Lions, leopards and muskoxen: A (very) light-hearted look at the ups, downs, ins and outs of a postdoctoral career through the eyes of two zoologists

This paper arose out of a seminar series for the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales' 2006 student forum and workshop, "From the Horse's Mouth: Career Insights from Working Zoologists".The paper is aimed mainly at horiours and postgraduate zoologists, and describes our experiences as postdoctoral researchers, including what postdoctoral research is, how we got to be there (a PhD is essential), whether it was what we hoped it would be (a resounding yes), a brief summary of some postdoctoral highlights (MWH researched lions in Africa and AM muskoxen in Alaska), and of course some lowlights (low income, short-term positions and a lack of employment security). We follow up with a few recommendations on how to attain the lofty heights of a postdoctoral research scientist.