Jobs| PhD, Postdoc, Job Search & Application

There comes a time when we are out in the job market searching new career opportunities. In fact, the job search can be quite tricky. In my post-PhD job hunt, there came a situation when I had 7 confirmed jobs in hand. It was quite complicated to decide which one to go for. Oftentimes, one might find a job, but may not feel a higher level of job satisfaction.

I will share some thoughts on the job search, with a focus on finding a good postdoctoral research position. This post is more like general information. You can use these suggestions for finding a PhD, Postdoc, and a variety of other types of jobs as well.

In fact, I am going to write quite a few posts about the job search. There will be separate articles about job search (postdoctoral jobs) in China. Stay with me for a while! Hopefully, you can utilise the information presented here.

Computer science is evergreen  

I started sending job applications for finding postdoctoral positions in Feb’2016. This was obviously the first time for me, and I ended up making some mistakes. Nevertheless, being from a computer science background was a definitely a positive experience. I immediately started getting job offers. The only issue was – I didn’t yet have a PhD Degree.

Soon I realised that in order to join as a Postdoctoral fellow, you need to get a PhD degree first. As a result, I had to say NO to a few job offers. Some organisations even offered to wait for me (one such organisation even waited nearly 6 months for me).

No need to rush

Figure out when exactly you will be able to submit your thesis, and when you will defend your thesis. The award of the degree may consume a couple of months more. There may be a time gap of 6 to 8 months between your thesis submission date and your actual day of graduation (i.e. convocation). You can probably apply for the postdoctoral positions during this gap period (if you are asked to join the job only with a degree). You can look for a non-postdoctoral research position that requires 6-8 months of commitment (e.g. a project officer). A part time job might be fine too.

Postdoc at a Research Centre or university?

Do you prefer to work in a university or at a Research Centre? Well, it completely depends on your priorities. I will share a few suggestions

1. Research Centre
   • The salaries are generally high, but so are the expectations
   • Working atmosphere is expected to be more professional
   • More focus on work
   • Formal communication, less gossip
   • A Research Centre may not have a huge campus like a university. That means, you may have lesser eating options (e.g., number of cafeteria)
   • There may not be housing facilities immediately available
   • Limited recreational facilities (e.g., no swimming pool)
2. University
   • You may have a more relaxed life, but the salary might be low as well
   • There may be lots of cafeteria, sports facilities, etc. in a university
   • You may also get an on-campus accommodation.
   • The whole atmosphere is full of students who may spend a lot of time on social media, etc.
   • So many active social groups – that means too much of the gossip

In fact, if you have been in a university for 4-5 years during your PhD, it’s okay to get an industrial exposure, at least for some time.

Narrow down your area of work

Often PhD students change their area of research after completion of their doctoral program. You should know the possible areas that you would prefer to work in. Certain disciplines, such as Bioinformatics, are very much interdisciplinary. In fact, Bioinformatics is really a hot area these days (August 2017) with full of international job openings. That means if your PhD was from Department of Mathematics, you can still apply for a job in Department of Computer Science (if that’s what you wanted).

Prepare professional Curriculum Vitae (CV/Resume)

Work out no-nonsense Curriculum Vitae (CV/Resume). Keep it highly professional, with zero grammatical/spelling errors. You can ask a couple of friends to proofread your CV. If you are applying for jobs in different disciplines, you may prepare context-specific (more than one) resumes.  There are certain key information about your background and expertise that you must not miss out in your CV. I will give you some examples here; you may put them in the same order as listed below-

1. Full name and contact details– Do add your contact details (including postal address, Skype ID, phone number with ISD code) in the very beginning of your CV. You can preferably provide two email IDs. I had always used Gmail ID to send emails.
2. Profile– A short and crisp description about your past academic achievements. For example – “I am an All But Dissertation (ABD) mode PhD student under the supervision of Dr. XYZ at the ABC University, London. After obtaining MS from CDE University, LA, I joined CDE Inc., San Francisco. I worked for two years with CDE Inc., before starting my Ph.D. in the fall 2013. I have submitted my PhD thesis with title “Machine Learning” in August’2017.”
3. Research Interests- Do add important keywords from your expertise. For example –“Machine learning; Ordinary Differential Equations; Hybrid modelling; Network Dynamics.”
4. Industrial experience- If you had job or an internship before.
5. Technical Expertise – C/C++, Matlab, Latex, etc.
6. Education/Awards – Best paper awards, Scholarships, etc.
7. List of Publications – Make sure your list of publications is very clearly mentioned. Bold font your name in the author list.
8. Hobbies– To indicate that you understand what does a work-life balance means.
9. References– Do add 2 or 3 references, along with their contact details. First reference should be about your thesis supervisor.

 

Contact professors directly for job search

Find the universities (or Research Centre) – look for the institutes doing research in your selected areas of interest. Once you have found a Professor is conducting research in your area, contact them by email.  To me it seems that contacting HRs was not as effective as contacting professors directly. Do send them email directly. Never think that the professors don’t check their emails. They do check, it’s just that when. 🙂 They will reply you if there are opportunities with them. Usually, professors are big guys; they can, in fact, create a research position to hire a PhD grad if they find profile of a candidate to be suitable and interesting. In some cases, they may even forward your resume to some other relevant faculty members.

Don’t send out mass job search emails

Don’t put professor’s names in the BCC field of your (job search) email. I remember a professor sharing with me at a seminar- “if I don’t see my name in the email, I don’t even bother to read it further”. To put it simply – you can’t send a same email to more than one professor. A general email won’t work. I finally found a way around it and worked out a general email template. Subsequently, I started modifying the general template based on a particular professor’s expertise.

Job seeking emails

Write professional emails with a good subject description- simple yet sharp. For example, I had used the subject – “Positions for researchers?” Don’t forget to attach your CV to the email. 🙂

I will share more about email and other aspects of the job search in my next article – Business Email Templates for PhD, Postdoc & Jobs.

That’s it for this post.

Got queries? Cool. Feel free to post in our forum so that others could also contribute and learn. Let’s build a healthy community. 🙂

For regular updates, like us on Facebook!

If you find the write-ups useful, buy me a beer! 🙂

You can also find my other articles on PhD and Postdoc, or the complete navigation list. You can also find more about me.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

With love. 🙂

Last updated: Saturday, September 16, 2017