The human cost of the pressures of postdoctoral research

This comment from the journal editor is particularly telling:

"Certainly people, say in businness [sic], behave more brutally than in academia."

I don't know what businesses and academics the editor knows, but my observations across business and academics have repeatedly been than professors behave far more brutally than businesspeople do.

My experience :

Intellectually my post-doc was amazing because I finally felt I was a world-leader in my field. I was attending the right conferences, mentored by the right people, and showing that I could hold my own with heavy weights.

Psychologically it was taxing. I was very strict about keeping work/life separate which was good. However, my research itself was very isolating and I found my self drinking far more than I should to cope with the scientific and economic stress of the job.

Health-wise it was challenging. Drinking problem aside, my hair went grey, my hypertension spiked, and I gained 50 pounds. The work schedule and accommodations of the university made exercising just too hard to fit into a normal schedule. During grad school I worked out 3-6 times per week, during my post-doc I could barely fit in once per week.

Economically it was near disastrous. Quite frankly, if I didn't have outside support I wouldn't have been able to make rent. Even with that, I ran up about 10K in credit card debt and was forced to each rice/beans, and dollar menu lunches just to keep my head above water. I was the highest paid post-doc in the building and I was one mishap away from bankruptcy.

In the end, I jumped ship. I had a very good shot a landing a faculty position (multiple top tier first author papers), but it just wasn't worth it. The stress, moving, and lost income was just too much of a burden. So instead I took a job at a quasi-academic institute and tripled my income. I regret nothing.

There are reasons I am 1000% not interested in doing any postdocs. I've seen way too many good people flame out, and the chances of landing a good faculty job at 35 years old in my field, unless you are already a superstar by the time you're 25, are basically nil right now. Not worth it.

And when finally you get out of your precarious post-doctoral status, entering your first permanent academic position... well, let's say it's not worse, but it's not necessarily better. Academia (my case: computer science in the UK) is a meat grinder.

Entering postdoctoral for many fields basically means one is in a pre-run for a faculty job trying to be tenured, plus post docs need to do the real work rather than assign them to others. Unfortunately for many that is also the time a family or children begin to occupy private life, which provide extra stress and squeeze precious time. It is a highly stressed position, but not unique. If one wants to stay in academia the stress always accompany the entire career. I saw post doc sent baby to daycare at 6 weeks old, I heard post doc's promising job interview ruined by supervisor's letter. But they all survived and enjoy their research. I feel the freedom and joy of doing the thing interests you are also priceless and it is a rewarding experience even one is suffering.

It is highly stressed life, however, one can make it his own better. Keep positive, keep smiling.

I loved my time as a postdoc. It was a time to be surrounded by awesome people, many of whom are still my close friends. I spent most of my time mostly thinking about my science and what I wanted to do with it. Finally, there were very few distractions administratively or otherwise. I miss it quite a bit.

Of course there are pressures, but my stint before my postdoc was being fired from an early-stage startup (I was first employee). The last six months was the most pressure-filled experience I had experienced to this day. I found the postdoc-world was much more supportive an experience. Obviously YMMV, and different labs and startups have very different cultures.

I'm so so so so so so glad I left academia before getting to this point. Every single person I met in a doctoral program was as unhappy as I've ever seen any person who is not otherwise dealing with some serious shit (deaths in the family, chronic disease, addiction, etc.).