How to get a postdoc

You might not find a formal postdoc position, but there might be an opportunity for collaborative work. Someone approaches a group looking for a postdoc the response they might get is: “we’re interested in you but we don’t have any funding – if you can find some then you can come here. Cautious about firing off out-of-the-blue a candidate contacts me to do a postdoctorate with their own funding i look for compatibility with my own specialisation or expertise. This is a problem for some postdocs, especially if they have a partner who wants to stay in a long-term position elsewhere, but it is worth looking at opportunities abroad.

How to get a post doc

Convince the principal investigator that because you have done (insert specific skills here), you will be able to do (insert what the principal investigator is looking for the postdoc to do). Postdoc is really employed to deliver the specific outcomes that have been promised to the funders. As someone who works ethnographically, the postdoc applicant needs to convince me that they have stamina and openness to take on sometimes difficult and tiring fieldwork and who can respond to different and demanding situations. Obviously it’s fine if they’re using the phd to show how they will meet the requirements of the postdoc, but they have to be looking forward to the research project in question.

You have to be very comfortable with that person and happy that the group will help you get what you want to get out of the postdoc. Carefully about whether you want to stay in you have an opportunity to stay on and do a postdoc, it’s very easy to be flattered by that and to stay on without thinking about the longterm options or consequences. Generally, the longer you stay in a postdoc position, the harder it is for you to move into other sectors. Around 99%) apply incorrectly for their postdocs,And i suspect that many people do not get c that they want because of ations.

These applicants a letter or email (either is fine) saying are interested in doing a postdoc and like ch done in the lab. Second, it recognizes that as a postdoc is different from that as te student, that you are taking charge of . Graduate students are learning how to ists; postdocs are colleagues (virtually cing scientist you talk to will say that c was the best part of their career and one of the main reasons). I don’t guarantee that following will get you the one postdoc you really want,But i am sure that you will be listened to and probability interviewed.

The what, why, and where’s of a postdoc we first spotted graduation on the horizon and realized, “omg. When we each finally scored satisfying postdocs, we met women graduate students with all those same questions, had a chat about it, and decided that our answers could be useful more broadly. So, here they you may want a cs are pretty standard in the physical sciences where it’s viewed as a necessary extension of phd training, but postdocs are also becoming more common in the social sciences and the humanities. We may have disabilities, debt (or at least not piles of extra money for moving expenses), or concerns that we are not safe living in some part of the country because of our identities – including gender, sexual orientation, race, and choosing a postdoc, real life factors like this matter.

The often exceedingly casual, network-based modes of finding a postdoc, combined with the ever-tightening job market for tenure track and postdoc positions can result in only those with all possible advantages–those who are playing on ‘easy’–may be able to find employment that suits loathe that this is the case, and we want to change this. But in all likelihood this will not change before you need that postdoc to keep you employed on your venture to a tenure track job. In the next post, we hope to provide some tips for securing a postdoc that you feel safe in within a difficult and often biased system, and shed some light onto alternative options when you may be at a around for different kinds of keep saying that word postdoc. There’s quite a lot of variety even within academic postdoctoral positions, and much of it depends on – wait for it – where the money comes are three basic types of research-focused postdocs, all of which will vary a bit based on the funding agency and discipline:Fellowships funded by a grant you’ve written (often in collaboration with your future pi).

Some larger universities also have fellowships available, check out uc president’s postdoctoral fellowship (which emphasizes public service to women and other underrepresented minorities) or the society of fellows at the university of michigan for examples. Often for this kind of “fellowship” postdoc, you must work closely with a faculty pi to write the grant. This kind of postdoc is most amenable to pursuing semi-independent research, since you’re writing it yourself. Most fellowship postdocs are recurring, established programs — you should search online, scope out others’ cvs, and ask around for which agencies or schools fund them in your field or topical by someone else’s grant or start-up.

Seek out and join those listservs, and let advisors and colleagues know if you’re looking for a postdoc like this. Beware: these can be “workhorse” postdocs where your own career is sidelined and you become your pi’s statistician. These aren’t advertised, but if you contact prospective pis, you might get a chance to give early input on project and be brought on board without applying to an existing postdoc position. We have heard of people with this kind of postdoc funded via their grad school advisor, or after a lunch with a visiting speaker, or after chatting with their future pi at a conference bar.

These positions won’t find you — you need to search them out in any way you addition to these fairly typical research postdocs, there are also teaching postdocs and postdocs that aren’t funded through universities. Again, the funding source matters because it changes the expectations and goals of your postdoc, which affects your career trajectory. Make sure to evaluate teaching postdocs carefully and make sure their expectations for teaching and research are in line with your career goals. They’re often advertised on job sites alongside tenure track jobs, or can be advertised on university webpages in the same way fellowship postdocs are.

Pretty much every postdoc is going to be competitive, and less focus on research does not necessarily mean the job will be less -tanks, industry, and other postdocs function to hire academics into public or private institutions. In addition to “think-tanks”, postdoc positions may be available in industry or non-profit research (e. Some of these positions still allow you to pursue publications and would not be considered “getting out of the academic game,” while others might serve as good transitions out of , perhaps you need or want to do a postdoc, and you’ve now got an idea of which type–or more likely, types! The next step is to search out positions or funding sources, and go about securing a postdoc for yourself.

Why you may want a postdoc” … i wish i wanted to do one, but it’s more like i had no choice and had to do one (being in the physical sciences). Being a postdoc is a lot different than i thought it would be like when i was in grad school. The lack of job security is so stressful – as even though i do have a couple of years of funding, if my postdoc is not productive, i don’t know where that leaves me. Because as a postdoc you are essentially working three jobs – 1) your current paid job under your postdoc pi, 2) your loose strings of your phd finishing a paper here-or-there and answering emails from former grad student colleagues and phd advisor, and 3) your future job of preparing job materials, reading up on research for a field you can join independently after your postdoc, etc..

It took me 14 months to find my postdoc position using the funding methods mentioned above – it’s quite a catch-22 to shop for one without funding available. I wish…i’ve been post docing for 3 years and never made more than $36k, often i and ii of this series are a fabulous overview of ways to think about and maneuver the postdoctoral pursuit. Last week, my office hosted the first ever "how to get a post-doc position" panel, featuring robert clarke, phd, interim director of biomedical graduate research organization, dean for research, georgetown university medical center, shaun brinsmade, phd, principal investigator, assistant professor, department of biology, georgetown university, shweta bansal, phd, assistant professor, biology, georgetown university, and nathan baird, phd, postdoctoral research fellow, nhlbi, is the summary of takeaway points that our phd students learned from the session:Why should i consider a post-doc position? Think about your long term goals and use your postdoc to get should i look for?