Probably time I came clean. This is funny, because I actually feel a little dirty (and not in a fun way).
I wasn’t able to find a job. I went back to lab. To the same herpes lab in which I finished up my grad work. It’s a temporary and ¾ time post-doc, and it’s not what I had in mind for this point in my life. It kind of feels like I moved back into my parents’ house after college.
Now with my crankiness vented, I can say how grateful I am to have a fall-back, a comfortable, familiar environment with people I like and part ownership of a painful, but interesting project. At a point in the economy when the front page of the Wall Street Journal is filled with pictures of 1000 people lined up for 15 jobs, I am grateful to have work. Period.
I am surprised that I can call myself a post-doc now, temporary or not. I love not being a grad student. I love the freedom of being back in a lab and the opportunity to attend great talks whenever I feel like it. I like feeling ‘in’ again, even though I tried so hard to get out.
So I guess NN has another return to lab on their hands. Hope Jenny doesn’t mind a copy cat. I have about a billion impressions to report, now that I am back in the big house lab.
It’s hard to leave…
Be warned.
I was wondering how things fit together when I saw that update from you on facebook. Makes sense now! Although it kind of sucks when things don’t work out the way we want them to, it sounds like you’re making the best of it. Good luck!!
(Shouldn’t the title of the post be ‘back in white’?)
Heh – I just found a typo in one of the addresses on the article you linked to.. :)
Enjoy (and are you listening to AC/DC on your iPod?).
Or Amy Winehouse…
Funny how in times of economic bonanza people are dismissive of postdoc positions (and are always dreaming of quitting and finding a “real job”). I guess it takes a recession to realize that:
1) It pays the bills
2) You still get to travel to (with any look) cool places for meetings
Richard – Harder than I realized.
Bob – That thought had occurred to me! Luckily, I still have my NN blogging to come back to for identity and human interaction!
Steffi – I noticed that typo too! So funny. That’s our collaborator’s lab, so I figure it was up to him to find that typo, right? [back in black because I am cranky about it].
Stephen – No, but I should probably start. I need a motivating force.
Cristian – Fair enough. In times of economic prosperity, people take post-docs for granted, thinking that they will always be able to land one. I don’t think that’s the case now. But I think that’s the case with many different kinds of jobs. These days, a number of people have told me how difficult it is to find a postdoc now that everyone’s funding is low. People are looking much longer and wider for positions. My situation is (relatively) unique in that I never (ever ever) wanted to do a post-doc. My PhD was a means to an end which has yet to materialize. If I am dismissive of my post-doc, it’s only because it was not my Plan A. It does pay the bills, just barely.
Yeah, I heard.
I didn’t want to ask what you were doing now (‘cause I knew you weren’t doing what you wanted to do) but Martin told me.
I’m on postdoc salary now, doing non-postdoc things. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse (I don’t even get to go to interesting seminars, I just announce them – and I’m supposed to be doing other work on the side but I’m just too tired and still need to get my thesis bound and deal with old data at the lab, where I haven’t set foot at all since the day I defended.)
My situation is (relatively) unique in that I never (ever ever) wanted to do a post-doc. My PhD was a means to an end which has yet to materialize
I was just the same in 1987, just before the last big recession hit.
I went through a huge phase of not wanting to do a postdoc, but that was when I was doing one. At least you don’t have to write a thesis!