approval. And every stage of academia continues that training. In academia, we make this crazy effort to seek approval for our performance as PhD students and postdocs from our supervisors, and then as tenure-track professors from our colleagues.

If you show up and express yourself, of course not everyone will agree with you. Some may appreciate what you say and do, but not everyone. And even if you do get approval, will it ever be enough? Approval seeking behaviors are needy and tiring and frankly, who wants to be around someone so clingy and always tired? There is so much in our lives that already tires us, so why add one more thing?

What this means is separating science from who we are. We are not our science. We only seek approval because we want people to like us. But really what does having our science critically evaluated have anything to do with liking us as a person? Most of the time, our colleagues and supervisors don’t spend enough time with us to know whether they truly like us or not. They only spend time with us in a professional sense. If your supervisor and/or colleagues like your science does it mean that they will like you? Nope – if they like the science, they like the science. It has nothing to do with you.

Unfortunately, the informality of academia confuses the lines between friendship and our professional lives. It might be that those lab socials, lab outings contribute to the blurring of the line. Minimizing the amount of social time (nonprofessional) that you spend with your lab and supervisor will help maintain that professional relationship. I also think that having a community outside of academia will help prevent you from using your colleagues and lab group as a social crutch.

I believe that not only do we seek external approval, but we also have trained ourselves to seek it internally. Again, will we ever get enough internal approval? I do this all the time and this kind of self-punishment is exhausting. It makes me feel like I have no chance at a career in science or even at life.

And so, while this may sound Oprahesque, I find it works.

For example, my internal voice says,

“You should have run that gel today and now you will be two whole days behind. How will you get that manuscript out by the end of the month if you keep putting lab work off. Such and such has 10 publications and you only have 5. You need that manuscript. This will seriously hamper your chances at a faculty position.”

When I write this out, I can see the ridiculousness of the logic. But in my head, I can’t seem to see it - this because the thought has me in an emotional vicegrip. So I take a deep breath and try to localize where in my body do I feel this statement. Usually I feel it in my jaw and right shoulder. Then I work on softening that part of my body. By this point those ridiculous thoughts have washed through me and I’ve let them go. The more I practice this the better I get. More practically, seeing yourself as something beyond just a scientist can help so have other hobbies or activities in your life.

I hope this advice was helpful. Obviously it is not comprehensive so if anyone has anything else to add – please bring it to the table.