Career planning guidance for Early Career Researchers
There are a fair number of 'how to' and 'survival' guides out there for PhD candidates just starting out (or even struggling to finish), but there seem to be rather fewer guides on how to take the next few steps... successfully, that is. This guide "Charting a course for a successful research career" (Johnson, A. M.; updated 2012) gives a well-rounded summary of the career planning process and highlights several key areas to focus on (that you may or may not have much experie
Academia as a career choice?
I found this TED talk interesting ("How to make hard choices", Ruth Chang). I suspect we all came to our current career paths (in science research/academia) through passion and idealism (the reasons we create ourselves) rather than through a rational decision based on the pros and cons of the path itself... Why else would we pursue a path so fraught with challenge, instability, isolation, criticism (peer-review), and lower remuneration than many of our friends who decided aga