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"Go for it--it's great fun and there are lots of career openings for properly trained clinical researchers," says David Edwards, professor of neonatal medicine.

If former postdocs are tending to remain in academia and are successful, do the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term stress of working for a difficult person?

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"CNIC-funded fellows will work for 3 years in Madrid, having previously spent 3 years in a leading international centre."

"Among the first adopters and co-creators of the Semantic Web have been scientists who see in the new approach the promise of content-based information retrieval, distributed data mining, and automated Web-service choreography."

"Is the university structured to ensure that the postdoctoral experience includes training and assistance in making a transition into the next position? Or is the postdoc, instead, merely a convenience for the investigator, a place on which we focus too little pedagogical attention?"

Building a Discretionary Spending Account.

I find I am using a wider range of my skills as a picture editor than I did in the lab, which makes it more satisfying and less stressful.

Any one individual only has a small amount of money, but a whole bunch of people together have enough money that they can hire a fulltime expert.

Mathematics researchers, Crowdy says, need to "develop [their] own style. Follow your heart. Don't be afraid to go out on your own."

Biotech sales forces are small, elite, experienced, and capable of running a total business. Many start right after college with major pharmaceutical companies, which hire thousands of salespeople annually.

--Dr. Willie Pearson, chair of Georgia Tech's School of History, Technology, and Society

A shortage of mentoring, insufficient project planning, no feedback, and poor contact with the promoter are just some of the hurdles that young researchers are facing at universities.

I decided I wanted to work on something else and, all of a sudden, [my adviser's] interest in me dried up, as did funding for a research assistantship; I've been TA-ing ever since.

In an ideal situation, social support in the workplace from sensitive colleagues can help you cope with your illness and better meet the demands of your job.

"Now I understand why Microsoft Office products have all those collaboration features that I never found useful in the academic lab. My general impression is that academic labs are into producing soloists. Industry, however, wants orchestra players."

"This is a new profession that has been created to meet the demands of a European vision that aims to guarantee scientific success."

The European Commission estimates that an additional 700,000 researchers will be needed by 2010.

"Now there are more opportunities for Spanish scientists abroad to come back and start their own group," Maria Blasco says.