Jing Tang is an ecosysem modeller in the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science in Lund University in Sweden and in the Ecoystem-Atmosphere interactions research group at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She tells her story of doing the PhD studies in Lund after finishing her Master's degree in China, and continuing with a postdoctoral positoion in Copenhagen and Lund. She discussess the possibilities for learning and interesting scientific work in the field of ecosystem modelling, but also discusses a few of the challenges. She gives advice in the end to pay attention to not ignore some of the additional activities during scientific work, such as teaching and organizing courses and conferences, because they might be an important aspect in the selection for funding applications.