“And you’ve got to be prepared to travel, and network, network, network!”

This is what Erich has learnt in preparing for, and working towards his first post-doc. When ScienceHub last spoke to him, he and Karen had been in Washington D.C. for 9 months.

“The main thing is to know where you want to go and who you want to work with. Research them. If you want to do a post-doc, you have to organise it quite some time before you finish,” adds Karen, who experienced all the difficulties inherent in finding work overseas. She felt she was immediately disregarded for many positions because of her eligibility to work in the US for a relatively short period. And after arriving in Washington, also had to reassess how much it would cost to live in the US, and find a second job to cover expenses.

“It’s been an unusual situation, uprooting to move here, having to organise all that, having to work at a relatively high tempo, then Karen having to find work and not having the normal sort of basis back in Australia that we’re used to ,” reflects Erich.

And now that their time in Washington, D.C, and effectively their first post-doctoral experience is coming to an end, what are the two young scientists most proud of? Ladies first -

“Sometimes I wonder … I don’t have this experience, or that … but then I realise I’m doing okay. I like what I’m doing and am glad I’ve had the opportunity to do it. If I had the chance to continue in palaeontology, that would be great. But my interests have always been very broad.

“I’m most proud of finishing my PhD and already having published some of it. But also, getting here to Washington, and finding work here, even if it’s not technically at a level at which I’m supposed to be capable. It’s important to me that I’ve done it.”

And Erich?

“That’s easy! When I was five years old, a family friend asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? A fireman, or a footballer, to play cricket?’ The stereotypical things. She said I responded with a straight face, ‘No, I want to be a palaeontologist’, and what I’m most proud about is that I did it. You know, even if I end up making bread or selling shoes, that’s fine. If I don’t make a job out of it forever, at least I can say I was palaeontologist for a while.”

Summary:
• Network
• Plan ahead
• Be flexible
• Be prepared to travel to find your dream job
• Expect to be out of your comfort zone and that things won’t be the same as at home

ScienceHub is incredibly grateful to Drs Karen Roberts and Erich Fitzgerald for the generosity with which they’ve shared their experiences and opinions. From time to time, ScienceHub will have other articles featuring this pair of talented young scientists – we wish them very well.

Related articles:

• Spotlight – Palaeontology: a study of life in the geological past
• Pavloc’s Epilogue: Bright young things, part 1 – post-docs in the USA
• Pavlov’s Epilogue: Bright young things, part 2 – the value of advice

1. Do what you love, love what you do and stick at it.

“Enjoy the thrill of discovery and ultimately your persistence will pay off,” says Dr X.

“Persistence is one of the skills scientists have. During very difficult situations or when you think experiments are going really badly, it’s then often when really great discoveries are made … Just to stick at it and be persistent.”

2. Choosing where to do a PhD is important. Decide on a research team with plenty of post-docs and fewer students.

“You’ll access people who are [more mature in their careers], and who are probably more willing to help students.

“It’s also important to pick a project where you’re part of a team. Throughout my PhD I was the only person working on my project and that sort of isolation can be a little difficult. From a publication perspective too, if you’re part of a team, you’re more likely to publish, which makes it easier when you want to transition into your first post-doc, when you want to get your own lab, or in whatever career path you choose.”

3. Having mentors is valuable for a young scientist.

“It’s important often just to have someone to talk to about what you’re thinking. I’ve never really been mentored in a formal way, my mentors have been people I’ve meet along the path.

“My boss from my first post-doc encouraged me to do an MBA, and seem to be really clued in to helping people with their career progression. That was really useful and I found it easy to talk to him about what I was thinking.

“He was the one who really encouraged me to get my current job in the biotech industry … although he does keep asking whether I’m ever going to come back to the lab!”

… And mentors are helpful not only for a young scientist, but throughout a scientist’s career, and regardless of whether you’re in a lab or corporate role.

“What’s nice in the business world is that there are similar sorts of people you can go to for advice. In the last 12 months, I’ve been seeking out a few people who could help me with those things. It’s great to set up those relationships and set them up early.

Related articles:

• Careers – Industry: PhDs, MBAs & the biotech industry – what are you worth?

Drs Karen Roberts and Erich Fitzgerald are two young Australians working in Washington, D.C for a year.  Both have positions at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution.

It’s Science Hub’s great pleasure to talk to them in the coming months about preparing for a career post-PhD, doing a post-doc overseas, and more broadly, about becoming scientists.

Part 1: thinking ahead

“How do scientists become socialised to science?  How do they learn what it is to be a scientist?  How does a young scientist make that leap from saying ‘I’m a student doing my thesis’ to ‘I’m a research professional in training?’”

These are important questions and the young man asking them is Dr Erich Fitzgerald, 28, a palaeontologist trained in Melbourne.

Making the transition from PhD to post-doc requires preparation.  It also means renewing your commitment to a scientific career and changing the way you view your professional role.  For some, these steps are easy.  For others, the process is more difficult.

At the start of your PhD, the focus is on the project you’ll do, who your supervisors will be, and where you’re going to study.  But what do you hope to achieve long-term?  What skills, publications and technical know-how do you want to acquire?  What contacts do you want to make?  A PhD takes time, and your attitudes and values may change during its completion, but the message from Dr Karen Roberts is to plan early.

Karen, 27, did her PhD on the early evolution of Australian marsupials, a choice based on her interest in the origins of Australia’s fauna.  Her research focused on 10-20 million year old fossils from one of Australia’s biggest fossil beds.

“As I came towards the end of my PhD, I realised I didn’t have a lot of the technical experience that I really needed,” she says.  “As a palaeontologist, I was trained in biology and geology, but the jobs for which I was applying needed genetics too.  I also realised that because my PhD discipline was extremely specialised, it wasn’t studied elsewhere in the world.  That made it hard to come to Washington and immediately jump onto something new.  I’ve had to go through the literature again to find orientating points from which to work.”

Karen, through choice and necessity is diversifying her skills.  She is now cataloguing the Smithsonian’s collection of Pleistocene mammals and learning collections management.   Erich, on the other hand, is consolidating the reputation he developed as a student.

To work in Washington, he won a prestigious Smithsonian Post-Doctoral Fellowship and is continuing his research into prehistoric marine mammals.

“My PhD work was on marine fossils.  I studied specimens that were among the very earliest relatives of the modern baleen whale.  I got a lot of good data from that, some excellent results and really good publications.  And because whales are found world-wide, not just Australia, there are more possibilities to go overseas and work on them.  For people in palaeontology, it’s a tough one.  Australia’s a small pond, there are only so many researchers and only so much money.  The opportunities for turning your interests into a career are more difficult, but not impossible.”

Summary

• Question: what do I want to gain from my PhD?  What kinds of skills do I need to position myself for the job of my choice after my PhD?  Am I lacking any important skills, and who do I talk to about filling the gaps?
• Question: is my PhD topic restricted by geography, legislation, ethics, funding possibilities or anything else?  What opportunities will I have to continue and expand my work in this field?  How can I apply my interests and skill-set laterally to a different topic?

Next month Science Hub talks to Karen and Erich about finding the right career advice.

Related articles:

• Spotlight – Palaeontology: a study of life in the geological past
• Pavlov’s Epilogue: Bright young things, part 2 – the value of advice

Drs Karen Roberts and Erich Fitzgerald are two young Australians working in Washington, D.C for a year.  Both have positions at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution.

It’s Science Hub’s great pleasure to talk to them in the coming months about preparing for a career post-PhD, doing a post-doc overseas, and more broadly, about becoming scientists.

Completing a PhD is a wonderful achievement. At its end, you know you’ve contributed a new idea to science. And it shows you’ve got tenacity, brains, and skills in critical thinking and experimental design. But getting to the finish line can be tough. There’s a lot to learn and sometimes it just doesn’t go according to plan.

The thing to remember is that you’re not on your own. While a PhD candidate enjoys more independence than an Honours student, nobody expects you to know it all, especially at the beginning. Learning how to learn as a scientist, and developing the initiative to be responsible for learning is part of the process. There are people around to help you. In fact, it’s vital you ask for the help you need, and establish your own support systems.

“You’ve got to have somebody to bounce ideas off, or you’ll get to the end of your degree and you’re already behind the game,” says Karen.

So don’t let it happen to you! Like it or not, a PhD these days is an exercise in both education and competition. It’s about positioning yourself to take the next step in your scientific career, and making the most of every opportunity to advance yourself.

“I had a group of fellow researchers who were willing to act as a sounding board,” she says. “We had a great group of PhD students in my lab who provided me with good support, in addition to the support from my advisors.”

Developing productive relationships with co-workers and other students is especially important if your supervisor is busy with other responsibilities, such as teaching or administration. Determine the natural hierarchy of your research group – less senior members may be burdened with fewer extra- curricula roles and happier to mentor you.

“Mentors are role models and provide you with some idea of what options are available post-PhD,” says Erich.

“You learn about the big ideas, who the personalities are, the field stories – it’s all important stuff in learning about being a researcher and about the culture of science. You’re better prepared to face the reality of finding your first post-doc. I was lucky to have a number of mentors to cover different aspects of my professional development. I knew where I could go, on matters scientific and non-scientific.”

In Erich’s view, success lies not just in having good mentors, but in the degree to which a student is motivated to find answers.

“You can see PhD students divided into those who have that aptitude and passion, who are go- getters and who understand how scientists are – and there you come back to the importance of mentors. Clearly, those students who are self-motivated and self-driven are going to excel.”

Summary
• Nobody expects you to know it all
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions or seek help, but develop the confidence and skills to find your own answers
• Goal: learn how to learn as a scientist and become responsible for your own learning
• Develop systems of support – peers and mentors
• Be proud of contributing to science, and of your own progress

Next month ScienceHub talks to Karen and Erich about working overseas.

Related articles:

• Spotlight – Palaeontology: a study of life in the geological past
• Pavlov’s Epilogue - Bright young things: part 1

Professor Peter Koopman heads the Division of Molecular Genetics and Development at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland.  He is a Federation Fellow of the Australian Research Council, the author of over 160 papers – including 14 in Nature, Science or Cell, on the editorial board of several international journals and the recipient of numerous high-level awards.  Between 2005 and 2008 he was a member of the ARC College of Experts.

“Whether to do a PhD?  Certainly, only enter into it if you have the commitment and the passion to do a great job.  There’s no point setting off on this path with a half-hearted attitude.

“A PhD is exploratory.  It’s about getting your feet wet and your hands dirty.  It’s about getting some work done and finding out what it’s like to use your mind to design experiments, conduct experiments, analyse the results of experiments and figure out what it is you’ve actually found.

“That then should give you some idea of where you might want to be long-term as a career scientist.

“Your post-doctoral period is about equipping yourself intellectually and practically for your ultimate career goals.  However, as a scientist you’ll soon find yourself locked into a career path with less freedom to move.  Your post-doctoral period is a time of great freedom, where you can typically go where you choose.  In addition to keeping your career goals in mind, it’s very important to live somewhere pleasant that you’ll enjoy being for three or four years.

“[Young scientists] in a university department or a research institute should take the opportunity to talk to as many leaders as possible about their views on where they are and how they got there, what works and what doesn’t work in a professional setting.  If you talk to a number of people, you’ll figure out what might work for you.”

Professor Koopman also offers the following general advice:

1. Try to choose an important and fundable area in Australian research science.

2. Plan ahead.  Familiarise yourself with grant and fellowship schemes.  Plan and commit to your publication strategy.   They say you’re only as good as the last 5 years of your output.

3. Work hard to launch your career.  Publish proactively and take on other roles.  Aim to exceed performance requirements rather than just meet them.

4. Learn to write well.  Grant applications are sometimes worth thousands of dollars per word.  Read other grant applications to distil the good and bad points of grant writing.

5. Believe in yourself and don’t take rejection personally.

Professor Koopman also features in several other articles at Science Hub.  Try out Skills – Funding section for his advice on ARC granting success, or click through to specific articles below.

This article was based on an interview between Science Hub and Professor Peter Koopman in May 2009, and on his seminar, ‘Are we there yet?  The long road to grant success’, presented March 2008 in the 2008 Career Development and Grant Writing Seminar Series jointly organised by the postdoctoral associations of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Howard Florey Institute.

Related articles:

• Skills – Funding: ARC National Competitive Grants Program: an overview
• Skills – Funding: How ARC grants are reviewed and assessed: part 1
• Spotlight – Molecular & Cell Biology: Professor Peter Koopman and the molecular genetics of mammalian development
• Pavlov’s Epilogue

Part 1: making the best of being broke but brainy

“Young people who invest in their education almost feel like they can’t sit at the big people’s table at Christmas time.  They don’t own property.  They’re just starting out.  But their friends, who may have dropped out of school at year 10 to be tradies, own three houses at the same time their student mates are still struggling to pay the bond.”

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Anyone who’s taken the plunge into a PhD knows the drill – more study, a scholarship valued below the poverty line, four years without superannuation contributions and the feeling that you’re dropping behind financially.  It’s frustrating, to say the least.  Scientists are supposed to be important to the Clever Country, and this is what we have to do?

The Barefoot Investor, better known as Scott Pape and the man educating GenY about finance, gave Science Hub an exclusive interview on matters monetary.  While his last foray into the lab was a year 8 experiment with Bunsen burners, he holds the scientific world in high regard.

“The most interesting people I know don’t have all the status symbols around them.  They don’t feel they need them.  If you’re doing a PhD, you’re an interesting person anyway.  You’re doing really interesting work.  That would be the first thing to remember.”

In part one of our interview, the Barefoot Investor encourages us to make the best of our situation as PhD students – learn early about good financial management, and appreciate the value of money when you’re earning very little of it.

“Personal finance is 20% knowledge and 80% behaviour.  So while you’re struggling and only just getting through – living off $10 pot and parma nights – you’re setting in place financial behaviours that will last you a life time.

“You have to understand that education is an investment, not just in a career, but in you as a person.  Although you need more money – I suppose we all could – you’re surviving.   When you become a high income earner, you’ll look back on your student days and know that you don’t need the materialistic trophies around you.”

“And appreciate just how good things are,” Pape continues.  “If you’re feeling down in the dumps, go to www.kiva.org.  Loan $25 to a struggling entrepreneur in the developing world.  She’ll pay you back at $3 a month and you’ll see your money being used to build a business that supports a whole family, and therefore a whole community.  It puts the little money you have back into perspective.”

The second piece of advice Pape offers is to learn how to manage your money.  He speaks from personal experience.

“I’ve been a stock broker and company director.  I’ve met lawyers and doctors, scientists and dentists, who don’t have a cracker to put together at 30 or 40.  They just don’t have any money.  But I’ve also met cleaners who live comfortably and have a really good life.

“Income doesn’t equal wealth.  It’s about being smart with your money and the sooner you learn how to manage it, the greater the compounding of that knowledge.  You just have to set in force a plan that will get you to your main goal, whatever that may be.”

Next month, in our part two of our interview, Scott gives us the practical advice needed to be more financially secure, even as PhD students.

Related articles:

• Ex situ – Money: Safety shoes and the Barefoot Investor #2: planning ahead for your mortar board and bricks-and-mortar

The Russian Nobel laureate Ivan Pavlov died in 1936.  He was a scientist and physician, best known for his concept of the ‘conditioned reflex’ and experiments demonstrating that dogs salivate in response to food-associated stimuli.

Before Pavlov died, he wrote a credo to young scientists.  It was published post-humously in Science magazine [Science 1936, 83(2155): 369] and is available below.  Pavlov’s epilogue advised that gradualness, modesty and passion should be the guiding forces for young people in developing their careers.

At Science Hub Australia, Pavlov’s Epilogue is written each edition for and by young scientists, to similarly guide you on your way.

Bequest of Pavlov to the academic youth of his country

“What can I wish to the youth of my country who devote themselves to science?

Firstly, gradualness. About this most important condition of fruitful scientific work I never can speak without emotion. Gradualness, gradualness and gradualness. From the very beginning of your work, school yourselves to severe gradualness in the accumulation of knowledge.

Learn the ABC of science before you try to ascend to its summit. Never begin the subsequent without mastering the preceding. Never attempt to screen an insufficiency of knowledge even by the most audacious surmise and hypothesis. Howsoever this soap-bubble will rejoice your eyes by its play it inevitably will burst and you will have nothing except shame.

School yourselves to demureness and patience.  Learn to inure yourselves to drudgery in science. Learn, compare, collect the facts!

Perfect as is the wing of a bird, it never could raise the bird up without resting on air. Facts are the air of a scientist. Without them you never can fly. Without them your “theories” are vain efforts.

But learning, experimenting, observing, try not to stay on the surface of the facts. Do not become the archivists of facts. Try to penetrate to the secret of their occurrence, persistently search for the laws which govern them.

Secondly, modesty. Never think that you already know all. However highly you are appraised, always have the courage to say of yourself – I am ignorant.

Do not allow haughtiness to take you in possession. Due to that you will be obstinate where it is necessary to agree, you will refuse useful advice and friendly help, you will lose the standard of objectiveness.

Thirdly, passion. Remember that science demands from a man all his life. If you had two lives that would be not enough for you. Be passionate in your work and your searchings.

Written just before Pavlov’s death, at the age of eighty-seven years, on February 27, 1936. Translated from the Russian by Professor P. Kupalov, chief assistant in the Pavlov Institute at Leningrad.