Early career researcher

Now that I have finished my PhD, I still need to remember and reflect on the fact that I am an early career researcher. That means I'm just starting out. I've completed five years of postgraduate study, which only means that I am able to now BEGIN my academic career.

Puts things in perspective. Yet at the same time, I don't want to downplay the effort I put in to completing my PhD. The academic game seems to be a fairly difficult one.