Conservation and sustainable use of forest systems. What next?

• E. Rodríguez-García ^[1]
  1. [1] INIA
• Localización: XI young researchers meeting on conservation and sustainable use of forest systems / coord. por Elena Hidalgo Rodríguez, Francisco Javier Dorado Reyes, Ainhoa Iñiguez Soto, Diego A. Damián Carrión, Samuel Gato Martín, Guillermo Jové Alcalde, Raúl Arcadio Fernández González, 2017, ISBN 978-84-617-9574-1, pág. 20
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Although, paradoxically, there are many offers to apply for a doctorate and get engaged in science and research, finishing a Ph.D. or postdoc and moving on to a research-faculty position is no longer the norm for scientists. In many countries and especially in the last decade, science and engineering doctorate recipients working in academe have dropped, including staff scientists, research and teaching faculty. There is a bottleneck (still growing) of highly qualified and talented trainees and professionals ready for the job market but with very limited possibilities in “the traditional science career path” due to the few available positions and the savage competition.Fortunately, there are a large number of options in nontraditionaL paths and outside academe, including the creation of Start-ups, Technological based and services companies, etc., which mayhost part of this stock of highly qualified professionals. First of all, the skills that Ph.D students and postdocs need to master to compete successfully for research positions, both within and outside academe, must be evaluated. Some of the skills focus on innovative, interdisciplinary and collaborative science coupled with the specific tools and techniques within each research discipline; while others are related to “transferable” skills such as leadership, management andcommunication. Then, we have to take into account the individual interests and the adaptation of each person for each career path. For this issue is remarkable the proposal of Jennifer Hobin et al. (Science, 2012) of analyzing individual characteristics to develop and implement strategies to pursue career-specific goals, which may help to find a suitable job. For this purpose they have designed a tool for the creation of an Individual Development Plan (IDP) using myIDP, a Webbased career-planning tool created to help graduate students and postdocs in the sciences to define and pursue their career goals. According to these authors, the observed trend is that people who develop and implement strategies to pursue career-specific goals achieve greater career success as measured by salary, promotions, and level of responsibility. They also report that these people have greater career satisfaction and rate themselves as more successful than their peers compared to those without career plans. In the same way, doctorate and postdoctoral researchers who developed training plans with their advisers at the start of their appointments reported greater satisfaction, published more papers, and experienced fewer conflicts with those advisers.