Congratulations!  The PhD is in sight.  You have published some papers, have worked hard, and are looking to write your thesis in the near future (when this next paper is submitted!).  So, now what?  Should you even do a post-doc?   YES!  The post-doc is probably the best scientific time you will have.  You get to study whatever topic you happen to find irresistibly fascinating, in the lab of a world-expert who happens to be a great person, and in a great city/country.  Who wouldn’t want to do this?    You will receive training, mentorship and greatly broaden your horizons (personally and professionally) by learning how science is done in other places.  

 

    Post-doctoral training is as important as that you received during your PhD.  As a graduate student, you were probably handed a research question that you developed into an interesting project.  You learned to critically read the literature, design experiments with good controls, interpret your data cautiously and draw conclusions that put your data into the context of your research field. What more could you need?  Well, you did all of that with an extensive safety net and lots of help--your supervisor, advisory committee, department and lab mates.  You’ve become an expert in one little field of science.  Now it’s time to test out what you’ve learned, so you can remake yourself.  Teach yourself a new field and prove yourself to a world reknown expert, his group of very smart student/post-docs, and the host institution where you find yourself.  The kind of confidence you earn from doing this is incalculable, because it shows you that forever, you can remake yourself at any time.  

 

    But how does one proceed?  Make no mistake, it’s quite difficult to find one’s path and decide what topic one wants to work on (and will probably start one’s lab doing).  You are aiming to get into the best lab you can, and by that I don’t mean most famous, I mean a lab where the research has consistently been innovative, exciting and rigorous.  One with a good record for mentorship (ie former post-docs get jobs doing the same research they started in the lab).  In addition, Joe Famous will probably have a full lab and so you must allow time for lab turnover (he’s probably looking to find a post-doc for next year when his grad student writes up) and if you are leaving the country, you need time to get VISAs and such sorted out.  Try to plan a year ahead...ie start before you start writing your thesis!

 

Step 1.  Well, you are again faced with one of the most important decisions of your career.  Finding a research topic.  Go to lots of seminars, read lots of mini-reviews, survey a broad smattering of fields.  You probably already have some idea of what attracts you, so delve further into that.  Pick 2-3 fields that interest you and identify the key unsolved questions.  Think about what project YOU would like to initiate, and what important question you want to address.  Do not choose a topic because it’s trendy--this is a poor criteria.  No one can predict the future, and  your hot topic may be stone cold by the time you are looking for a job.  Don’t even try to guess what the market is going to want--odds are all those post-docs who are currently publishing in Cell, Science and Nature will have taken all the jobs in that area by the time you are looking...and will be setting up their own competitive labs.  Find a topic that fascinates you, and do some extensive pubmed searches.  Critically read the papers (from different labs) to see what the field is thinking and where it’s going.  

 

Step 2.  Next you need to find the right mentor who will nurture, inspire, challenge you to be a rigorous, critical scientist.   Now that you are an accomplished scientist, your requirements are different from those of a starting graduate student.  You want to choose a lab that has consistently done great work, is respected in the field, and has a track record of post-docs going off and starting their own labs (preferably in the same area they post-doc’ed in).  You’ve already determined what types of questions you’d like to address, now you are looking to find the right place in which to carry out the work.  Find 2-3 labs per topic that fit your criteria, and check out the institutions.  Your training will come not only from your host lab, but from the host institution.  A  high caliber of fellow post-docs and PIs that are engaged in each other’s science is the kind of place you want to go to. For instance, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where I did my post-doc, all the PIs in the institute were involved in the training of each others’ post-docs and students.  We gave yearly progress reports, journal clubs, asked questions at all the seminars and, KEY POINT, all of the PIs attended faithfully and were generous with their feedback.  If you dropped the ball, you knew it and so you fixed it.

 

Step 3.  Before you contact people, you need to really think about what it is you want to do in their lab.  Read their web sites.  As a post-doc, you are expected to find your own project, and this is part of the training you are hoping to receive.  While it seems intimidating, keep in mind that your PhD has prepared you for this.  Our Canadian PhD, which takes 5-6 years, is very well regarded internationally, and as such our students are in high demand.  Talk to your colleagues--anyone around in the field you are interested?  Do they know these labs?  Are they well regarded?  Does the PI have a good reputation for mentoring his post-docs?  Get feedback on your project.  Do your homework, and tap into any resources you have.

 

Step 4.  Make contact--but don’t contact anyone you aren’t serious about.  Email if fine, but keep a few things in mind.  Joe Famous and Wendy Genius are busy people.  They probably get 200 emails a day, and will be reading yours on their Blackberry in an airport.  You have 10 seconds of attention span:  use it well.  A form letter says “I’m not really interested” so tailor each letter.

 

Start with a header that gets to the point and will be easy to find later:

RE: Janet Workhard, Post-doctoral applicant (Spring 2010)

 

Now the letter (put it in the body of the email--nothing is more annoying than having to download the introductory letter).  Your letter should be short, to the point and give enough facts so the PI can decide if he should bother with the CV.  It is of critical importance, so spend some time on it.  Overall, you want to convince him/her that you’d be a great post-doc and worth the time and the money:  so the key points are that (1) you’ve already published and  (2) have an interesting/feasible idea for a project in his lab.

 

Introduce yourself.  Jim Smart working with Bri Lavoie at the University of Toronto on higher order chromosome structure.  You will be finishing your PhD in (approx date:  Spring 2010?) and would like to be considered for a post-doc position.  During your graduate studies, you have published X papers in Y journals (brief outline of your scientific accomplishments and if they make you competitive for a PDF award, say so).

 

Now, what do you want to do in his/her lab and why do you think it’s the best place.  From your background in chromosome structure, ...short summary of your expertise (what have you done?) you’ve gotten interested in viral propagation  etc (you can almost always make a link between your past and future interests).  You are interested in pursuing blah, blah, blah...It doesn’t matter if you identify a project that’s already going on  in the lab or that has previously failed, what matters is that you can identify an important project.  

 

List your references with contact information.  Make sure you’ve asked those on your list if they feel they can give you s STRONG reference--always give someone the option to say No because the last thing you need is a reference that says they can’t really comment because they don’t know you.  If nobody knows you well enough, then get in the face of some PIs, ask questions at seminars and get known!  Also, help your referees to write a strong letter--give them your CV, tell them about your accomplishments, your particular strengths, communicate your enthusiasm...  I often ask students to write a draft reference letter for themselves, which I modify.  OK, students hate to do this but too bad--it is an important skill to be able to honestly advocate for oneself (comes in handy in grants) so it’s time to learn.

 

Now, before you send off your letter, have someone read it (your mentors/referees for example?) and get some feedback.  And include your CV preferably as a pdf so it’s cross platform (not everyone can read .docx).  Odds are you will be contacted after the PI has gotten some good references and will invite you for an interview.

 

Step 5.  The interview.  Prepare.  Read all of the lab’s papers.  Get a nice clear seminar together.  You will probably speak to the PI and then have some 1:1 time with several if not all of the members of the lab.  You will be asked: “So, why do you want to come to this lab?” and “What do you want to do in our lab?”  You need good answers.  You should be able to talk intelligently with all the post-docs/grad students about their projects (they will tell you what they are doing) and also find out the scoop of what the lab dynamics and PI are like.  Ask direct (but tactful) questions.  Don’t say: “Is your PI an ass?”  Try something more like “What do you like best/least about your PI/the lab?” You want to find out where people go when they leave, look at the productivity of the group, find out how long the post-docs generally are (are you there for 7-8 years before you get a job--this is not necessarily the fault of the lab, the recession can really slow hiring, but worth knowing).  Find out about the institute, and how the labs collaborate with each other.  When you are applying for jobs, you will need letters of reference beyond your host lab, so if there’s lots of interaction, that will be easier.  If you have kids, you may want to talk to other post-docs with kids about daycare, schools etc since this can be  harder to find out about afterwards.

 

Step 6.  The offer. There is generally a standard stipend--don’t expect to haggle over it unless you have multiple offers or have your own stipend and want to ask if you can be topped up.  You are going to a lab for training:  this is not industry where you are paid to do a job.  It’s OK however to find out exactly what the deal is--will they help with Visas?  finding housing?  how about  health care?

 

Step 7.  And if it all falls apart, your PI really turns out to be a jerk (or is trying to date you), then realize that it’s not the end of the world.  Just start again. But before you leap, keep in mind that changing fields is hard and it takes about a year before you will feel comfortable in your new environment.  So don’t jump ship lightly--you can realistically only do it once.  But sometimes you have to, and that’s OK.  Just make sure your next jump isn’t from the frying pan into the fire.