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I'm about 6 months away from submitting my (astrophysics) thesis, and having a difficult time deciding which path to go down (i.e. post-doc vs. industry).
I have a few questions that I don't feel entirely comfortable asking my advisors, hoping somebody has some insight. 

My advisors have been encouraging me to apply for post-doc's and think that I would have a good shot of finding a position. 
My main hesitation is mainly around an uncertainty of the expectations for a post-doc. To put it plainly, my ideal scenario would
be to drop all of the "extra" activities, and just focus on research and publishing. For example, I avoid giving talks of any kind, I avoid
networking and visiting other institutions, I avoid attending conferences and workshops. I'm happy when I can just show up every
day and do science, write code and analyse results. 

I guess my question basically is, how much is expected of a post-doc in addition to producing scientific results and publishing papers?
As long as I am producing results, do I have complete freedom to set my own schedule in terms of travel, giving talks, etc?
Will it create friction/cause problems if I'm not interested in any of the "extra" activities? To be clear, I'm friendly and well-liked around 
the office, and don't mind attending perhaps one conference per year (without presenting). I just don't like feeling obligated/forced to be involved.
I suspect that maybe the answer depends on my potential future employer/research group, and that expectations vary. If that's the case, is it very
common/rare to be given complete freedom as a post-doc (aside from the science aspect)?

I hope that's decipherable, I'm having trouble formulating my question/uncertainty. Any advice or input would be very much appreciated.
 

Edited by cosmicnemo

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