One Step at a Time

I once was told that the purpose of an academic postdoc is to learn how to become a principal investigator (PI). That postdocs should focus on acquiring the skills needed to be a successful PI like being an independent scientist, mentoring graduate students, and creating your identity as a scientist. This sounded right, at least it’s mostly what I’ve seen in my experience working with postdocs.

This got me thinking, if the purpose of a postdoc is for learning how to become a PI, then what is the equivalent purpose of a PhD? Should I, as a second year PhD student, be learning how to be a postdoc? This seemed wrong. A junior graduate student learning how to be a postdoc felt like skipping too many steps. But a junior graduate student learning how to be a successful senior graduate student, that made sense to me.

Long term, my goals could include becoming a postdoc or even a PI, but my short term goals should be focused on becoming a productive senior graduate student. And once I’m there, then I can shift my focus to becoming a postdoc. Focusing solely on the next stage in my career simplifies things a lot. I don't have to worry daily about what my postdoc research will touch on, because that should not be a concern of a junior PhD student. I will have plenty of time to define that once I’m in the next phase.

I realize this is not a novel mindset, and it’s essentially the old adage, “take things one step at a time”, coming to it through my own experience helps reinforce its impact on my daily life. Breaking down your potentially overwhelming long-term goals into smaller manageable and actionable tasks allows you hone in on what is necessary in the present. I believe that keeping this in mind during your career will help you achieve steady progress and maintain focused goals to achieve that next step.

While it’s incredibly important to regularly take time to step back and look at the big picture, ensuring your short term goals are moving you in the direction of your ultimate long term goals (whatever that may be for you). There is no need to keep this on your mind daily. Instead, I recommend focusing on what you have to do next. This will free your mind to give all your effort into taking things one step at a time.