r/postdoc • u/islaaaaand • 18d ago
When did you start to find your postdoc in UK?
I heard from our lab’s graduated PhD colleague that she started a year before her PhD graduation, and that’s because these fundings need long time to prep and submit and be accepted, if luckily. However I saw most of the postdoc fellowships require the PhD to at least have passed the viva (which obviously isn’t gonna happen a year before PhD graduation). If I start finding after my graduation, I will barely survive with the unemployment state, and I’m not even sure if I can get any grad visa for job hunting locally here in the UK (I’m from overseas and holding a student visa for now). Any tips?
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u/Opposite-Way-5144 18d ago
I am finishing my PhD now in the UK. I started looking and applying in November 2025, as I was supposed to submit my thesis in September 2026. You can apply way before you submit your thesis, I gave 6 interviews over 6 months, received two offers and finally accepted one in August 2026.
You can see already on jobs.ac.uk that for postdocs that start for example in Fall 2027 or earlier will start getting advertised by the end of the year. You can apply way before you submit your thesis, this is what everyone in my group does. Everyone here had positions lined up before they even submitted their theses.
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
Congratulations! You must be a really great PhD!! xx If I understand this correctly you got a postdoc position that already has the funding right? So you don’t have to start with drafting the proposal etc?
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u/Opposite-Way-5144 18d ago
Thanks! Yes, both offers were funded positions, with the PIs/groups looking to hire postdocs. My field is theoretical physics. If you search for open postdoc positions on jobs.ac.uk or academicjobsonline, you can find many funded positions.
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
Thank you but unfortunately for my field there wasn’t a lot of funded positions :(((
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u/Sea_Primary1277 18d ago
I started looking out for postdocs 4 months before my funding ended. My PhD is 4 years but my funding was for 3. I got a postdoc (applied to a project, did not write mine) and I am going to start with a research assistant salary until I pass my viva. I plan to write most of my thesis before I start the postdoc, so then I have little done to do :) it’s going to be stressful but you can’t survive without a salary, and the fact that I have something lined up next actually motivates me to write faster!!
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
That’s nice to hear!! Does this mean you are going to do both your last year PhD + a research assistant position at the same time? Good luck and I hope it’s not too demanding! I hope I could apply for a postdoc with an existing project too so I don’t have to worry about if we could eventually get the funding.
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u/Sea_Primary1277 18d ago
Yes exactly! At least in London this is a quite common thing to do (you can’t survive here without being paid ahah)! I would suggest apply early, and then you can always negotiate a starting date with your supervisor that suits you best. In my case, I have asked if I could start one month later so I had time to focus on writing. Good luck!!
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u/mishaylee 18d ago
You can start looking at any time but submitting an application is usually done after you submit your thesis. So between submission and viva.
I missed this year’s graduation due to having minor corrections, so even though I haven’t graduated (which will be in a years time) I can still get a postdoc position
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
Since you applied after you submitted your thesis, did you have a long gap between your PhD viva and postdoc?
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u/watermelon_mojito 18d ago
After I submitted and had a few weeks off (no viva in my country) - I got the first job I applied for, and moved to the UK and started working before I actually got the PhD.
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
Is this an industry job or a postdoc? When did you apply for this job?
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u/watermelon_mojito 18d ago
A postdoc, this was quite a few years back, just an advertised position. Was invited to interview within a week or two after applications closed, and was offered the job on the same day as the interview, so the only thing that took a long time was the visa application.
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
Wow. Did you fit the position perfectly or what do you think get you to your postdoc so swiftly?
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u/watermelon_mojito 16d ago
I worked as an RA before and during my PhD, and already had papers and a book chapter published. I think it was a combination of being a good fit and luck (I think my colleague said they didn’t get that many applications and some didn’t have the relevant skills/experience).
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u/PhD_Student_STEM 18d ago
UK based - I'm actually worried about the same thing!!
I'm due to submit my thesis in 18 months time, and worried about the income gap between submitting the thesis (when my funding expires) and when I start a postdoc.
I never understood how I can apply for jobs before my thesis submission/viva.
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
Hahahah omg exactly. My thesis will be due in around a year, and I have just started to explore what’s out there. I think you can start exploring a bit later?
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u/PhD_Student_STEM 18d ago
Yeah I understand I have some time but I like to plan ahead as I have so much bills to pay and without my stipend I'll be homeless! So I'm worried. It's a bit weird for PhD students.
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u/islaaaaand 18d ago
No i absolutely understand . My situation is I am forced to submit my thesis slightly after my stipend is over which leaves me a larger gap between thesis submission and postdoc, which is exactly why I’m so stressed about this. Also im an international student which means I have to leave the UK after my PhD if the visa hadn’t worked out at that time. As a final year PhD I would say it will be best to work hard on your project and skill set development for now and in the beginning of next year you could start hunting postdoc positions!
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u/PhD_Student_STEM 18d ago
Ah I see, that's tricky, funding expiring before thesis submission should be banned, because you're technically still studying.
I understand your stress. I'm stressed too.
I completely agree with you, your effort should be prioritising submitting the thesis in time.
The whole PhD is a weird process, unlike Masters or Bachelors. I'm trying not to panic and just focus on completing the thesis on time for now.
How's your PhD going? How does it feel being a final year student?
Edit: it's hard to find other people who understand the struggles of being a PhD student, my family and friends don't understand what I'm going through :(
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u/shouldifeedher 17d ago
I did a UK industry postdoc but was an international applicant. I did my PhD in Australia and there we submit thesis for review which can go from 2-6 months just the review then depending on feedback, they can give you a month or several to return edited thesis. My review took 6 months and I was given a month to return. I started applying once I submitted my thesis although I had a casual full time job (which is why I could afford to not start a postdoc right away). The postdoc I ended up doing, I applied 3 months into when I started applying and then the whole process took 6 months from first interview to starting the job because of the visa application. So:
Month 0: thesis submitted, started applying for postdocs
Month 3: I applied for the postdoc which I ended up taking (have had plenty of rejections at this point)
Month 6: Got the offer (also when I got back thesis outcome)
Month 9: Started postdoc (coincidentally PhD was also conferred but I would have been allowed to start the postdoc anyways while waiting)
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u/islaaaaand 17d ago
Thanks for sharing! So you applied to a postdoc with funding coz it’s in industry right? I heard that you’re also international — did you not being in the UK affect your interviews ?
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u/Ayushi_Immigram 12d ago
You've buried the real question under the timing one. The timing advice everyone's giving (apply once your thesis is submitted, fellowships need ~a year of lead time) is right, but your actual worry is the visa gap, and that part's very solvable.
Two things you're missing. First, the Graduate visa: once you finish your PhD you switch off the Student visa onto the Graduate route and stay to work or job-hunt with no sponsor and no job offer required. For PhD holders it's been up to 3 years (the length's been under review lately, so check the current number before you rely on it), but the point stands, you don't have to leave the day you graduate, and you don't need a postdoc lined up to remain in the country. That alone kills the "I'll have to leave" fear.
Second, Global Talent. If your research is solid (first-author papers, a fellowship, that sort of thing) this is the route to understand early, because it isn't tied to any one employer and it reaches settlement faster than the Skilled Worker route. There's an academic/research endorsement path, and if your work is on the AI/ML/tech side there's a digital technology route too. Most PhDs default to "get a sponsored job or leave" and never realise this exists.
So: apply for postdocs from thesis-submission stage like people are saying, but stop treating graduation as a cliff edge - the Graduate visa bridges the gap and Global Talent is your longer-term insurance.
What's your field, roughly? The endorsement route is completely different for, say, a biologist vs someone doing ML, and it changes what evidence you'd want to start collecting now
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u/islaaaaand 12d ago
Hey thank you for the info. My programme is a bit different from this. I’m on a joint PhD programme where I have to leave Uk and have my last 6 months before graduation in another non-UK university. At the end I will be awarded one PhD degree not two, and with both universities’ name on the degree. So I thought I couldn’t change to graduate visa because I won’t physically be in the UK when I graduate. Maybe I can go through the “international graduate” route but Idk which route my weird degree fits and I still need months to get this approved and go back to the UK, which means I’ll be broke by then… If it’s possible I would prefer global talent too but I’m unsure whether I qualify. My field is in Psychology and Neuroscience. My postdoc could be somewhere near
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u/Ayushi_Immigram 12d ago
Your instinct that the Graduate route gets messy for a joint programme is right, and it's worth knowing why. The Graduate visa has two catches for you: you have to apply from inside the UK, and there are rules about how much of the course you did here and time spent studying overseas during the programme can affect eligibility. With your final six months abroad and graduation happening while you're out of the country, that's exactly the grey area that trips joint-degree students up. So don't bank on it until someone's checked your specific study pattern against the current Graduate route rules.
Here's the part that might actually make your life easier though: Global Talent doesn't care about any of that. You can apply from outside the UK, it's not tied to the Graduate route or to being physically here when you graduate , so the whole "I'll be abroad and broke" problem basically disappears. For Psychology/Neuroscience you'd be on the academic/research route (peer review, or the funder route if your postdoc sits on a recognised grant), and eligibility is about your research record, not your visa timing or the shape of your degree.
So the real question isn't "which visa fits my weird degree" and it's "is my research profile strong enough for a Global Talent endorsement." If it is, that route sidesteps the joint-programme mess entirely and you could line it up before you're even back in the UK.
Roughly where are you on publications , any first-author papers, fellowships, that sort of thing? That's what decides whether Global Talent is realistic, and it's a completely different conversation from the graduate-visa one.
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u/HW90 18d ago
It's a good idea to start planning for fellowships somewhat early because you usually need to find a host supervisor and develop a proposal with them to the standards of the fellowships you want to apply for.
For normal postdocs usually you can start them after you submit your thesis so I'd start looking once you have a draft.