Castles and Coprolites

It's that time of year when many recent PhDs and ECRs are thinking about their next career move. I am currently fielding a number of enquiries about this, from people interested in working with us in the NEMCAS lab , and it made me realise yet one more thing that is not always made clear to people early on in their academic careers. The word postdoc is used to generally to describe roles that a researcher undertakes after their PhD, but it's a broad label that actually conceals important distinctions. The biggest distinction is between a postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) employed on someone else's grant, and an independent research fellow holding their own funding. Both have PhDs, both are researchers. Both may publish papers, supervise students, and contribute to major discoveries, but the relationship they have to the research itself is fundamentally different. A PDRA is employed to work on a project that has been conceived, designed, and funded under the leadership ...

I don't really do 'advice' posts that often, but I was inspired to do this after a recent 'mini interview' I did for the Chronicle of Higher Education on what it's like doing multiple postdocs in the humanities. The resulting article is all a bit more doom and gloom than I was expecting, so I thought I would do my own version here that focuses on the positives. Disclaimers. 1. The Chronicle article I assume is for a US audience, and it's worth pointing out that there is  a terminology difference. Postdocs in the UK, at least in my field, are not really training positions, but contract research jobs. You may get some additional training but that's not the main purpose, and you're expected to be able to do the job from day one. 2. Also I am an unusual case in many ways, as I sit right in the middle of the sciences and humanities, and actually for the scientists in my field it's the norm to do multiple postdocs and fellowships.3.  And my case is ...