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172 CAREER ADVICE FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS II

Making the Most of Your

Postdoctoral Experience

Thea D. Tlsty

University of California,

San Francisco

A

hhh, when I was a postdoc...” sighs many a

senior scientist, dreaming of what they

remember as a simpler time. While many have

forgotten the pressures and uncertainties, it is true that

the time following graduate school can be one of

the best times of a scientific career. Ideally, graduate

students have learned some of the basic skills of

research and are entering a period of refining those

skills and preparing for entry into a career path. While

there are many different career paths that trained sci-

entists can enter today, a common set of skills lies at

the heart of preparing for most of them. In general, a

working knowledge and mastery of scientific process

and practices are crucial to careers as diverse as jour-

nal editor, teacher, grants administrator, principal

investigator/professor, career scientist, scientific

reporter, and public policy administrator.

The postdoctoral fellowship is an apprenticeship

and should be tailored to the specific needs of a partic-

ular career. While it is not necessary to know the exact

career destination, since many of the skills are applica-

ble to a broad range of opportunities, it is helpful to

have a career goal identified so that the postdoctoral

experience will be successful and productive.

It is also helpful to identify the areas where addition-

al experience is needed and to arrange for the fellow-

ship to address those areas. This requires an accurate

assessment of goals accomplished during graduate

The postdoctoral fellowship is

an apprenticeship and should be

tailored to the specific needs of a

particular career.