Postdoc Labor Love

I look back fondly on my years as a postdoctoral fellow (1993–1995) as a period of heightened intellectual growth, clarity and optimism. After 5 years as a PhD student, I was finally set free to explore ideas more of my own creation, to start from scratch a new research project but this time with greater wisdom, experience and vision than was possible as a dazed and confused first-year graduate student. It was a field test of the mind of a newly minted PhD, and a chance to stretch that mind in new directions. I didn't choose a postdoctoral position for any reason other than to learn a different and, to me, exciting area of science. Back then, many chemists found career-propelling jobs right out of graduate schoolin industry, policy or consulting, and sometimes even in academia. Unlike those more-focused peers, I was not ready to commit to a permanent job. The postdoctoral position offered me a continuing education of sorts, perfect for those of us still trying to find our path and develop additional skills for a future not yet written. Others chose postdoctoral positions to hone a new craft tailored for a specific career pursuit. But no matter the motivation, the postdoc seemed optional, and clearly oriented toward training. Likewise, we were paid a fraction of the salaries our peers with real jobs enjoyed, and our term, at least for chemists, was never meant to exceed 2 years. Since that time, things have changed for postdoctoral fellows, especially in the biomedical sciences. It started with the doubling of the NIH budget between 1998 and 2003. Those were heady times with generous paylines and audacious large-scale research initiatives To capture the largesse, academic departments expanded with new faculty hires and concomitant increases in the numbers of students and postdocs. Then came the perfect storm. The economy first shifted, then tanked, and the expanded biomedical research enterprise became unsustainable as the NIH budget contracted year after year (i.e., stayed flat despite inflation). Universities and biopharma companies mandated hiring freezes, VCs stopped investing in risky startups, and suddenly the postdoctoral position seemed like a holding tank that was backing up and overflowing. Hundreds of postdocs were applying for each single job. Between 2008 and 2011, the typical postdoctoral term for chemists crept from the old-school 1–2 year period to more like 3–4 years. In my own lab, a few hit the 5-year …