Job Responsibilities
Oversee a small group of graduate and undergraduate students in
experiemntal work. Design and build circuits and softwares to
collect and analyse daat. Perform experiments in life animals.
Come up with models that explain the data, using analytical
calculation or computer simulation. Write grant or fellowship
proposals, write researcvh articles. Give in-house or conference
seminars / lectures. The time spent in each particular task
depends on the period of the year. Before an abstract or grant
submission deadline, for example (between 4 to 8 times a year),
that can take a whole week of exclusive attention. Experiments
take a rather fixed amount of time per day (one can only do so
much with a life animal, or a slice preparation). Multi-tasking
is the key word for handling all this swiftly.
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Job Requirements
To be a postdoc requires, by definition, a doctoral degree. It
is an increasing trend in the biological sciences to hire PhDs
with a background other than biology. Neuroscience, in
particular, has become a very interdisciplinary field. Many of
the prominent researchers and new postdocs are quantitatively
trained. That means one has to have a good grasp of
computational modeling and statistical analyses of data. Typical
hiring procedure involves the following steps: 1) job search, 2)
sending out CVs, 3) going to interviews. Job search should start
at the beginning of the last year of graduate school. 1a) Attend
to scientific conferences and make sure to contact/meet up with
people you would like to work with. 1b) Ask whether your advisor
knows any colleague who needs postdocs. 1c) Search for
particular university's or lab's websites. 1d) Just write an
unsolicited email to someone you would like to work with with
your CV attached. If you have had good list of publication as a
graduate student, you will be surprised that people might
actually respond to a cold call. 2a) Academics are very
informal, so the CVs don't have particular formats, so that is
the easy part of the job. 3a) At interviews, the most important
thing is to exude confidence. You know better than anyone else
what you have done for your PhD thesis so the material is not
the important thing. Think about it as a practice talk for your
defense. 3b) Anticipate the questions (you may have had some in
your last conference's presentation)and prepare some questions
about the university/lab for the Principal Investigator or other
lab members. 3c) MAKE SURE TO ASK CURRENT LAB MEMBERS HOW THEIR
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE P.I. IS! The PI sets the working
atmosphere, and how colaborative/productive the lab is. And you
will feel miserable if you have a lousy boss.
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Uppers
If you are a science type, who is curious, love to learn, who think that you can
better the world through the pursuit of science, you can find this job very
exciting. If on top of acquiring knowledge you like to transmit it, that is even
better. No suits or nylon stockings here! Most people around you are driven and
smart.
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Downers
Most people are quite smart in this field, so there are many
people who suffer from ego problems. Some of those who are most
megalomaniac are actually extremely unsure of themselves. Pray
that these are not going to be your bosses. This is a job that
demands perseverance, and requires you to enjoy the process as
much as the result. Science, by definition, lies at the edge of
the unknown, so one can never be sure whether the results that
one is looking for will be confirmed. Finally, the market is
very scattered, so you are never sure where you are going to end
up as a faculty member. If you have a partner, it makes things
even harder (although some universities have programs that hire
couples).
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Lifestyle
Freedom of lifestyle is one of the best advantages of the academic world. Except
if you have a lab schedule - a time you have to be at the lab to work on animals
with other people - you can actually do your work from home. Again, it depends a
lot on the PI that you have (I have heard stories of German PIs that put webcams
in the lab to see who is in there...), but mostly people want to see results.
There is not much travel besides going to conferences, which are the best places
for socializing with people from your field.
If you work in a university, there most likely will be social events - beer,
pizza - organized by the department. But if you crave for parties everynight, you
should not relie on university's efforts; that's just not the university's
priority for postdocs. BTW, postdocs enjoy much unstructured environment than
grad students, faculties and of course undergrads. If you think you are
marginalized as a graduate student, by ready to fight to be included in the
community as a postdoc.
Academics are the most relaxed people when it comes to dress code. The
chairman's favorite sweater has a whole in it. Professors walk around in their
slippers.
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Compensation
This is probably the worst payed job for someone who holds a
PhD. 1st year salary is mid thirties and progresses to no more
than sixties in 5 years, before going to a tenured track
position.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Make sure to make some soul searching before jumping into
academia. It requires a lot of commitment and enthusiasm for
knowledge. It is a very respected job that can really make an
impact on society. However, do not join academia for what it
represents (the romantic view of the science genius), but for
what you have to do in the daily life.
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