Its true - post docs arent born, they're made. Talk to a high school student and if you can find me one kid who says that he/she wants to become a postdoc, I'll show you a flying crocodile! For those not in the know, its very hard to even understand what or who a postdoc is. The dictionary definition of a postdoc as "a postdoctoral researcher or scholar" isnt very enlightening, either. I usually end up telling my non-academic friends that a postdoc is one who has completed a doctoral program but is still doing the same kind of work, for similar pay, and exploring job options!
So what made me a postdoc? That age-old human instinct - curiosity. It all began when I first looked down a microscope and marveled at the perfection of a single cell. It had a body of a few tens of microns, and yet it performed all the functions of a living organism. It ate and drank, breathed and excreted, reproduced, and responded to its environment - almost like you and I would! I had found a fascinating enigma that I just had to know more about. And from that day, I was hooked on biology.
I must admit that I was a reluctant entrant in the field of science, more keen on humanities, but persevering in science because it would lead to better job options. Nothing in my science education had, however, prepared me for how much fun research turned out to be. It wasnt about sitting through boring classes, learning formulae or solving endless numericals! Instead, it was about boldly going where no [wo]man had gone before, scientifically speaking. It was about the thrill of being a pioneer on a small scale, and solving a puzzle, no matter how obscure, before anybody else could. Sure there were days of frustration, experiments that wouldnt work, projects that went nowhere. But they were soon forgotten in the highs of a successful experiment, the joy of seeing my name in a high impact paper, or even a good-natured wrangle with colleagues about theories and fundamentals.
And that, my friends, is how I came to be a postdoc. I followed the call of science from doctoral research to postdoctoral research. I am very curious to know what brought others to postdoc-dom. Did you get hooked on research, too? Or is it just an interesting job that you do well and dont mind doing? Please do share your experiences...
So what made me a postdoc? That age-old human instinct - curiosity. It all began when I first looked down a microscope and marveled at the perfection of a single cell. It had a body of a few tens of microns, and yet it performed all the functions of a living organism. It ate and drank, breathed and excreted, reproduced, and responded to its environment - almost like you and I would! I had found a fascinating enigma that I just had to know more about. And from that day, I was hooked on biology.
I must admit that I was a reluctant entrant in the field of science, more keen on humanities, but persevering in science because it would lead to better job options. Nothing in my science education had, however, prepared me for how much fun research turned out to be. It wasnt about sitting through boring classes, learning formulae or solving endless numericals! Instead, it was about boldly going where no [wo]man had gone before, scientifically speaking. It was about the thrill of being a pioneer on a small scale, and solving a puzzle, no matter how obscure, before anybody else could. Sure there were days of frustration, experiments that wouldnt work, projects that went nowhere. But they were soon forgotten in the highs of a successful experiment, the joy of seeing my name in a high impact paper, or even a good-natured wrangle with colleagues about theories and fundamentals.
And that, my friends, is how I came to be a postdoc. I followed the call of science from doctoral research to postdoctoral research. I am very curious to know what brought others to postdoc-dom. Did you get hooked on research, too? Or is it just an interesting job that you do well and dont mind doing? Please do share your experiences...
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