Living Science
I’m still a newbie on the Nature Network and am still finding my niche here.
Judging by my first posts, my niche will be a cluster of musings, with the strong gravity center consisting of one topic: how to define your own way. In science. Science in every way. Science as a way of thinking – observing the world, as a profession or better to say way-of-life, science as a set of steps which most of us go through…
I keep wondering if there is a good protocol to follow to build up a great career in science complemented with great personal life..
What is the best goal to follow?
• Follow your curiosity, sometimes even obsession to find out details about certain phenomenon, to find the “truth” about it, not paying too much attention to impact factors and titles…
• Treat science as business – create a start-up company, file for patents, commercialize…
• Go from one lab to the other, learning new techniques, new methods, building up your CV, hoping you’ll get that grant to form your own group…follow the trends rather than your own preferences
• Keep close to academia, start the tenure track as soon as you can…
et cetera et cetera…
so many different paths, so many different options, of course there is no general solution, everyone’s unique. But there is one general characteristic, at least for the aspiring scientists from smaller countries, especially countries in transition. Moving. Physically changing locations. Being a nomad even?
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http://scimaps.org/maps/map/illuminated_diagram__19/
http://scimaps.org/maps/map/us_job_market_where__122/detail/
I myself have been moving around quite a lot following mostly my own curiosity combined with ambition, also trying to keep as close as possible to academia. I’d like to venture also to the business world, but that’s still in the future…And during all that time I’ve been wondering which criteria I should choose to establish if I should “let my roots grow in” at some of those positions/countries I’ve been in so far.
Is it only professional success that matters? Of course not. Not for me at least. But I find it quite difficult to adjust this professional career, finding your own place in the terribly competitive world of science with the pursuit of happiness in private life. So many things change when you move. New people, new conditions, missing old friends, family, how to deal with all that? Starting from the emotional scratch over and over again…Very tiring.
I would like to hear some of your experiences and thoughts about this.
And in the next post, I’ll try to define my working solution to this problem…