Dr. Özlem Bulut
Researcher & Business Developer at InsectSense
Co-organizer of Science Café Nijmegen
Former Postdoc at the Department of Internal Medicine, Radboudumc and co-chair of the Radboudumc Postdoc Council
Who is Özlem?
What is your career path?
Özlem: I come from Turkey, and I studied molecular biology and genetics at Bilkent University in the capital Ankara. Since I was nine years old, I knew that's what I'm going to study. I was very determined to be a researcher, a professor, and have my own lab, partly because of my brother who would give me science magazines and books since I was little.
I started working in immunology in my master study, then I came here for my PhD on trained immunity. I was specifically working on a type of vaccine that triggers some cells to develop a certain type of shorter-lived memory, and I was also trying to figure out how immune cells change with age in different populations. My postdoc was also at UMC, still on immune memory but in a cardiovascular disease context and in people with obesity.
I currently work at a biotech start-up in Wageningen, where I do mostly market research. Since we're still developing our products, my job is to understand in which industries what kind of chances we have. I go talk to people from these industries, and I try to figure out their needs and challenges, and how we can direct our scientific development to fit in their work. I am kind of a bridge between the business team and the scientific team.
Since when and how did you prepare for a non-academic job?
Özlem: Early on in my PhD, I already realized that I lost my passion for doing research. Seeing the low chance of actually becoming a professor and the life of professors, I decided that I do not want that. This feeling grew stronger as time went by. So, when we were stuck at home during the COVID, I took many online courses to fill the time and to figure out what are other things that I could train myself on. I took a science journalism course that the university offers, and I kind of fell in love with that idea of reaching a bigger public with the science. Then during the rest of my PhD and my postdoc, I really tried to train myself on different kinds of science communication and did a lot of voluntary work.
What differences do you experience between an academic and a non-academic job?
Özlem: I love doing research. The reading and hypothesizing, designing experiments, doing the experiments, analyzing data, all of these things I very much enjoy. But the nature of research comes with a lot of things, like applying for fundings or coordinating projects, which I don’t like as much. And projects are usually very long term. You're supposed to explore things and it can go everywhere. I'm the type of person who gets lost and demotivated when timelines are so long. And it also affected me personally a lot that there's not much frequent positive feedback.
The output of your work is usually a paper, which happens after a minimum of three years. So, by the time it's published, you're so sick of it, and you cannot even celebrate. And when you share your drafts with co-authors, usually what you hear back is what's missing and what needs to be done. That's how we progress in this work, but psychologically, that discourages me.
In my current job, there are still long term plans, but it's broken down in very small chunks with very clear goals for our weeks and months, even for our days. Everything is very well planned and structured. That gives me a lot of peace, and my stress levels were reduced an insane amount. I don't do my job with constant panic anymore.
Özlem’s Portrait of Postdocs
What does postdoc mean to you?
Özlem: At the end of the PhD, you hopefully have the capacity to do research independently, but you're still a junior researcher and you don't have your own research line. So, postdoc is mainly the time period of a few years when you can explore as an independent researcher. Which direction do you want to go into? Or do you want to experience a different field and then synthesize that for your future research? It's sort of an in-between phase where you're getting ready and strengthening your scientific output and knowledge.
For me, I wasn't considering going on the academic trajectory. I mainly did the postdoc to be absolutely sure about that and meanwhile, to have a bit more time to train myself in other things.
How did you come to your ideas about postdocs?
Özlem: It's observing postdocs around and also from my own experience. Postdoc can mean different things in different countries. It emerged as a post-doctoral fellowship in the US in the early 20th century to give young scientists a chance to gain more training after their PhD. Then it kind of stuck globally and became an unwritten requirement, and the definition of it changes even in the same country from place to place. That is one of the things that makes the life of a postdoc so hard, because at different conditions, you're expected to be a different person.
What would (not) fall under postdocs’ responsibility?
Özlem: Their main thing will be doing research. I think they should also gain some experience on teaching and supervising students. Usually, you also have some supervision experience during the PhD, but as postdocs, you can also be a co-promoter for someone. That's especially essential if you're going to continue the academic path.
I also think postdocs should explore whether they would like to continue research.
Postdocs’ roles in funding acquisition?
Özlem: Postdoc is the time to learn that as well. For PhDs, usually there is already a funded project and you just get on board. But during the postdoc, even if there is a project that you're onboarding, it's good or maybe essential to start writing grants, because that's one of the main jobs of a professor. That process does not look fun though, especially when you write 10 grants and you only get one awarded. That was one of the reasons why a professor's life wasn't attractive to me. I don't want ‘asking for money’ to be one of my main tasks.
Postdocs’ roles in connection with industry?
Özlem: This wouldn't be a ‘should’ for me. Connecting to industry or communicating and marketing your research, these are great skills for a scientist to have, but that should depend on people’s personality and interest. I wouldn't push those, but I would create opportunities, like courses or workshops, for postdocs to develop themselves therein.
Postdocs’ roles in management and collaboration?
Özlem: You do learn to collaborate already in your PhD. That's going to happen at some point automatically, because nowadays nothing is too isolated. Everything is interdisciplinary and collaborative, and techniques are very specialized.
For management, if your goal is to be a group leader and run your own lab, I think you should train yourself for that as well.
Postdocs’ roles in career development?
Özlem: It is kind of rare that postdocs plan their careers. It's just that people sometimes have no idea, and they thought there is just one path. The reality is that there are so many qualified graduates but relatively, very few academic positions, but people are not necessarily aware of that.
For me, if you're unsure, you cannot just wait for life to happen. Then you might make decisions purely based on basic needs like income, and you might not end up happy. So, I think everyone should think about these things and take steps. It doesn't have to be super strategic, but you should try to determine a direction and act a bit mindful of where you're going.
Support in career development
Do you feel that postdocs are well supported in their career development?
Özlem: For me, my supervisors were a big support. My co-promoter even found my first volunteer opportunity for science communication. He put me in contact with communication officers from the UMC who were doing the weekly newsletter, and then I joined their editorial board for two years. And they also supported me to attend a summer school in Leiden for science communication. Also in the second year of my postdoc, I did an internship, one day a week, at the press office at Radboud UMC, upon agreement with my supervisors. All these experiences helped me to grow and increased my chances of finding my next job.
That being said, I think postdocs need to be proactive and actively talk about career development. Supervisors are less likely to actively stimulate that from their side, if the postdoc doesn’t start the conversation.
Is there support from your organization?
Özlem: In the department, not that much. At the UMC level, we do have a policy officer who is part time assigned as a postdoc advisor. They're there at every postdoc council meeting, and they connect us to institute management, help us find speakers for our events through their networks, and support our initiatives on postdocs’ career development. But being a postdoc advisor is a small part of their job, so there isn’t structured and dedicated attention to postdocs. Now there is also a postdoc orientation day at the UMC, which offers lectures and discussions about many aspects of the postdoc life, including different career paths and the realistic chances of passing through the next stages.
Is the postdoc position attractive to early career researchers?
Özlem: I mean, really, no. You need to really want it.
It's not attractive due to a lot of things, like job stability. For example, I know a lot of people who left academia and immediately had babies, because they can't do it easily while postdoc-ing. You're also kind of expected to move around to different postdocs, grow yourself as a scientist, create a network…But moving around is not that easy with a family, and maybe you don't even have time for a baby.
What can be done to improve it?
Özlem: Providing longer-term contracts or improving the pay conditions to compensate for the short contracts. I don't know if it will ever be very attractive, but there is certainly room to improve.