Working as a Scientist
It's crucial to mention that, unfortunately, the benefits I am talking about aren't a feature of every postdoc job. In fact, some postdocs are treated with little or no respect and come close to being chained to the lab bench by their bosses under a tacit threat of expulsion on a daily basis. But for the rest of us, being a postdoc is a pretty good gig. Assuming we have a decent employer in the 1st place, what are these mysterious advantages?
1) Flexible working hours. Several labs are run as strict nine to five enterprises. Many of us fortunate postdocs decide for ourselves roughly when we turn up for work and when we clock off. Our bosses will only often get twitchy if we regularly arrive late and leave early. We just have to get the work done, whatever the hour of the day or night. Here is a tip for those of you who habitually leave the house before breakfast and get home just in time for a late night film: get a new life. Flexibility is great, but only if you take advantage of it. You have to be able to sustain your effort over the long haul.
2) An absent boss. Our bosses are a particularly well-travelled bunch, what with conferences, seminars, workshops, committee meetings, collaborator's labs and the like. Many of us experience a level of independence from our overseers that lot of other professionals, whose bosses are constantly breathing down their necks, would envy.
3) Relatively slow motion. Even given the very real pressure of meeting grant and manuscript-revision deadlines, science moves quite slowly compared to other areas of work. You might think you are under pressure to publish your new paper, but you usually have a window of at least several months - sometimes years - before anyone is likely to scoop your work. Articles like the one you're reading have to meet a tighter deadline.
4) Freedom to follow your instincts. This is not true in big hungry groups run by power-mad despots, but, putting that rather sad point aside, most of us enjoy a high degree of intellectual freedom in our work. We postdocs often find ourselves in the driver's seat and usually act as partners with our bosses in deciding where to turn.
5) Knowledge monopoly. As a scientist, you are a specialist, a profesional in your field, at least in a local sense. This both isolates you from your peers and draws them to you, seeking your insight. It means that some people have no idea too whether you know what you're talking about. This specialisation gives you a little intellectual breathing space. In other fast-moving professions, where everyone is supposed to know the same stuff, you have to keep up with the pack, since the prize goes to the most eager and up-to-date information hunter? Or the one who is most successful at demonstrating his knowledge to right people. Scientists are likely to be in-house experts in a subject or technique in their own place of work.
6) Peace and quiet. Even if you have a plethora of expectant students to deal with, at least you do not have to face angry customers complaining about your level of service. In a day to day practical sense, several people know exactly what you are doing or, sometimes, even where you're. Most of us tackle technical challenges that demand that we work quietly for a few of hours or more. You get to experience the satisfaction of being treated like a mature professional whilst you get quietly on with your work. And for most of us, no inquisition takes place on your 'return' to the lab. Mobile sales representatives have told me that this feeling of freedom is a real plus in their sometimes-isolated working life. We're paid to concentrate on fiddly things and think really hard, and having time set aside to working in this way is a luxury missing in most professions.
7) United Nations. As a postdoc you probably work in an international environment. You get the opportunity to meet and befriend people of many different nationalities which is fun. In the process, you also recognise that you belong to a much bigger, global effort.
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