Picking from the postdoc menu.
Some people take one look at a menu and know exactly what they want. But at every table there's one person who looks at the menu and freezes. They make lists of possibilities, including back-ups in case a dish has run out. They come up with formulas that take into account their affinity for each ingredient and when they last ate a similar dish. Invariably they have a few food allergies too.
When you're a grad student, picking a postdoc is like choosing dinner at a particularly huge restaurant. The menu is daunting, and factoring in each ingredient just makes it worse. Should you try the new field you keep reading about (read: Chilean sea bass) or one you've tried before (read: salmon)? Should you choose the lab that addresses interesting questions with novel techniques (read: sous vide) or familiar favourites (read: roast)? Is now the time to see whether that allergy to cnidarians was just a phase?
Choosing a postdoc has one notable advantage over restaurant dilemmas: you can apply to more than one place — like taking a taste of all the dishes that intrigue you. Graduate school has made me better at making informed decisions, but deciding on a postdoc isn't going to come down to a magic formula. Still, having sent out application letters for positions this week, I will interact with each lab before committing to my future scientific sustenance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Vries, M. The postdoc menu. Nature 440, 1242 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7088-1242c
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7088-1242c