r/postdoc

I'm a postdoc in physics, and I've been thinking a lot about why the pipeline loses so many people who are good at research. Not because they weren't productive enough, but because the system assumes one kind of person at every stage: someone young, unattached, willing to move anywhere, subsidized by sources the system prefers not to name. Everything else is your problem.

There's a study from 1950 that captures this perfectly. The Air Force measured 4,063 pilots across 10 body dimensions to design the ideal cockpit. The number who were "average" on all ten was zero. The more dimensions you measure, the less likely anyone is to be average on all of them at once. The center is empty.

The academic pipeline works the same way. Publications, h-index, grants: those are the dimensions the cockpit was built for. Whether you have a partner whose career exists, a family, a need for stability? Outside the spec.

The Air Force fixed this in the 1950s by making the seats adjustable. Academia is still building fixed cockpits. I wrote a longer version of this connecting the cockpit study to the two-body problem, supervisor power dynamics, and the "leaky pipeline": https://ergosphere.blog/posts/the-loneliest-point/

Anyone else feel like they're sitting in someone else's cockpit?

I am interested in a specific group at a specific US national lab. I will finish my PhD in 1-1.5 years. I’m not looking for jobs yet but I kinda like to casually look at relevant openings for future reference. That group posted an opening for a postdoc 6 months ago. The PI also posted on LinkedIn that they are looking for someone.

Since then, they have been consistently reposting that opening in LinkedIn periodically. The job is still up after 6 months and the group hasn’t hired any new postdoc as well in this timeframe. I think it’s quite impossible that they haven’t found a single suitable candidate in the current job market. There must be hundreds of applicants, why haven’t they still hired someone in 6 months!? I am just asking this out of curiosity if anyone knows what is happening.

Hey everyone, looking for advice from people who've been through this or know the Boston biotech market well.

I'm currently 3 years into a cancer bioinformatics postdoc in Australia. I'm at a point where I want to transition out of academia into industry at biotech or pharma companies. The problem is the Australian ecosystem is really small and opportunities are rare.
 
I just got back from a conference in Boston this week and honestly it kind of blew my mind in terms of talents and density of pharma. Being in this environment just a few days made me realise how much I'm missing by being in Australia. And now I am seriously considering a move to Boston.

I understand the visa sitution is complicated. i know the E3 exists which might be simpler than H1B for Australians, but I also suspect the realistic path might be doing a US postdoc with a J1 to first to get onshore. But I can’t help to wonder if this is a right move to go deeper in academia when i am trying to go the other direction.

So my questions are:
- Is Boston actually worth relocating to break into biotech industry roles? or is it heavily networked but hard to crack from the outside?

- For anyone who made the postdoc to industry transition in Boston, what actually worked? How long did it take you to transit? What do you wish you'd known going in?

Appreciate any honest advice

I will be joining Lund University for my postdoc in a couple of months.

I have lived in a relatively hot climate so far and I do not have much experience of living in a cold climate. Hence, any suggestions for moving to Sweden, things to buy (types of clothes/gear and preferred brand to buy from) would be greatly appreciated.

Would it be better to buy winter gear in USA and take it to Sweden or it’s better to buy there?

FYI: I am from India, currently living in Texas USA.

I defended my PhD last year and recently applied for a postdoc grant. The process took a long time, but the proposal was finally approved. I should be happy, right? And part of me is. But what really got to me was the evaluation of my CV and academic record.

I won’t go into details about number of papers, awards, etc., but I dedicated myself intensely during my PhD. I published, received awards, had a successful defense, and honestly gave everything I had. Still, my overall evaluation was basically just “good.”

I’m not upset because there are people better than me, or because I didn’t get a perfect score. What hurts is realizing that ever since I entered academia, I’ve been living entirely for this. I don’t have children, I don’t have another source of income, and for years I survived on a very low scholarship, living with the bare minimum while working constantly.

I truly gave my best to this career, and apparently my best is still only considered “good.”

Lately I’ve been wanting to slow down and focus more on other aspects of my life. But at the same time, I feel that if I want any chance at a stable academic career, I need to push even harder. The problem is: I honestly don’t think I can anymore.

I’m physically and mentally exhausted, and deeply frustrated. It feels like no matter how much you dedicate yourself to academia, it’s never enough.

I couldn’t even celebrate getting the grant because all I can think is that people expect more from me than what I’m currently able to give, and I’m afraid I have nothing left.

So ive finished my PhD in molecular microbiology 2 months ago and i have opportunity to go and live in Valencia, so i was wondering about postdoc opportunities there, and if someone has experience to share. Cheers :)

Hello everyone,

I'm a postdoc and currently looking for positions as assistant professor, and I came across one in France.

I heard that applicants in France are expected to have meetings with directors to do some sort of 'lobbying', but am unsure wether this is true.

Anyone here knows how true this is? And how could I do this 'lobbying' from a different country?

I am supposed to ask questions in seminars, talks etc. but I don’t know what to ask. Sometimes I just don’t know the subject enough to ask anything and sometimes I know enough but the presentation answers all my questions. Sometimes (maybe 25% of the time) I have a question but I think it’s too dumb so I don’t because honestly when someone asks a dumb question I go “are you serious” with them so I don’t want anyone to think that about me. So how do I find a legit real proper reasonable question to ask? Should add that I’m an introvert and very shy and hate public speaking.

I don't even know where to start.

I'm a postdoc in the UK on a Global Talent Visa. Sounds impressive. Feels like a trap right now.

I have a first-author Nature Communications paper from my PhD. I came into this postdoc genuinely excited about science. I had high hopes.

Just 3 months later, I am on the verge of a mental breakdown.

My PI has called me out and bullied me in meetings - not once, not twice, three times in three months. Name-calling. In front of others. I came from a PhD where I was treated like a scientist. I don't know what I am here.

Nothing is progressing. The environment is toxic in a way that's hard to explain unless you've been in it - you just feel yourself shrinking every day.

I've been applying to industry positions in parallel, hoping for a way out. Complete silence. No offers. Not even a rejection - just nothing.

And then there's the money. I paid the UK Immigration Health Surcharge for myself and my wife. Three years upfront. Thousands of pounds. Non-refundable. I paid it believing I was building something here.

Now it seems I'm looking at going back to India with very little money, a postdoc that's actively harming me, and a Nature Communications paper that apparently means nothing in this job market.

I just needed to say this somewhere.

If you've been here, truly here - I'd just like to know I'm not alone.

I think by the title of this post all of you may think that I am going crazy, specially considering the current unstable situation in the US, and basically worldwide. I just need some honest advice on my career pathway. I will briefly summarize what has been going on, and hopefully you can give me more ideas on what to do.

I graduated from PhD (I am in Health Sciences, ( I am not a practitioner because I have no license here) from a Japanese university in 2014. Got some papers and moved to the US for 2 years as an entry level postdoc. My PI at that time was not really into mentorship and since the PI was changing for another working place and moving the whole lab, I was encouraged to get a clinical training or looking for more options. Even though my postdoc experience was not great nor bad I managed to publish in a good journal. I was very interested to return to my country (third world country) and work as a tenured Assistant professor at my alma mater so I gave up my postdoc and returned for good in 2018 after a short internship in Europe. Also, I had personal reasons to go back, I wanted to start a family and so on, but it never happened at the end.

Well...I never landed the Tenured assistant professor position back home...basically because I was not on the side of the dean and because there were no vacancies for my area. I got a kinda stable position at a private univ. but with little chances for research. I think it was okay, but later pandemic came in 2020 and my situation became very unstable...At that time I applied without many hopes for a postdoc fellowship in Japan under the sponsorship of my former PhD supervisor. I surprisingly got it (it was very competitive) and I returned to Japan in 2021.

I was all good as a postdoc , and one day I was offered an assistant professor permanent position in my lab. The previous Assistant professor had already left them for personal reasons that I now understand. I naively thought it was a good move and I accepted the position in 2022...I believed it could help me to get an assosciate professor or asistant professor in other country..but reality seems different now.

Next year it will be my 5th year in this position. Things have turned downwards. the lab head is retiring, and no prospects of progress for me. I have now little to zero collaborations, I have published some papers, and at the end it is only the associate professor and me who will take care of lab and educational duties. The associate professor does not collaborate with me in any project, but we have good relation. In other words , I feel stuck, and if you know japanese academia, you will understand that I have no independence, and I am alone pushing my projects forward without much impact. Plus, there are no graduate students in our lab.

I think if I stay here, I will be assistant professor forever with a little impact on my field, basically, I feel like I am in a mediocre postdoc...I cannot speak fluent japanese, so I have less chances to participate in other roles...I have obtained local grants, and give lectures (in english), but I feel kinda..stupid because I cannot read or speak properly, truth is that at my 43 yo, i just cannot have enough energy at the end of the day to learn japanese. I dedicate my energy into progressing my research and trying not be be burned out so often.

Recently I am considering to move to US or any other english speaking country, maybe to start again, I can teach basic courses for medical sciences, but seems that getting a postdoc is better at this point...I still have the aim of making good research in my field, I think I am good at lab work..handling animals..educating...maybe there are more opportunities for me there...I am not willing to earn the nobel prize, or become a great PI with lots of R01s, something modest is okay for me.

I am married , but my partner is supportive and he is also wiling to move abroad if needed.

Thanks a lot for your kind attention to this post.

I had 2 3-year postdoc offers in Europe, I turned them down for a one-year position in the USA. Before criticizing me, I was under the impression that the USA is the land of opportunities and I should stay there and fight to achieve greatness, I was burned out though. Six months into my very temporarily role, I am already consumed because of the uncertainty, visa and immigration chaos. Though my current PI is very pleased with my work, their hands are tied because of funding. I just can't start the job application over again. I also don't have any emotional support in all of this. The more stable life I turned down in Europe is visiting me as a nightmare every night.

Had a low research output due to a bad student-supervisor relationship and the fact that the topic was switched twice but still had to finish in more or less the same time.

Field: applied Machine Learning (Engineering)

Hi Fellow Postdocs,

I am currently five months into my first postdoc in the same lab where I completed my PhD (USA-R1-Top 5) because I could not find an opportunity elsewhere at the time. Lately, I have been feeling somewhat caged, especially while watching everyone around me move on to the next stage of their careers. I am genuinely happy for them, but it also makes me question: what am I doing here?

Earlier in 2026, I had some success on the academic job market with four tenure-track interviews across PUI/R3/R2/R1 institutions. I even received one tenure-track offer from an R2 university, but unfortunately the offer was later rescinded during negotiations. It was in my desired location, and I was genuinely excited about the possibility of building my own research lab and writing grants. Honestly, I was also a little scared. What if I failed? I guess I will never know.

Now I find myself facing three very different paths, and the decision feels overwhelming.

Option 1: Last year I applied for the MSCA-PF and received a 93% score, while the cutoff was 97%, so I narrowly missed funding. However, my advisor in Belgium offered me one year of funding along with the opportunity to reapply for MSCA and other funding mechanisms that could potentially keep me in Europe long term. I have always wanted to move to Europe because I deeply value the quality of life, public services, and accessibility that I seriously miss in the United States. I travel a lot and enjoy wildlife photography, but living in the Midwest has made many of those experiences difficult because everything feels far away and expensive. My biggest concern is the uncertainty of having funding for only one year. If I fail to secure the MSCA fellowship afterward, I could find myself in a difficult position.

Option 2: I currently have an industry offer in the Midwest, although not in my desired location. The compensation is very good, and the work itself is interesting and closely related to my specialization. However, it is more engineering-focused than research-oriented. I am also somewhat afraid of returning to industry because I worked in industry before starting my PhD and did not enjoy the environment much. It was not the work itself that bothered me, but rather the culture and the people around me. Everything felt emotionally flat and mechanical.

Option 3: Recently, I have also been considering another path: joining the industry for a few years and then transitioning to a National Lab once my visa situation in the United States becomes more stable. I imagine that a National Lab environment would surround me with people who share a stronger sense of intellectual curiosity, scientific passion, and technical depth, while still offering more stability and work-life balance than academia.

At this point, I feel genuinely lost and uncertain about which path to take. More than anything, I want a career that allows for work-life balance because my passions outside of work — traveling, photography, and exploration — are extremely important to me. They are what keep me motivated and grounded in my professional life. I do not want to sacrifice those parts of myself, but I am scared of making the wrong decision.

I'm wondering if this is something other people have come up with or just me. I've gotten two interviews recently. The first wanted an outline on how I'd handle the project, which they really liked, but I still didn't get the job (lol). The second one is upcoming and wants a full outline including mock data of how I'd run all the experiments of the project. This seems super red flaggy to me ? Are they just searching for ideas? Isn't a postdoc supposed to be "learning"? Why am I expected to already know the full outline on the project. I just may not do the second interview because it's so nuts. Or are my expectations or of wack?

Hi! I’m currently interviewing for postdocs and have been asked to give a 45 min seminar talk about my thesis work (which I expected) to a group of labs. However, the PI has asked me to end the talk with the research directions I’m interested in. Does this mean a slide or two on the potential projects I could work on in the specific lab I’m interviewing with? Or just in general for their department? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

I joined a lab for a postdoctoral position about six months ago and realized that it may not be the best long-term fit for my research interests and career goals. I recently decided to apply for another postdoctoral position. My questions are:

1. How negatively does a short postdoc experience (around 6 months) appear on a CV?
2. Should I include my current PI as a reference in cold emails, or would it be better to use only my Ph.D. references at this stage?
3. Will potential PIs be biased when they see that I am leaving a postdoc position after a short period of time?

Hi, so i have somewhat recently completed my PhD in Biochemistry investigating membrane proteins using purified protein expressed in bacteria, performing biochemical and biophysical assays to characterise their function and structure. While looking for both academic and industry jobs, i am struggling to find any that i have any of the basic essential skills they require on the job description. Most work is in eukaryotes which i have no experience in, and requires other skills that i do not have. I find the biochemical/biophysical techniques i have utilised throughout my PhD and Mres are very rarely mentioned if at all. Obviously i am very up for learning new skills, but it appears a lot of jobs require very specific requirements and it kinda feels like if you did a PhD in an area that is now not as desirable, your kinda just stuck. I can apply for some jobs but i feel it is almost guaranteed i would not get it, and also as i don't really know the subject areas or techniques, i would struggle to justify my hiring.

Additional: Thankyou for all the messages, i appreciate the help but must admit it is filling me with existential dread reading these messages, as someone who went back into education after leaving school at 16 and then going back in a 21 to try and build a better life, it is very depressing. I am now 34

Hey guys, I have received two offers for postdoctoral research. One from Dublin City University in Ireland and the other from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The salaries are roughly the same and the project scope is largely the same. I'm unsure which one to choose. Please share your thoughts on which would be the best option.

I am a postdoc working on a large, interdisciplinary project analyzing archaeological material using a range of complementary biomolecular approaches. I work for the museum (it's affiliated with a university) and have conducted the analyses that I am an expert in, and we have also sent off (and my PI paid for) a complementary set of analyses from a lab at another university.

We have another collaborator at a third university, who is relatively peripheral to the project, but she has positioned herself as the team expert on this topic and seems to have somehow convinced the lab we sent the material to (and paid for these analyses to be performed) to give her the data, instead of my PI. When my PI wrote to the head of the lab, plus this collaborator, and asked to have the data delivered, she replied, "Results just came in - yes absolutely, once we have a coherent text, we'll share it with you."

This was 6 months ago, we have not seen the data, but she is presenting at an upcoming workshop. It doesn't seem fair that she would present the data publicly when we still haven't seen them. And from her message, it sort of sounds like they have plans to write up the results, and just show us a nearly-complete draft. But we specifically ordered & purchased these analyses to complement the data I have generated, with the plan of having a single interdisciplinary paper.

I have started to hear some details from other colleagues and collaborators. One mentioned that she's been working really hard on the project recently (he clearly thought we were in the loop about what she's been up to, but we're not), and another colleague wrote me to express concern because she noticed we were being excluded.

I have a meeting with my PI about this, who is also concerned, but I am worried that he might feel hesitant to confront her about it, and might actually allow the data to be split into two papers. In theory, I would be okay with that too, but not if it's a decision that they are trying to force by withholding data from us.