Hi
I am almost at the end of my PhD in Biochemistry and am desperately searching for a post doc. I was offered a job as a scientific writer. If I took this for a year would this reduce my chances in obtaining a post doc. Does anyone know more about scientific writing. I also wanted to know the average salary a post doc is expected take home for a year?
Thanks
Yellow

Hi Yellow,
Congratulations on almost finishing your PhD! In the sciences, average post-doc positions are around £30k (give or take 1 or 2k) from what I've seen advertised. With regards to the scientific writing post, wow, i think this sounds great. I'm hoping that when (or if!) i finish my PhD I'd like to go into this field and become a medical writer, as i enjoy the writing side of my work far more than the lab side. I certainly don't think taking this job would do you any harm in securing a post-doc position in the future though.
Good luck! x

Thanks for the support and the advice!

HI, I recently went on a postgraduate away day type thing where they gave us a whole load of talks about what to do post PhD. What really interested me was how varied people's paths had been and how some had gone away from academia and back into it later so I definitely think it's possible. (this was psychology btw) We also had two people working in medical writing talk to us. They made it sound a very interesting and varied job and seemed quite well paid. If you've been offered the job can't you find out more through them?

Hi Yellow,

An offer of a job is fantastic, well done. If you really want a postdoc position, and haven't been able to find one, you could take the scientific writing job but keep looking for postdoc positions at the same time. As far as I'm aware, it wouldn't be a good idea to do the writing thing for too long as you might be considered to have been away from research too long and more recent PhD graduates would be prefered, but if it's only for a year it shouldn't be a problem. You might even find you really like the writing and decide not to persue a postdoc position :-)

Good luck with it all