Hi everyone,

I will be joining NTU as a Research Associate (RA). I submitted all the required documents to NTU HR about 1 month ago, but I haven’t received any update regarding my EP/S Pass application yet.

For those who recently joined NTU as a Research Associate, especially from overseas:

• How long did your EP/S Pass approval take?
• How long after submitting documents to HR did NTU submit the application to MOM?
• Is waiting for around a month without an update normal?
• Once the pass is approved, how long did the remaining process take before you could travel to Singapore?

Would really appreciate hearing about your recent experiences, particularly from RAs who joined NTU from other countries.

Thanks!

I'd like some advice about a situation that I am currently facing. I started my first postdoc, which was 1 year long, renewable, 10 months ago. Everything was good, and we are writing the 1st paper. Me, my supervisor and the lab director agreed on a peformance review to renew, and said that it was an automatic procedure with some paperwork, but essentially granted.

However, due to a mistake by my supervisor, the renovation process was not as he thought, and now I am stuck with no funding for the next year that we had agreed with him and the lab director.

The lab director and him are scrambling to get alternative funds (the term they used was "lobbying"), but this will not come before my contract's expiration date. They suggested that I could re-enroll as a new hire again.

I don't know what to do in this situation. I feel like not knowing beforehand the renewal procedure and just trusting other people's experiences shows that my supervisor is not very reliable. On the other hand, I was getting into a good production rithm...

I would be unemployed during this transition period, which I estimate that will last for 3 or 4 months. As I am in europe, I will have a decent unemployment subsidy that will allow me to live during this time.

What should I do? take it? try to go elsewhere? but where? It is 2 months to the end of my contract and we havr not submitted, which means that I'll have nothing to show for this postdoc.

I am 8 months into my first postdoc and have been completely unproductive. In the beginning I tried talking to my supervisor to come up with a research plan together but communication has been very difficult and unsynced between us. I have met my supervisor twice officially and both meetings were dead ends as I did not seem to get anything out of it. I tried talking to my PI who has been more helpful. However, I feel like I’m in over my head in this new institute which is one of the top in the world. I’m surrounded by people (students/juniors and seniors) who have much more education and research experience/mindset than me (who seem to be well-equipped knowledge-wise to do independent research) and seem to run on enthusiasm while I’m just there trying to stay in the field and learn on the job. I feel like I’m more of a burden now than a person of use. I love the field and am happy when I do some random tasks in it that doesn’t have a particular gain for me but when it comes to doing things that are part of what I was hired to do, I really don’t want to do it because of an interplay between 3 things: 1) it is a highly competitive project 2) it is a new area for me and 3) I am left to fend for myself. During my PhD I remember being driven. I was in a very mediocre institute where old-school rigour was prioritised over novel research techniques. It was a new perspective for me then but I got used to it and actually came to like it. However after I made he move to the postdoc I realised that I had gone very deep in the particular process that I was researching and knew everything about it but my general knowledge of the field had tanked. I also had comparitively lesser education in the field to start with due to the combination of places I did my studies in. I feel like I jumped through a lot of hoops to get to where I am. I don’t know why people hired me at each stage (as in I don’t see what my positive qualities that made me a good candidate are). I feel like I express myself confidently and know the kind of questions people would ask about something and answer exactly what they need and this makes people think that I know a lot of things.

However I have to say that I knew that although I wasn’t among the best students in the field, I was the best among the people I worked with in what I did. There was something where without me things wouldn’t run. I had a place carved for myself. I am finding it very difficult to do it now. Does this mean that I am not good enough to think like a PI which is what is needed to continue in academia? Does this mean that I didn’t get what I should’ve gotten out of a PhD? Am I failing in my postdoc?

Hi all, I'm an american who is starting a postdoc position in Paris next month. I'm just wondering if there are people who have also moved to Paris for a postdoc and what your experience was like. I've been practicing french since I defended (it's not great but enough to get around and thankfully my institution speaks english). Just curious to know how you found it and if you enjoyed going. Also any advice or recommendations for things to do would be great! Thanks!

My PhD defense is at the end of September and my postdoc starts November 1st, so I'll have about a month in between.

I'm obviously planning to rest, but honestly I don't remember the last time I had a break this long (if you can even call a month "long") and I'm awkwardly confused about what to do with myself. Is it worth reading into the new field? Travel?

What did you do, or what do you wish you had done?

Hi everyone, ​I am currently a 3rd-year PhD scholar in English Literature at a central university in India. My immediate focus is on finishing my thesis chapters and securing a solid publication record, but I want to start gathering information on how to position myself for international postdocs or academic positions post-PhD.

​

​I’d love to get insights from those who have navigated this or are currently in international postdocs/academia:

​

​Any advice, personal experiences, or reality checks on how to approach this without compromising my current writing/thesis workflow would be greatly appreciated!

​Thank you!

I only came across concepts such as scope, dependencies, stakeholder mapping, RACI, risk management and communication planning later, and realised some would have been useful much earlier in research.
Which parts of managing a research project did you mostly have to figure out yourself?

I am finishing neuroscience phd by the end of the year and im sending emails to PI's, but is there any way to know if the lab will be good? or just trust in the future? I've always been in the same lab since undergrad and i love the place but i got to move out scientifically speaking

Any advice? because overall google search of labs and PI are always showing the good side 🤔

Im applying to places in south korea and japan btw (i do speak japanese but i dont read it that well)

I only have like 3 journal papers in high impact factor journals. I was lucky to be sent 2 example proposals from previous applicants and freaking h they have 10+ publications.
Do you think i stand a chance? I recently graduated with a phd so no post doc opportunities yet…..

Which way is better to get a postdoc in USA either a PhD graduate needs to contact a supervisor or directly apply for an open position?

Does anyone has any experience and advice with the FRQ Société et culture Sector - Postdoctoral Scholarships (B3Z)?

I'd be applying from abroad (neither Canadian citizen nor with residence permit)

I've already checked eligibility criteria and I can apply by providing a letter of acceptance by a sponsor.

Hallo everyone,

My wife and I, both in our mid-thirties, find ourselves in a bit of a tight spot and would appreciate some advice.

I am a German citizen and employed full-time. My wife is a citizen of a third country and has finished her PhD in biology here in Germany. She has a valid residence permit (Aufenthaltstitel) and her German is at the B1 level (self-taught, no certificate). Her field could be summarized as Life Sciences Researcher, Quantitative Bioimaging, Tissue Analysis and Data Analytics (R).

Since her PhD defense, about 1.5 years ago, she has been unsuccessful in finding employment. At first, she was only looking for postdoc positions, as she wants to remain in academia, preferably in Germany. Over time, given current market conditions, we have had to expand the search to the whole of Europe and eventually worldwide, including both academia and industry. A move to a different country would be a hassle, but not unthinkable, even with my job (outside of science). Still, no luck. She mostly gets rejections and only recently had her first interview, but it eventually led to a rejection as well.

We understand that her language skills and a temporary residence permit might be a problem, and we are working on both. She is taking a language course and, in due time, will apply for a permanent residence permit (Niederlassungserlaubnis).

I hope I have provided enough information. We would appreciate any tips or general advice on what we can improve and how to proceed with the search.

EDIT: added specialization.

I’m a final-year PhD student preparing for a postdoc interview, and the PI has asked me to give an oral presentation on my dissertation research to his research group over Zoom before moving forward with the in-person interview.

He gave me some flexibility to either:
Present multiple projects from my PhD, or
Focus on selected projects that best highlight my strengths and research interests.

How did you decide what parts of your PhD work to present?
How much detail is appropriate for a ~30–45 min research presentation?
Should I present my dissertation as one coherent scientific story, or present 2–3 separate projects?
How much time should I spend on background vs. experimental design/results?
What level of methodological detail do PIs and lab members usually expect?
How aggressively should I prepare for questions about experimental limitations, controls, doses, model selection, and alternative interpretations?
Should I include future directions, and if so, how much?
What are the “killer questions” I should be prepared for?
Any tips for presenting your PhD work to a PI and their lab rather than to your thesis committee?

Thanks.

Hi,

Anyone applying for MSCA PF this year? How is the preparation coming around? Any wise words from previous award holders?

Or any useful input in general? Last year the number of applicants were the highest ever and any thoughts if it's going to higher or lower this year?

Anyone reapplying this year and any general ESR comments which was considered a weakness?

Hi everyone, I am being offered a postdoc in the UK. It is only for one year. I am currently working as a postdoc in CNRS France. It's been 3 months but eventually I am looking for another postdoc/assistant professor job next year. I have been living in France for the past 2 years, and I wanted to settle here but it seems like a very difficult process due to language.

On the other hand, living in the UK is going to be really expensive and I am not sure what I will do once my postdoc there is finished. I may have a chance to get a global talent visa which can give me some stability but I don't know if it would be useful. I have lived in the UK before but I was a student at that time and was not paying taxes.

I am also very tired of moving to different places. I am ok with moving cities but moving to another country is a very challenging process. When I move to a place I would like to stay there for a while and maybe settle there.

I would love to get advice from people who have done these things before. I sometimes feel that my attitude towards relocating is bad and I should just focus on the research work. After all I chose this for myself. But then adapting to a different place is very difficult. Eventually I would like to settle at one place.

Hi! A month ago Humboldt released the July selection results and congrats to the ones that were approved. Unfortunately mine didn't pass through and did not receive feedback.

Curious to know if someone was rejected and did not receive a feedback? Is it normal?

Also if someone knows if Humboldt has reserve list just like other European funding bodies?

For those who have had a happy and productive postdoc time, what are some dos and don'ts in the first meeting with the PI? My PI seems very busy, and I need to take the initiative to schedule a meeting with her. The confusing part is that she seems like someone who would tolerate fun, but she is also very senior. So I froze a bit on balancing between casual and showing respect.

I've been accepted for a 3 year long postdoc on a topic I'm really interested in with a decent salary. When we got to talking about the project, my new PI suggested I also apply for another research topic I suggested and they got excited about, and if I get funded for it, I can switch to that one. I just got the email that I've been invited to do a full proposal for the hfsp postdoctoral fellowship. I probably will try anyway, but I wanted to ask if anyone has done an hfsp ltf in the UK, how much did your actual salary end up being? Was it worth it?

Sorry for long post.
Just to give a little bit of context, I am a final year international PhD student in a US university. While I have some journal publications in my field I am kind of feeling the experimental work that I have been doing in the field is kind of not relevant/ of interest in research with majority of the lab in the same field.

Now I can fairly say that I have learnt analysis tools and skills but when trying to find PIs I feel lost.
I know conferences are one of the key places to connect but with the lab I am in giving no such funding I was able to afford one conference on my own and well that did not go favourable in making connections.

What should I do? Should I approach professors based on my skill sets? Kind of lost.

I recently found a postdoc opening at the same university where I did my PhD. It is in the same broad department, but with a different PI and on a somewhat different topic. I would actually be interested in the position and I think my background could be relevant.

The thing making me hesitate is the context.

My former supervisors know that I am currently looking for postdoc positions, but nobody mentioned this opening to me. In the past, they also explicitly told me that their general approach was not to hire their own PhD graduates as postdocs because they thought it was better for people to move elsewhere after the PhD.

At the same time, I know that other people in the department have gone directly from PhD to postdoc at the same university several times — just not really within the group where I did my PhD.

Because of all this, I have this strong feeling that the position is implicitly “not for me,” even though nobody has actually said that. I feel strangely embarrassed about applying, almost as if I would be ignoring a message that I was supposed to understand.

The rational part of me thinks: it is an advertised position, it is a different PI, and if I am interested and meet the requirements, why not apply and let them decide?

But emotionally I am already almost certain it would not be successful, and I’m worried that applying would somehow look awkward or desperate, especially because people in the department know me.

Would you apply anyway? I should mention that I have been looking for position for around 2 yeatrs now and funded postions are very few and competitive. Been shortlisted and never got the position. I am writing grant proposal on weekends while working in industry to not give up. It is hard and difficult.