It's a bad habit to get into. Postdoc positions are liberally scattered over the past 10 years of my CV, and it's got to stop. Well, something has to change, because my funding runs out in 12 months. So here's the deal: I find a permanent position by the end of the year or I move out of academia... Gulp.

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since I finished my PhD in cosmology. It's been 10 years since I made a galactic research leap and followed my growing interest in biology. And I've conducted 10 years of research in mathematical ecology and evolutionary biology, which has taken me to four countries and facilitated collaborations with a diverse array of biologists. At the start it was hell. But the collaborations gave me a research foothold. Now, looking back on seabirds, cows, sheep, frogs, DNA and equations, the range of problems and experiences has been a joy. Theoretical ecology brings a lot of job diversity.

So here I am, a well-travelled senior postdoc at the University of Lausanne. Lectureship applications have started, job searching is well under way, as is considering where my partner and I could live. Have I been a postdoc too long? Have I collaborated too much? And what if this career doesn't work? In the year to come I'll have to explore the possibilities and contact friends who have made the move out of academia. Kick the postdoc habit.