GoKawiilCredit: EikoTsuttiy/Getty
A decade or so after earning a PhD is a pivotal stage in a person’s academic career. The urgency of establishing your career has faded — you are probably no longer scrambling to secure your first grant or write your first independent paper, and you might be tenured — however, you are not yet a senior academic. You occupy a middle space that is rarely discussed.
The scientific system leans on mid-career researchers heavily, but this time period can feel surprisingly precarious: expectations rise, responsibilities multiply and maintaining a clear research direction becomes difficult.
I am a palaeoclimate scientist at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. My research seeks to understand how changes in ocean circulation and carbon cycling have shaped Earth’s climate in the past, using a multidisciplinary approach that combines marine fieldwork, laboratory geochemistry, plankton biology and model–data integration.
Saying ‘no’ in science isn’t enough
In the first few years after I completed my PhD in 2015, when I was taking part in postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the Arctic University, my default response when asked to do something was ‘yes’. I said yes to collaborations and to sitting on committees, peer reviewing papers, supervising students and doing other forms of unpaid academic service.
This approach was successful, even if it meant working late into the evening to keep up. It built my network, increased the visibility of my work and advanced my CV in ways that helped me to secure fellowships, grants and eventually a tenured position.
After acquiring enough funding to establish my own laboratory and research group in 2021, the number of opportunities that I received increased rapidly. I was offered new collaborations, some because of genuine scientific alignment, and others simply because I was now ‘in the right career stage’ to attract the necessary funding or to manage the appropriate team. The number of administrative tasks that I was responsible for accumulated. I became the main mentor for several PhD students and postdocs. I took on leadership roles in large-scale initiatives. My habit of saying yes continued, and I was a magnet for further responsibilities.
Step up to leadership for mid-career growth
Individually, each task seemed reasonable; collectively, they filled every corner of my schedule. My days were busy and productive, but my research direction became increasingly fragmented. Instead of driving a unified research agenda that would advance my field, I found myself pulled in many directions, responding to immediate demands rather than pursuing long-term growth.
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