"You should follow your passion"*. That's what they said at the latest career seminar I attended. I cringed and thought for a second, I don't agree. You should definitely consider what you like doing, and what you don't like doing, but please consider other things apart from your passion when deciding your future career trajectory.
Tying in to my former post on rejection in the workplace, and the following comment by Drugmonkey on selection of PhD students and that maybe the selection is biased. Also my thoughts are about this perception about "higher calling" and being chosen to do research, have started to make me slightly uncomfortable.
I am the first to agree that I don't think of science as a "regular 9-5 job". I've been known to exclaim some "you're a post-doc so you work weekends" and "science is uncomfortable with timing, some experiments are uncomfortable". I'm not taking it all back, however I really would like people to be more honest and open about the choices and what it costs you in the end. There was an interesting article in Nature earlier this week: the future of post-docing. And what it really means in terms of maybe having fewer high-paid jobs in a lab instead of a lot of low-paid trainees. Although, I'm not sure that it is sustainable, considering the NIH grants and other structural issues at the moment. Nor am I sure that this is the 'real' solution.
My boss is a big fan talking about "work-life balance". He really means it, it's not just PI talk. And he wants people in his lab to think about their futures and what they want in their careers. Although, we are both in a agreement that work equals "probably more work than 40hours" but it's imperative to have things you care about outside work. I don't know how many TV shows you watch but if you have seen a few of the contemporary American TV-shows I watch (Bones, Law&Order, CSI, Vampire Diaries (ok maybe not that one it's more a guiltily pleasure about passion and no one has a job), Suits etc) most of them show that your co-workers are "like your family". It's a nice dream, and it makes for a great TV story - in reality though (maybe especially in a lab where you have competing interest) I don't buy it. The people you work with, they can be friendly but they will most likely not be there for an eternity of time and when you leave the lab (for what ever reason) you will need that outside gang of people (friends and family). You have to realize that there are choices everywhere and you need to feel comfortable with the ones you make.
Biochembelle has written very well about choosing future career paths starting with first post here
I loved the second part - maybe because it reminded me of what I went through before shifting my post-doc into industry work.
TL:DR Think about what you want for your future and be honest with what you see. If you want more time with family, look around and see what kind of jobs there are where that can happen. If you want more of a science bench type of work, look for opportunities for that. If you're like me, look for places where you can add your scientific knowledge intellectually and still be on papers, but mainly being outside of bench work.
*I think you should choose a job career that you are comfortable with. That you like. That you will feel give you the opportunity to do what you like, either at the job or in your free time. And that you should be able to live on your salary from this job. Passion is important, but it is also a very romanticized ideal and you can't - even if a lot of operas and TV and movies claim it - have a sustainable life situation based on passion alone. You need time and cold, hard cash to live. (trust me, I'm a romantic at heart. It's not recommended as a life career.)
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