I might have mentioned in conversations or in blog posts that I want to pursue an ‘academic career’ and that this ambition is an important reason for me to work in Switzerland at the moment. However, I hardly ever concretize my ambition, and I should probably not assume that everyone knows what an academic career is. This blog post (hopefully) provides some clarity regarding both aspects.
A good starting point would be to share with you what position I hope to be in twenty years from now, which is the position of a university professor. In such position, I would contribute to the teaching of students, for example by giving lectures and supervising graduation projects. I would also be carrying out research projects which could consist of doing experiments myself. In time, however, I would become more and more involved in supervising the research projects of others and in providing the means (e.g. budget, research facilities) for them to carry out their work.
So, I basically want to become a teacher. Like father, like son.
In order to become a professor, there are many lessons to be learned, much experience to be gained, and many achievements to be realized. But also, many things should have fallen into the right place, and it often does not hurt to have some luck, to be flexible and persevering, and to take some risks. Because in this process, chances of failure are considerably higher than chances of success, which is actually the reason why I initially found it hard to share with others my dream to become a professor.
To resume, my ‘process’ started when I was a little boy and constantly got intrigued by the wonders of nature. A next stepping stone was the high school training I could receive at the Dutch ‘VWO’ level, which allowed me to start studying pharmacy at the University of Groningen upon completion of high school. Why pharmacy? Well, chemistry and biology were my favorite courses, and I was born with a strong desire to make people better (without touching them, though). Hence, my parents suggested that pharmacy could be the right study for me, and they were absolutely right about that.
At University, I took numerous great courses which could have led to an interesting career as a community pharmacist, yet I truly blossomed like a flower during my research projects. I thus set out to take an important step on the academic career ladder after finishing my pharmacy studies by becoming a PhD student.
I should probably mention here that becoming a PhD student is not something that just happens. Typically, only a handful of university graduates can (and want) to perform a PhD project, which is often a stressful job that takes around four years to complete during which certain research experience needs to be gained and research output needs to be generated. Fortunately, a job opening that had my name written all over it became available near the end of my Master’s studies. Also fortunately, the professors responsible for this position decided to hire me, and they turned out to be better supervisors than I could dream off.
So, you got a PhD degree in the pocket, what is next? In some fields, PhD graduates can directly be appointed as ‘assistant professor’. This position is only a starting point of the trajectory towards a full professorship, and it often represents a relatively short period of time during which a daunting collection of requirements needs to be met. Okay okay, I realize that ‘short’ may not be the right word here as full professorship (and thus one’s first permanent contract) is quite often reached around the age of 50. Still, time stress is something you hear often from aspiring professors, so please put some more emphasis on the word ‘relatively’ that I put in front of the word short.
Anyway, it does not happen in many fields that PhD graduates immediately start as assistant professor. Most of them, or at least most of the PhD graduates who wish to pursue an academic career (which is typically only a small proportion), continue as so-called ‘postdoctoral researcher’, or ‘postdoc’ in short. For a postdoc project, it is encouraged to gain experience on a (slightly) different research topic and in a different research institute, preferably a high-level institute abroad. Based on my experiences as postdoc in Geneva, I can wholeheartedly agree with this encouragement as I have matured and changed as a person in the past 2.5 years. Also, I now know how lost a person can feel in a foreign country, culture, and institute, and this experience can be very useful in the future when working with people who come from abroad.
Needless to say, I really like the postdoc phase. It allows me to grow, to become more independent, and also to start drafting the blueprints for my own research line. I think I hit the jackpot by going to Geneva to work under and with an amazing professor, and I am sure that I will shed a tear on the day I will leave Geneva. I know, this day is approaching rapidly as I am running out of research money in eight months. I am thus working hard on acquiring funds to continue my work, preferably in the Netherlands so I can live together with my wife again.
If I manage to secure some funds in the coming period and then raise some more funds soon after (while simultaneously remaining productive in terms of research output and contributions to teaching), this could convince research institutes to offer me an assistant professorship position in due time. Alternatively, I can apply to assistant professorship positions that are created occasionally, for example when a professor retires. Applying for this type of position is important, even for a novice researcher like me, as it helps you to become more focused while also to make your ambitions known and to find out whether institute leaders might be interested in you in the future. As with any other decisions in academia, however, one should be prepared for disappointments. But when you still have an appointment in a fantastic group when you hear about such disappointment, it can feel great to know that you can stay around a little longer.
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