Assess and Answer my questions about my PhD path

juillet
Tue, 24 Jun 2014 05:58:07 +0000

1) A faculty position? You are getting way ahead of yourself. The answer is - probably not. Faculty positions are incredibly competitive, and a summer camp from high school won’t necessarily give you better chances at getting a faculty position.

2) Post-doctoral fellowships are basically a transitional period between the PhD - they give PhD holders an opportunity to enhance their CVs and their chances at faculty and research positions. These days, the expectations for new assistant professors are so high (particularly in STEM fields) that new PhDs are practically expected to do 1-2 postdocs after grad school before securing a full-time, tenure-track faculty position (or a research position at a prestigious lab or industry job, in some cases). This gives you time to get publications and perhaps some grant funding on your CV.

The primary task for a postdoc is research of some kind. There are different types of postdocs - some are training programs that are focused primarily on helping you transition to being an independent scholar. They set aside time for you to work on turning your dissertation into publications, and you often work with an advisor on their research projects and are encouraged to write grants. Some postdocs are basically research scientist positions - an established professor needs a PhD-level scientist to work on a grant that they have, and so they advertise that position. You might be their project manager or a technical expert or basically the second-hand man in the lab. In exchange for these services, you get paid and also some level of mentorship from the professor - although how much depends on the professor themselves. In these postdocs it is sometimes more difficult to carve out time to work on your own projects, so it’s often best to only apply if the work is very similar to your own.

Some postdocs allow you to teach, and some don’t. There are a few postdocs (like the FIRST fellowships) that blend teaching and research together, and still fewer (like the Center for Faculty Diversity) that are primarily teaching postdocs. But since research and publications are generally what gets you a job, the vast majority of postdocs are focused on research.

Are they necessary? Eh. Some people are able to step right into faculty positions right away, but I think most people need to do at least one postdoc before securing a good faculty position, especially at a top research institution. They’re also getting longer - so while in the past a good postdoc was 1-2 years, nowadays it’s not uncommon to see people postdocing for 3-5 years at a time.

3) At what school? Faculty positions are generally very competitive, and faculty positions at top research universities like Drexel are more competitive still. It wouldn’t be surprisingly to know that up to around 200 people applied for a single faculty position at a place like Drexel.