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.
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.
