Dr Clíona Farrell
I have just started a new postdoc position after a career break spent travelling, and wow is it a shock to the system. I’ve gone from watching stunning sunsets, seeing exotic animals, and eating incredible food, to trudging through the rainy UK winter, spending long hours in the tissue culture room, and thinking about weekly meal prep. In this blog, I will reflect on what it was like to take a break, and how it feels to come back.
I have always been eager to travel and explore the world. Post-covid, and starting a PhD, I really had the end of my PhD as a goal to do this. But, by the time I got there, I didn’t have much in the way of savings, and a one-year postdoc contract came up that would give me some extra time to save, as well as finish up some of those loose ends from my PhD. But that year, plus several months of contract extension, went quickly, and I finally plucked up enough courage to completely finish, and leap slightly into the unknown.
Although this was an exciting reason to be taking a break, I still had plenty of conflicting feelings and worries. How would I find a job when I came back? should I use this break to move countries afterward? and will I still want to come back to academia after time away? And on top of these more existential questions, there were so many practical elements to organise, including packing up a flat and booking flights, on top of tidying up all my samples and records in the lab.
Trying to finish up a position without loose ends is nearly impossible, but after a lot of hard work preparing paper drafts, finishing final experiments, and organising my 5-year long collection of samples and reagents, I was done. Over and out. After spending such a long and formative period there, it felt really strange. Fortunately, I didn’t have much time to dwell on the sadness of leaving much beloved colleagues and friends, as I jumped straight on a plane a few days later.
In total, I spent 5 months away, taking in 5 different countries across Asia, and spending a couple of weeks back home in Ireland for Christmas. I truly had the time of my life. There were plenty of ups and downs, moments I questioned what I was doing, and moments I thought I could never come back home. A real rollercoaster, but one of the best I have been on. While I was away, I really felt “away”, and other than sending photos of my travels to my old lab, there was no thinking about science, and minimal communication about work. I had once heard a career talk, where a senior academic said that they took time to travel after their PhD, but couldn’t stop thinking of new experiments and ideas they wanted to pursue, and that’s how they knew they were meant to be in academia. Safe to say I did not have that experience – in fact, I didn’t miss work at all. My days were so filled with adventures and new experiences, that there was no time to think about science. It truly was a total break, and I am so grateful for it.
In the chaos before I left for my travels, and to abate some of my anxieties about leaving, I managed to apply and interview for several postdoc positions, one of which was willing to wait until I returned for me to start. Having this lined up was a blessing and probably allowed me to take the complete mental break I needed. I didn’t have to worry about what I would do when I returned to real life (my only worry was what if I wanted to stay away from real life for longer and contractually couldn’t!!).
Because I lined a new position up, it meant I was straight back to work on my return, starting in early 2026. Writing this blog, I have been in post for 6-weeks and have had some time to settle in. Surprisingly, it really does feel like a fresh start. Although I am in the same university, I’m in a new lab and new building, giving both a physical and temporal distance from my past projects and work environment; complimented by the familiarity of some of the people and university systems. I think the half-year break left enough space for me to come at this new project without overhanging stress, and approach it as a truly new start.
Finishing a position is all about rushing through last experiments, writing paper drafts; almost everything you do has a sense of urgency. Plus, the longer you have worked somewhere, the more you become a go-to person to help with training, or just show people where things are. In comparison, my fresh start has involved lots of thinking, reading and planning. In my new postdoc role, I am using iPSC-derived cells, something I have minimal experience with, and so learning a new technique has been an anchoring focus for this new position. Moreover, my new lab uses far more bioinformatics approaches than I was previously familiar with, so I am slowly dipping my toe in to develop new skills.
Overall, I am so glad I took this time to take a career break and travel. Of course, I was so privileged to have been able to do so; both not having caring responsibilities tying me to home, and to have been able to save enough money to support myself on the trip. Although it was also intimidating to take my foot off the break for a while, I truly think disconnecting has allowed me to return a bit more refreshed, and I think that I will be able to bring more to my new project and upcoming career.
Dr Clíona Farrell
Dr Clíona Farrell is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. Her work focuses on understanding neuroinflammation in Down syndrome, both prior to, and in response to, Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Clíona completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience in Trinity College, and then worked as a research assistant in the Royal College of Surgeons studying ALS and Parkinson’s disease. She also knows the secret behind scopping the perfect 99 ice-cream cone.