This post is mostly dedicated to current graduate students or those researchers already holding a PhD degree and looking for a postdoctoral position. The job market is more competitive than ever, good positions are rather scarce, and the COVID-19 situation doesn’t make the process of applying for a job any easier. These are my personal recommendations that may give you an idea of what to keep in mind while drafting your email, inquiring about a potential opening or applying for an existing position. This list is not exhaustive by any means but hopefully it will give you a head start in the right direction.
Most of these tips are not hard-wired into the academic environment and can be used in other fields and domains. You can follow the same -but slightly adapted- principles when looking for a Masters or a PhD position and even to get a job outside of academia. Here’s something that I’m going to mention multiple times throughout the article because I believe in its importance. Some of the things that need to line up for a successful job application are out of your hands. This is why it is vital to do your best at preparing those aspects of the application that are under your control and make them as perfect as possible.
For simplicity and clarity, I will use the term PI (Principal Investigator) to describe the person with whom you want to do a postdoc. In a real life situation it can also be a recruiter or a hiring manager. However, the main emphasis of this post is on how to get a postdoctoral position in an academic or industrial research setting.
These bullet points represent general guidelines of what tools you can use to kindle interest in your application. You may not want to use all of them, you want to make the application your own, to make it personal… But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start from the beginning.
DO YOUR RESEARCH. This goes even before the list, it is the only most important thing that you can do to be successful at any job/grant/funding application. It applies not only to a postdoctoral position in Academia but to virtually any job you may apply for in the future. Learn as much as you can from as many sources as you can find about the position you are applying for and about the person/lab that you are trying to get employed by. This part of the application is 100% in your hands, so do it well. It is obvious that this research takes time and effort. It may be very tempting to send the same email with the same CV and cover letter to 50 labs and hope that you’ll get a response. And you might. However, to increase your chances at getting a reply is to tailor your email (and ideally your CV and cover letter) to each person that you’re going to contact. Do not rely on luck, rely on your skills, your effort, and your research.
Have a reference, a good reference, and better yet more than one. People that can potentially hire you will most likely look at your email more closely - i.e. give it more than three seconds - if they see that a person they know can vouch for you. This is why it is so important to start building your network as soon as possible. As with financial investments, it is never too late to start. 10 years ago would be much better than today, but today is much better than 10 years later.
Be honest. This is as simple as that, do not lie on your application. You may use different wording to emphasize your experience or your situation; you may highlight some aspects of your portfolio more than others depending on the position. But never state in your application things that are not true. If you say that you have some experience with a programming language or a wet lab technique, you will be able to discuss all the details at the next step. But if you say that you are proficient in bash scripting and then, when asked, you struggle to open a terminal, this is false advertisement. Avoid this at all cost, being honest is the best way to successfully build that network that we talked about earlier.
Be personal. People who may hire you probably get too many emails addressed “Dear Sir/Madam”. They (more than) probably don’t like those emails and delete them without having a second look, and wouldn’t you? Address the PI by name, make your first email as personal as you can. If you have a reference, mention their name and how you know them; if you went to the same conference, bring it up; if you have any point of connection, now is the time to use it.
Be specific in your application. Do not use vague terms and ambiguous phrases. You want to make your email and your application interesting. Saying that you are “interested in the general field of biology” does not give enough information explaining why you are contacting this particular lab. What research that has been done in the lab interested you enough to apply for a position there? This part is yet again your chance to demonstrate your competence and your genuine interest in the position. So do your research, read papers, take notes, and be specific.
Explain your overall fit for a position in this lab. Mention briefly your general area of expertise and how it aligns with the research at the lab that you are interested in. Next two bullet points expand on this general fit idea.
Explain what you would bring to the lab, why exactly they should be interested in hiring you. What skills or ideas do you have that would complement the ongoing research in the lab? Do you know a wet lab technique or a computational method that would align well with what the team is currently working on? Did you come up with an interesting idea about a potential future project based on the lab papers that you read (again, do your homework)?
What would you like to learn and take away while working in this lab? Are you interested in some techniques that have been developed by this team? Were you impressed by their latest paper and would like to work on a similar project? This is your yet another chance to demonstrate that you have done your research, that you know the strengths of the lab, and that you are a serious candidate with a plan.
Speaking of plans, describe your short-term plan. Let the PI know that you think about your future, that you have a strategy that you’d like to follow. Maybe you’d like to apply for your own grant and you need to learn certain techniques and approaches that may make you a stronger candidate.
Describe your long-term plan. Do you want to be a professor and stay in Academia? Would you prefer to learn state-of-the-art techniques developed in this lab and later on transition to industry? If you do have these long-term plans, you may want to mention them. If you don’t, it is perfectly fine too! You can just mention that you haven't decided yet what exactly you want to do long-term. However, do let them know that you are thinking about it and that you are not looking for a postdoc just to do a postdoc. Not having a clear cut long-term plan is fine. But knowing and pursuing the steps that may help you establish that plan is important and makes you look serious and professional.
And there you have it, ten tips on how to prepare your application for a postdoctoral position. I hope that this article will be useful to those who are in the job market. If you have some additional tips and recommendations, please share them in the comments. You can also share your thoughts on twitter and or instagram.
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