Research assistant to postdoc pipeline in biomedicine?
I'm nearing the end of my PhD but at the moment and will be submitting shortly, however, the problem is that my viva won't be scheduled until 9 months post submission, so I've got quite a long wait ahead of me.
I would like to do a postdoc, but I am assuming I would have to have passed my viva before being eligible to take up a job. I wonder if Australian universities are flexible on this? In my college, due to the delays in vivas, you may apply for a funded postdoc on a research assistant salary/contract until you successfully pass the viva, then you are moved into a postdoc contract. How common is this in Australia?
I also thought of applying to a full time research assistant job to pay the bills, likely one of the fixed term contracts advertised, then apply for a postdoc after the viva. My question is, is this looked down upon or makes the transition more difficult?? At my college, if you've been in a non-academic role (assistants are technical staff) post PhD for a while, they no longer take you seriously for postdocs. They prefer you stay in your PhD lab working as a casual.
I've seen some research assistant contracts at Melbourne university for example, where the research assistant salary range in the ad covered both the research assistant band and the postdoc band. Does that mean the job may be transferred to a postdoc contract once eligible?
I'm very interested to hear from those who have experience making this 'same role transition' or know of anyone making this transition. How common is this? Are PIs open to me suggesting this in interviews?