🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1994Jul27.170404.9792@news.yale.edu>, shulei@minerva.cis.yale.edu (Shulei Zhao) writes:
|> 	I recently witnessed a devastating fight between a postdoc and his
|> mentor on issues regarding the postdoc's intention to apply for his own
|> grant and authorship of a couple of papers.  It was a no-win situation for
|> both of them. Things like this are not uncommon.  I hope that postdocs and
|> people who hire postdocs share their experiences and give suggestions on
|> how we can better handle these problems caused by conflicting interests. 
|> 
|> 
been there done that.  IMHO the ball is in the postdoc's court, and the time
for the would-be PD to do something with it is before agreeing to enter a lab.
remember you, the PD, are offering a service, at well below commercial market
rates, and you need a suitable place to work, one that provides better than 
average prospects for advancement, as partial compensation for your
salary sacrifice.  you are interviewing your employer just as much as the employer is
interviewing you.

first, know yourself.  why are you thinking about doing a postdoc, what do you
want to do with it when you're done, what tangible things (grants, papers, 
recommendations) do you need to get where you want to be at the end.  if you
don't know, find out, in part by talking with people (next step).

then, talk with postdocs in various labs - find out what issues confronted them and
how they dealt with them - or indeed if they have; lots of folks just let things
lie even though the situations are tearing them up.

also talk with supervisors in various labs.  what are they looking for in their
postdocs, what rules/strategies have they developed to deal with contentious issues, 
etc.

then, when you have offers in hand, you will have a list of concerns to discuss with
the potential mentor - and the mentor's present and past associates.  talk these
through politely but frankly with the mentor and see if the correspondence is
satisfactory.  find out from the associates whether the mentor is likely to follow
through on any agreements ... or on academic life in general.

a good mentor will understand your concerns (may even bring them up for you), will
make suitable arrangements and have the reputation for living up to them.  avoid like
hantavirus anybody who comes with a "you do as I tell you" or "we deal with things as
they arise" message - especially if associates report problems.

it is -much much harder- to deal with disagreements on major principles after you've
started in a lab.  signing the dotted line implies, in the mind of certain types of 
mentor anyway, that you've accepted the stated and unstated conditions of the lab.
solving the problem then depends on the specific circumstances and specific people 
involved ... which is why it's so essential to find out about the people involved
before getting into a lab!

"But I only have one postdoc offer ..."  You don't have to take it!!!  IMHO, anybody
smart enough to do postdoc is smart enough to make better money somewhere else.  Also
IMHO, science is a glut, forcefed by those with strong interests in keeping labor supply
up and costs down.  so long as innocent postdoc candidates keep clamoring for the
underpaid rubbish the system provides, the system will not change.

again, know yourself.  if postdoc is what you want to do and all you want to do, go for it.
if you have any doubts, save yourself some mental and financial agony and investigate
other career lines.

-------------------------

Charley O'Kelly				Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand
Mad Protistologist					wrong answers
okellyc@bch.umontreal.ca