The postdoc experience: hopes and fears

As ever another article re post docs that continue in academic careers, which is great for those that wish to keep on that (too) well trodden path. My understanding is that the pd is a training period where one is mentored and finely honed by your PI to become an stand-alone expert in your field. In my experience however, it is the same old at each pd, .i.e. writing grants, papers and presentations - is this n years experience or one year repeated ad nauseum? Aside from an esoteric writing style, are such experiences even transferable to other spheres? So, when you realise academia is not for you, pds (in my experience) do not help you move to something else. My advice, if the pd you are interested in does not include considerable 'continued personal development' (or what ever else it is called i.e. useful courses and experiences), DO NOT APPLY!

As an older woman artist who entered Academia late in life in order to complete a practice based PhD, the above examples feel almost irrelevant but none the less, very real. I envy them their youth and time available to evolve. Being older, a career in Academia is not the goal, or so I told myself. But now, just finished, I've no idea who I am; pensioner, artist, writer, researcher.....independent...financially poor. I'm currently struggling to get back into my creative practice and just think as an artist. But I can't unknow what I have come to know. I hadn't anticipated the challenges this would bring. I wonder though, regardless of age, is this all about identity and how we relate to the world?