When I began graduate school more than five years ago, graduation and what lay beyond it seemed a long way off, and I didn't feel forced to choose a speciality. In that first year, I switched from focusing on cancer immunology to wanting to do more basic research on fruitfly genetics. As each year passed, I remained convinced that there was still plenty of time to decide what to do once I had my degree in my hand — and that I could possibly do a postdoc to explore new options. But the years seem to have gone quite quickly, and I can no longer tell myself that I still have time.
Looking at friends and colleagues, I see that a lot of people have chosen a speciality and never looked back. They seem to be heading towards postdocs in areas that are familiar and comfortable. And professors seem keen to hire postdocs who can jump into a project with a minimal learning period.
But with my dreamed-of endpoint lurking and a lot of uncertainties about my future, there is one thing I am sure about. I know that I do not want to continue doing what I am doing now. For most of my graduate career I have been a fruitfly geneticist with a little molecular biology and technology development thrown in the mix. I'm done. I'm over it. I'm ready to learn something new.
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Lee, A. Over-specialization?. Nature 433, 178 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7022-178a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7022-178a