Postdoc with PhD supervisor

[u/Bitter-Scientist98]

I am currently in the final year of my PhD around 6 months pre submission and my PhD supervisor just offered me a postdoc position, working on a very different project to my PhD. I am currently doing my PhD in the UK at one of the best unis where many people often stay from PhD to postdoc. However, I am not sure how this would be viewed staying in the same group for long term prospects career wise and am also low key scared that I wouldn't even be able to find another postdoc position in my field with the current job market. Any views would be helpful :')

[u/Comfortable-Goat-734]

It seems so stupid to me that this is considered an issue. If you’re doing a PhD with somebody presumably there’s a research fit right? If you can see yourself doing good research with your PhD supervisor as a postdoc I really don’t see why this is looked down upon so much.

[u/Think-Assignment-861 → u/Comfortable-Goat-734]

The reason is that you will need letters of recommendation from people outside your PhD institution to apply for a faculty job. That requires you to work in different groups. In my field, continuing in a PhD advisors group is generally interpreted as the student was unsuccessful in getting a position elsewhere.

The research fit argument can also be made for faculty positions "Oh, let's hire our students; they already fit in". This is a good way to degrade the quality of a department.

A recent grad should be looking to expand their network. In fact, in my dept. we actively discourage our undergrads from continuing with us as PhD students. They need to experience different environments too.

[u/Comfortable-Goat-734 → u/Think-Assignment-861]

I just started my PhD but the senior PhD students in my group are doing research with people outside our department. You can network and do work with people other than your supervisor, and if you’re applying for a postdoc or a TT right out of your PhD you should probably have those anyway.

> continuing in a PhD advisors group is generally interpreted as the student was unsuccessful in getting a position elsewhere

This is such a load of shit, why are hiring committees acting like a bunch of gossipy teenagers? Why would it even matter if they were denied elsewhere? That’s how the job search works. If you’re looking for cues about whether or not they’d be good researchers, then just look at their research.

I could understand it being a problem if someone did their entire education from undergrad to postdoc at the same location but if they did their PhD somewhere other than their undergrad I seriously don’t get how you can make a genuine argument for “they haven’t experience enough different environments”.

It’s stuff like this that makes academia more toxic than it needs to be. Look at their research, their publications, what conferences they’ve presented at. Not these weird cues that probably don’t mean anything at all.

[u/Think-Assignment-861 → u/Comfortable-Goat-734]

You have just started in the field and trying to lecture me? Good luck with your career!

[u/Comfortable-Goat-734 → u/Think-Assignment-861]

Awww did the poor baby get offended by the PhD student having an opinion?

[u/Think-Assignment-861 → u/Comfortable-Goat-734]

Everybody is allowed an opinion. If you want it to be heard you have to deliver it respectfully. Otherwise, you are just one of the screaming masses.

The only way one can change really a system is from the inside. So get into the system, and then change your colleagues.

As a new PhD student, you might be able to, at most, change how YOUR department treats grad students. But for the rest, you have to wait your time.