How I created my own space in a competitive research field

My specific experience has been in the field of astronomy. We probably operate differently to you in the specifics; experiments can be short, we write lots of papers and don’t necessarily have lots of co-authors, the volume of data needed for a paper is nowhere near as high as in biology, and we are a relatively small field so it’s not too hard to know a large fraction of the people.

With hindsight I don’t feel like I took a very strategic approach to making myself and my work known, but here are some things that I think were important. Basically they boil down to two things:

i) do good work, work on your own ideas wherever possible
ii) get to know people in your field, science is a meritocracy but relationships still matter
	- they will take more of an interest in your work when it comes out
	- they will be more likely to attribute the work to you
	- they will be reviewing your fellowship proposals

Get involved:

From my PhD I was fortunate enough to be employed by one of the leaders in my field, which meant access to new projects, results, and collaborators. I did have specific projects to work on, but early on there was also a clear opportunity to take on what became a major aspect of a large project. I has absolutely no idea of what to do in the beginning, but we were a big team with very little postdoc or PhD power. I worked very hard and it meant that I effectively became a senior member of the team because I knew more about what I was doing that anyone else. With this expertise I became able to interact on a detailed level with colleagues/competitors who were doing similar things, which further expanded the network of people who I knew, and who knew my work.

All of this involvement was very nice as networking, but it didn’t immediately result in any papers. The main benefit was that people knew me, and that I could be trusted to do good work and knew what I was talking about. That meant when I did publish papers, regardless of what it was about, they were able to believe that it was my work (and even that it way my idea, even if it wasn’t). These are also the people who review my papers, and my fellowship applications.

Be proactive:

The downside of the large project work I was doing was that many of the “guaranteed” results were already handed out. To get first author papers from the work I’d put in meant finding new results from our dataset. In several cases I drafted papers and then floated them with the team; I was given the go-ahead and this was really where I started to publish work that was mine from the start. So again, this was about recognising an opportunity within a team, and having built a rapport within the team my ideas were taken seriously and I was able to publish them.

Try out your ideas:

My department has opportunities for supervising both undergraduate and summer students. I have supervised about ten Part III students and had a summer student every year for the last six years. These are a great chance to try out new ideas and build your supervising experience. About three papers have resulted from these students, one I published with just me and the student. I saw this as a way of working towards a truly independent paper but with a smaller time investment, and if there are lots of supervision opportunities then that cuts out some randomness from the quality of the students.

Take and create the right opportunities:

Ultimately I think all of the above comes down to opportunity. Some of these were created for me through the generosity of others, and some I had to come up with myself.

Recognise the good ones when they come along, they may mean more work in the short term, but the earlier stages of my career benefited from saying “yes” to lots of different things. I recall saying “no” to an invitation to give a talk at a meeting once, I could have gone but for some reason I couldn’t be bothered that day. I should have said yes.

An equally important ability is to say no. If you are busy, perhaps because you are a normal person and don’t have 60h a week to spare, then making sure you say yes to the right things is important, and ask yourself whether each opportunity is a good one and worthwhile. This is not to say that you shouldn’t do your bit, for example refereeing papers, but make sure each decision is considered.


Top 3 tips for applying for fellowships:

1) Apply early and often - there is always randomness so do what you can to limit this. For example, my successful URF proposal didn’t even get to interview for a similar fellowship with STFC. You will get better at applications and interviews with time.

2) Spin your work into a story - it’s not always easy to be very directed in your research when you’re working for someone else, but being able to tell a story that makes it sounds like you are is important. Think about what you can say (or do) to build a bridge between disparate themes. For example, though I don’t recall being very strategic at the time, this was what several of the new ideas within the big teams helped do.

3) Get help - there are no prizes for doing everything yourself, you either get the fellowship or you don’t. Get people to read your proposal, help you practise your talk, ask you interview questions, tell you their experience with a particular application process. And get help from the Careers service.

4) Network - As above, knowing people is important. These are the people who will review your application, so if they know you and your work, and they like you, they will probably be favourable. For example, one of the reviews from of one of my unsuccessful fellowship applications was so unbelievably glowing that it couldn’t have come from someone who didn’t know me. The other review, which was more objective, was more useful in helping me prepare for next time.