What Happened When I Lost My PhD Contract?

The past weeks have been quite challenging, I must say. Just imagine finishing demanding studies, much tougher than what most students face. Then, after years of searching and turning down various projects, you finally decide on your dream doctorate, moving to a new country with your fiancé, only to realize that what you signed up for is far from reality. 

For instance, you’re asked to write papers on abstract equations in the realm of neuroscience, simply because a physicist deemed it easier to publish in neuroscience, using it as a cover for their theoretical physics ideas.

There’s even the expectation that you shouldn’t be improving yourself during your free time, but rather spending it idly. Like attending conferences to expand your knowledge in a field where isolation is common, or joining the doctoral student council to make connections instead of just dealing with being a foreigner in a xenophobic Netherlands. 

No matter how much you try to contribute and develop, it’s considered wrong. Your boss seems to favor working in isolation, implementing someone else’s impractical ideas.

During summer schools, you noticed that those who have better rapport with their bosses tend to excel. According to Graen and Uhl-Bien (1995), the quality of the relationship between an employee and their direct supervisor is a well-documented predictor of career progress and job outcomes.

This got you thinking about the suboptimal nature of your work. Yet, deciding what to do was difficult. Abandoning a doctoral project doesn’t look great on paper, plus the Netherlands faces financial crises, leading to frozen wages.

How To Move Forward In Such a Complex, Uncertain Situation?

There’s also a scarcity of new doctoral positions due to funding cuts. Moreover, your personal life factors in. Your fiancé just settled in a new country, and considering the time it would take to complete a new doctorate, finding a permanent job before your reproductive years end seems unlikely.

Neuroscience attracts professionals from various disciplines, creating more doctoral and postdoctoral positions, but this doesn’t translate to an increase in professors. This bottleneck effect implies you need 3-4 successful postdocs to secure a professorship, unlike a few years ago. Starting late might keep you in the academic realm until your 40s, affecting your prospects of finding a stable job.

Yet, a way out appeared unexpectedly. Being in Nijmegen, a home to one of the largest Dutch hospitals, proved beneficial.

They offer everything you need: optogenetics, optical microscopes, lab animals, and patients with diverse nervous system conditions. They possess experimental data that nobody has analyzed, including extensive databases filled by people with various conditions. The hospital was open to your contribution, providing a job opportunity just two hours after you inquired.

However, a roadblock arose. Your current boss terminated your contract abruptly, violating Dutch law. Despite this, you hesitated, knowing that completing a doctorate in isolation wouldn’t be fruitful.

Luckily, your future boss provided a lifeline. This highlighted how capitalism now influences academia, where good employees are quickly hired and paid better if they leave a problematic work environment. According to Topel and Ward (1992), wage gains from changing jobs account for a substantial share of early-career wage growth, since employers competing for talent tend to pay more to attract workers away from a worse-fitting position.

What Happens During My Final Weeks With This Boss?

With only two months left on your contract, you need to collaborate on an article with your current boss. Although he let you go, he oddly wants this article to happen.

Your new boss also wants to gauge your performance in challenging situations. In practice, your future boss will likely write the article to please your current boss. These upcoming weeks might be tough, but they’ll lead to a better CV and job prospects.

All of these circumstances unfolded before Christmas, and you entered the holiday season with the anticipation of a new job. Despite initial impulses to give up, the flu gave you time to reconsider. According to Sverke, Hellgren and Näswall (2002), a meta-analysis found that job insecurity reliably harms well-being, but that support from people around you buffers much of that impact.

Conversations with friends made you realize the abundance of alternative ways of living. Friendships with unique individuals in school prepared you for these unconventional paths. You’re relieved by this observation. 

There are numerous routes to happiness, and you’re considering your own post-doctorate venture funded by the EU. You don’t have to conform if you’re not content with the system. According to Deci and Ryan (2000), well-being depends heavily on autonomy, on feeling that your choices are genuinely your own rather than dictated by external pressure.

Ultimately, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. This is likely the conclusion from all your contemplation. Wishing you a happy New Year!