The purpose of a postdoc is to prepare you for your dream job. This is an extremely valuable time. This document is one way that I will encourage you to do something you must do, no matter how painful it is. You must make a plan. This is not just a matter of listing your research goals, though that’s part of it.
You will have to consider many threads along which you will make progress during your postdoc. You don’t have the luxury of taking these one at a time; you need to consider all the threads and weave a plan that (a) respects the calendar, (b) doesn’t drive you crazy, but (c) doesn’t leave anything out. This is a preview of what it is like as an independent researcher.
You will consider:
- What’s your goal? What kind of job do you want?
- What is the “story of you” that your CV will tell? What are you better than everyone else at?
- What are your research/teaching/data science goals?
- How does your story fit with the kind of job you are hoping to get?
- If you are focusing on academics, what type of department do you want to go to? Who will advocate for you within that department or institution?
- What grants/awards will you apply for during and after your time here? What are the deadlines? What is the timeline?
- How will you exhibit your mentoring and teaching abilities when you apply for jobs?
- Besides your CV and other traditional application materials, what do you want people to see about you when you go on the job market?
- What conferences / seminars / hackathons / etc should you attend?
- How do you expand your network in a way that will open doors when you go on the job market?
- Who will write your recommendations? What do you hope those letters will say?
- Where can you go for help?
The rest of this document is a worksheet for you to fill in and keep updated. Write your answers in blue so they stand out. We’ll devote one meeting every 6 months to discussing the plan. Before each meeting, update the plan to be current.
- Where will you go to find relevant job listings? Hints: CRA, Science/Nature jobs.
- At a high level, academic jobs are a mix of research and teaching. A standard research-oriented "hard money" position is one where 75% of your salary is supported (in return for your teaching and administrative efforts), the other 25% you cover from grants, and you typically teach 2-3 courses a year. A "soft money" position is one where most of your salary you cover from grants. You will usually teach 0 courses a year in this system; maybe you have to give some guest lectures. I don’t know as much about pure teaching positions, but I think they tend to be 100% supported but you teach upwards of 5-6 courses a year. I know less about industry jobs, but the skills they value tend to be (a) software engineering, (b) really applied analysis, (c) communication/collaborative skills. You will likely spend very little time teaching and most time either analyzing data or building software. What sort of mix are you looking for?
- If you are considering academics what kinds of students would you like to mentor?
- What kinds of colleagues would you like to have?
- Paste links for three jobs that you like. Why do you like those jobs?
- What is the "story of you" that you want your CV to tell?
- What is it that you do better than everyone else?
- What’s the 1-paragraph description of what you will do as an independent investigator? (Find examples on websites of your favorite labs)
- Who are the top 3 people/labs you admire and want to be like when you are independent ?
- Besides traditional application materials, what do you want people to see about you when you go on the job market?
- What are your research goals?
- How does your story fit with the kind of job you’re hoping to get?
- Who (specifically or in general) will advocate for you at a place like that?
- What grants will you apply for during your time here? What are the deadlines?
- What grants will you apply for in in the future (if you are going academic)?
- How else can you exhibit your ability to work independently?
- Hints: maybe teach classes, class sessions, post teaching materials, record lectures
- What conferences / seminars / hackathons / etc should you attend? What are the deadlines?
- How can you expand your network in a way that will open doors? (Hints: blog, lab visits, internships, competitions)
- Who do you want to write your recommendation letters?
- Do you need to meet and/or work with more people before you have all the letters you need? If so, how will you make this happen?
- What do you want those letters to say?
- What is the best "job talk" you’ve seen and what did you like about it?
- What have you learned / would you like to learn about the hiring process from the perspective of the people doing the hiring? For academics I can be a useful resource, for industry we can talk to lab/department alumni.
- Who can you go to for questions about grants/scholarships/awards?
- Do you know anyone who has applied for/got those grants/scholarships/awards?
- Who can you go to for help about jobs (besides your advisor(s))?
- Do you know anyone who had success on the market recently?