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To postdoc or not to postdoc, that is the tension

Are you stressed out by both an increasing awareness of the shenanigans present in academia AND applying to 50 postdocs this Fall?

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

You probably know this already but I will say it again: Postdocs don’t work out for MOST people. MOST postdocs do NOT go on to secure permanent positions in academia.

Don’t believe me? Hear it from top journals like Nature:

The future of the postdoc

People who have spent enough time in academia ALL know this and yet graduate students are expected to apply to postdocs and postdocs are expected to apply to more postdocs.

It is SUCH bad advice to egg young researchers on towards the path of a postdoc, YET most professors do it.

Why, oh why? Who benefits from postdocs?

Surprise, surprise: professors.

In the SHORT term, professors benefit from having an abundance of postdocs.

Lab heads love a pool of highly trained, talented PhDs from whom they can pick and choose to employ in their lab and thoroughly underpay.

If there are enough postdocs to choose from, they don’t need to hire permanent staff who cost more. Simple.

Postdocs make about half of what they would make in a real job. HALF. And, they have no retirement benefits. No 401K with employer matching, nada. And, most importantly, they are not allowed to have a life. Not one without guilt, anyway.

Graduate students and postdocs provide cheap labor. They get paid almost NOTHING and produce basically EVERYTHING. Like, all the research.

No research group can function without graduate students and postdocs, yet these are the people with absolutely ZERO future in academia.

Any work they produce directly benefits the career of only ONE person: the professor at the head of the lab. They get more grants, they get their tenure, they get their next promotion.

You could be a superstar graduate student or postdoc and completely without career prospects. Sure, being a superstar graduate student can help you to get your first postdoc. Being a superstar postdoc can help you to get the next postdoc.

But those are NOT careers. They are not even proper jobs. They are TRAINING positions. Most people in the world don’t even consider it work experience (as they should) which is a real bummer when, inevitably, you need to find a job OUTSIDE of academia.

Because a postdoc isn’t forever. It isn’t even for a few years. It’s usually a ONE-YEAR contract position. That is, after one year, you could have NO postdoc and no income. After one year, you need this contract to renew OR find another position.

Sure, if you get along with your advisor AND if funds continue as HOPED (and please note the use of the word, hope), your contract will probably renew and you can play that game for another year, or two, or more. But that whole time, you have NO job security, NO retirement benefits, and very low pay.

In the long term, NO ONE benefits from perpetuating a system full of postdocs

I mean, you are not seriously telling me that science performed while NOT caring about scientists is a good thing, right?

And yeah, that’s why I left academia. Plain and simple. Academia does not care about me. Academia is happy to string me along as I exhaust myself physically and mentally while having zero career prospects.

So, this Fall, consider your actions carefully before committing yourself to the drill of applying to many, many postdocs. For your own good. Someone has to care about you. Even if that’s only you.

And this is from someone that did apply to postdocs… So, consider the following points if you are just straight up overwhelmed as anyone would be in your position.

Are you just playing the game?

Are you like ‘Let me apply to lots of postdocs and see what falls out? I can always apply to industry positions at any time. Let me just power through these postdoc applications for now.’

Or, I wanna see what I get.. (like playing the lottery)

Or, I don’t want to miss out on anything… (Fear of missing out or FOMO is real, man)

I understand, but I don’t recommend.

For one, you KNOW the game. Best case scenario, you will get your dream postdoc. But that’s the problem. It’s still only a POSTDOC. It is NOT a career.

So, what does playing the game really achieve anything for you even in the best case scenario? Does working really hard on postdoc applications do anything for your career? No? Then, don’t. You won’t miss anything worthwhile, I promise.

At the very least, apply to only a few very select positions. This is what I did. I applied to five places and got interviews or offers from all but one of them. At least, interview experience is something, even if it’s only for a postdoc.

Don’t waste time.

If you are applying to postdocs, you are likely in your final year of graduate school or another postdoc. Either way and especially if you need to graduate soon, wouldn’t it be a better use of your time to focus on finishing your projects?

Don’t apply to postdocs that you are not serious about and don’t apply to postdocs, period –  if you are not sure that you want to go down that route.

It wastes your (and others’) precious time.

This is the time to buckle down and close loops on projects, finish projects, and ideally, produce results. You want your graduate studies to mean something. You want your academic ventures to mean something, right? Well then, that’s not going to happen while you are distracted with postdoc applications.

Leaving academia after graduate school does not mean that you can’t do a great fricking job while you are in graduate school. Same for a postdoc.

Always, always, do a great job. No matter where and no matter in what.

Prioritize doing awesome work, first.

See, if you do that, you can tell a great tale at your interview. Great personal (struggle) stories and the story of your work and how it is motivated, and how it developed and became and produced the results it did – that’s what will land you your dream job.

So, commit yourself to your work first. Your work is yours. Yours to represent, yours to excel, yours to deliver, and yours to live by and with. There should be nothing and no one coming in between you and your present work. Not even postdoc applications.

You will be less stressed if you do less or no postdoc applications.

It’s less work to do less or no postdoc applications. You have to magically make less time out of thin air.

All of this stress for what? Again, it’s not a career and does not help you in the long run. Wouldn’t it be easier if you just skipped the whole thing?

Doing lots of postdoc applications is harder than doing a few postdoc applications which is harder than doing no postdoc applications.

Choosing the more difficult path does NOT automatically make it the more meritorious path. Not always.

If you are not sure you want to become a professor, never mind, that MOST people cannot be one, give the whole thing a skip and carry on with your life. You do NOT need to apply to postdocs.

You might get an offer! What are you going to do then?

This might be a strange logic for not doing postdoc applications but think about it. What are you going to do if and when you do get an offer?

A postdoc offer can be pretty fricking enticing to a young (naive) researcher even with the horrible pay, no job security, etc. That’s because that’s how much we care about our work and about research. We are willing to sacrifice pretty much anything. We are passionate.

So, getting a postdoc offer could seriously weaken your resolve to avoid the shenanigans of academia.

When I got my first postdoc offer or even the interviews, I was overjoyed. I knew the facts, but I was overjoyed. It meant the world to me.

Imagine breaking up with academia after THAT. It’s just that much harder. It’s heartbreaking to turn down offers, seriously.

Are you doing it because that’s all you know?

It’s perfectly OK to acknowledge that applying to postdocs is all you know how to do.

I was like that. I knew how to apply to postdocs. I did not know the first thing about securing a job outside of academia.

What do people even do in industry jobs? I would wonder.

That’s OK to admit and now is a great time to admit that. Then you can move on to better inform yourself about your options in industry.

Don’t avoid it, just acknowledge it and start taking small steps to understand the world outside of academia.

Just know that sticking to your comfort zone is not the answer if you are not happy in academia. You have to get out, explore, and find other things. But first, give yourself permission to do that.

Are you doing it because your advisor wants/expects you to?

I empathize with students who feel pressured to apply to postdocs because of expectations or even requirements.

Some students feel that they cannot graduate unless they have a postdoc. Certainly felt that way for me.

Getting a postdoc offer under your belt means that SOMEONE (powerful) thinks you should be a doctor already, thank goodness.

(It also looks good on your professor’s CV)

If this is you, then apply to a FEW places. This will buy you breathing room to carry on with your endeavor to finish school and (secretly) land yourself a real job.

Lastly, I am sorry, but you are not special.

How many postdocs do you know and how many do you think actually have a real chance of becoming professors?

How many postdocs have you seen leave the field after YEARS they could have been spending doing something more fruitful towards their careers?

Do you, honestly, think that you are better than them? Do you think you are doing something that they just didn’t think of doing?

I mean, maybe.

But, chances are, no. You are just like them. And, that’s not a bad thing.

Lots of great talent get burned out by the system and leave after years of pursuing academia. You don’t have to go through the same experiences yourself. You can learn from theirs.

My goal here is not to tell you what to do or what you can’t do. I just want you to have a real chance at having a career, thriving, being valued, and getting what you deserve.

As always, your comments greatly help me and other readers, so please do share them below.