Should you stay or should you go, asks DrugMonkey. When a doctoral student successfully defends his or her dissertation, does it reflect badly on them to remain in the same lab as a postdoc for six months to a year? There are several reasons this could happen, DrugMonkey says. A paper could be in process which requires more work from said postdoc, or maybe the person hasn't found a great job yet. But reasons aside, DrugMonkey says, the question is one of perception. "Does it put a permanent black mark on your CV? Does it matter only minimally compared to the upside of getting the paper from graduate work published?" DrugMonkey asks his readers.
The responses vary. Blog commentator whimple says to stay in the same lab is a "career disaster," and that it shows "lack of ambition, motivation and competence." And commentator Pascale says, "I can tell you that reviewers of postdoctoral fellowship grants will SLAM you for staying on in the same lab with the same PI." But others on the blog don't seem to think it's a big deal if it's a short-term arrangement. Productivity would probably be more important for a researcher's resume, they say. "[It] should be viewed in the context of the achievements. If there are substantial publications, this suggests that the student just wanted to continue some interesting project. And this is fine," says Gummibears.
The Daily Scan wants to know, what do you think?