A PhD student asks -
I’m planning to be done next December. I know I’ll need to apply for jobs, but I don’t want to apply too soon. When is a good time to start?  

It feels a little cliche, but it’s never too early to start! Your job search will likely involve a lot of activities (like identifying interesting organizations and notifying your network) that don’t necessarily lead to an immediate application, interview, and offer. I’m a big fan of doing some more casual job searching at first, and ramping up the time commitment as you get closer to your preferred start date. There is a serious risk in accidentally starting too late. You could easily run out of time to find a good fit and end up feeling forced into taking a worse position than you’d like, you can end up in a longer period of unintentional unemployment, and you’ll likely feel the additional stress as you run out of time. Think about the worst-case scenario from applying too early; you might have wasted some time applying and interviewing, and you may have to turn down an offer because they need someone to start before you’re able to. Even if this happens, I’d bet the knowledge and connections you gained from going through the process still pay off for you later!

Don’t forget that it is completely ordinary to negotiate your start date at the end of a hiring process. As long as you aren’t asking for an extreme amount of time, most organizations are willing to wait a bit for the right candidate (and reopening a search is a massive pain and time cost to them!). You also have some agency over when you finish your degree- you can talk to your PI and committee as you get closer to explore options for lining up the end of your work with a potential offer.

For many people it can easily take 6 months or more of searching to find a really good fit, so it is great that you are thinking about this now!

-David Blancha, Assistant Director, Career Development Team for Researchers