The Crossing

04 November 2009

By Andreea Simona Calude

So fate would have it that I have arrived in glorious and sunny (actually, it is sometimes!) England.  In the hope of leaving the Land of the Long White Cloud (“Aotearoa” or New Zealand, as it is more commonly known) and trekking towards the Land of Academia, I embarked on a research position in Reading. Of course, if you come from the Land of the Long White Cloud than fate would also have to wait slightly longer because the road to an overseas research post is paved with job applications, visa forms, work permits, retina scans and finger-printing.

These days, the career of a research fellow no longer means: do a PhD, publish a few papers, and go to a bunch of conferences. In practice, the recipe for an academic position should read something like: mix PhD, articles, and conferences, with overseas experience in another university (preferably working in a famous lab, with a famous professor, on a famous project which will be published in "Science" or "Nature"), add finely chopped grant applications and numerous citations, pepper with high impact factor publications and ample networking connections, and serve immediately and well before someone else beats you to it.

However, one of the best things about an early-career research position is, to my mind, the opportunity to re-invent oneself, with every research contract, with every project, with every paper, and even with every failed application. This may explain how as a Romanian born New-Zealander , and as a linguist, I am now living in England and working in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, a whopping 18,325.35 km away from home and 13 hours behind local time.