While we appreciate all our postdocs every day, PAW 2024 distills that into a week of celebration acknowledging how your efforts in work and personal qualities as colleagues enrich our community here at the University of Edinburgh. This is the 15th year of PAW, which has grown from a handful on institutions in the US, to nearly 400 events worldwide.
We appreciate the hard work postdocs do in research, teaching, mentoring, public engagement, contributing to policy, and so much more. In a online careers session yesterday, our host, Lowri Davies of recruitment agency Harvey Nash advised postdoc colleagues to “find the value in your duties”. We can echo that. In Lowri’s words, what we do day-to-day can become to be seen by ourselves as mundane, we’re just doing what we do.
From our discussions with researchers in 1:1 careers guidance appointments and in workshops, we often witness how easy it can be to undersell your value – the value of your skills, your results, and, perhaps most importantly, your personal qualities – that unique blend of personal attributes that make you – you. For this year’s Postdoc Appreciation Week, make sure you take some time out to stop and appreciate yourself. Take some time to give the sort of gratitude to yourself that you readily extend to others.
- That thing your really enjoy doing for yourself but have been putting off, do it
- Say one positive thing about yourself every day – maybe even try to make it a habit
- It gets said a lot, but take some time out for reflection – appreciating how we got to where we are right now reminds us of the determination, skills, personality traits, knowledge, friends, and mentors that helped us so that we can better understand our strengths, and this helps us feel more confident and optimistic about our futures, come what may.
If you can’t make it to anything in PAW 2024, remember, in IAD it’s always Postdoc Appreciation Week, so we look forward to seeing you in our workshops, 1:1s, and outreach events all year long.
You can find an overview of University-wide events on the IAD website. IAD will be offering 1:1 support for building your researcher profile, and there are several career management workshops taking place.
For some structured appreciation of your talents and aspirations, visit the Prosper Portal for and work through the activities on the right hand-side: Values, Personality Traits, Strengths and Interests
