Considering career options for after your PhD? One career step that is often considered is the role of postdoctoral scholar at an academic institution. The goal of this guide is to provide some questions that may help you to determine if a postdoctoral position matches your career goals.
In each of the dropdown menus, you will find a list of questions that can guide your reflection on whether pursuing a postdoctoral position in research makes sense for you. For help answering these questions, see the tips at the bottom of the page.
- What are your long-term career goals? These career exploration resources may help you explore options.
- Are you pursuing a postdoc because you want to go into academia? If yes, do you want to pursue faculty careers or consider other academic careers?
- What is the path from postdoc to assistant professor at the institutions you are applying to?
- Are there benefits or downsides to joining as staff or research specialist as opposed to a postdoc?
- If you do not want to go into academia, what are the benefits of doing this postdoc?
- What are the characteristics of the job you want? Postdoc positions can vary widely - how does the postdoc position you are considering align with the characteristics of the job you want?
- If the postdoc were going to start tomorrow, how would you feel about it?
- These resources can help with outlining your skills, interests, and values: MyIDP / Imagine PhD.
- The Academic Career Readiness Assessment can help with clarifying different types of academic institutions you may be interested in (e.g., research, teaching, combination), and can help you create a training plan for what you need to accomplish in your postdoc.
- What is the salary range and what are the determinants of the salary (e.g., is the salary based on work experience)?
- Is the salary negotiable?
- Does the research group already have funding for the postdoctoral position, or would you need to bring in additional funding?
- Would accepting a postdoc (e.g., with your current research group) provide you flexibility for determining your next steps?
- Are there options for full time vs part time or in-person vs remote work?
- Advancing your skills?
- Experience in a new subject matter or cementing a subject matter expertise?
- New or expanded professional network?
- Foot in the door at an institution you are interested in?
- Publications?
- Protected time to apply for grants and fellowships or to prepare to apply for faculty positions or other jobs?
- Mentorship?
- Management experience opportunities?
- Administrative work?
- Can you take courses, attend conferences, or complete other training?
- Teaching experience?
- Service (e.g., participating in groups that interest you)?
To help answer any of these questions, you might consider:
- Informational interviews with the professors, postdocs, and students in the departments where you are considering postdoc opportunities can be informative.
- Discussing these questions with your PI, mentors, colleagues, and alumni of your doctoral program can also be very beneficial.
- The UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development also provides appointments with career counselors to talk through any of these topics or can help if you are not sure where to begin!
- Discussing these questions with family and friends can also be valuable.
This resource was developed by Sarah Gallalee, PhD during her internship at the Office of Career and Professional Development in 2023. These questions were developed during conversations with 25 faculty, staff, students and postdocs with the goal of helping social and population sciences students determine if a postdoc position would be a good next step.
