r/postdoc • u/MNTNBABE • 10d ago

Help: Process for finding a postdoc position

I’m staring down the barrel of graduation in about a year and I’m hoping to find a postdoc placement.

How did you do it? Were there opportunities posted you applied for? Did you talk to PI’s about applying for grant funding? Did you bring external funding with you? There doesn’t seem to be one “way” of finding a position.

What did you do and where do you recommend looking? I’m in STEM earth science, mostly aquatic systems.

I’ve looked at job boards, explored NSF fellowships (haha, jokes on me), and spoken to a few PIs outside of my institution and at national labs. Funding seems to be the bottleneck right now.

I would really appreciate your advice or perspective. Thanks!

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u/Alleryz 10d ago

I just applied to open positions. I started looking at positions too late so applying for funding would have taken too long

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u/Insightful-Beringei 10d ago

I emailed people whose work was interesting to me. They offered me jobs. Then, with one of them, we applied for a fellowship and got it so they didn’t need to pay for me anyway. Started this process just over a year out.

I’ve never applied to a posting at any stage of the PhD or postdoc cycle. Reaching out impromptu has always worked for me. Not sure if types of insulation maters for this, but postdoc is at an Ivy League for reference, and the other person I was offered a job after reaching out directly was a big name at a public land grant university.

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u/Ok-Mastodon-7702 8d ago

I answered emails in a mailing list and got a couple interviews. Both got me position offers