Sunday, July 13, 2014

Letter to the Postdoc

Originally posted on August 29, 2008 by PHD Comics
Postdoc status is a viable option for many newly-minted PhDs; however, you should be more aware of the job description, the employer's expectations, your responsibilities and what you plan to accomplish as a postdoc. 

The Job Description
It can be summed up in one word: TEMPORARY.

The Postdoctoral Associate/Researcher is wedged between the full-time graduate student classification and the full-time permanent employee classification. You are no longer a graduate student. Your conference travel scholarship eligibility is now nil. When you say you are a postdoc, the question wheel triad always includes: "when does your postdoc end?", "what do you want to do next?" and "where are you focusing your permanent employment search?" Ugh, in most cases, you don't know, but the questions still come. Also, you are not in a permanent employee in the faculty, industry or government ranks. You notice that your influence and impact factor within your postdoc position's organization is low at best. Plus, your direct supervisor is a permanent employee, who tends to be referred to as your postdoc mentor and serves as a pseudo-research advisor. On the bright side, a postdoc provides you 1-2 years time to close the graduate student life book and start the next book -- whatever your career ambition.

Job details
  1. Perform specific contributions on aspects of your postdoc advisor’s research agenda
  2. Submit and publish technical research papers
  3. Learn grantsmanship
  4. Attend professional development workshops and activities
  5. [optional] Assist in managing the research projects of your postdoc mentor’s graduate students
  6. [optional] Serving as the instructor or co-instructor

Goals and outcomes
In understanding this job description, you probably realize that it’s advantageous to be strategic in your postdoc appointment. You need to figure out your next professional step and obtain full-time permanent employment. I followed the academic life so I can only speak to it. The suggestions I provide  is geared toward successful tenure-track position attainment. Regardless, the postdoc life can serve as a preview of what may be in your future.

Build your technical and support network by connecting with postdoctoral-centric organizations, such as the National Postdoctoral Association or discipline-specific postdoctoral events. For example, there is the Academic Career Workshop for URMs in computing. I was mostly unaware of organizations and resources as a postdoc. I wish I paid more attention. Don’t be like me.

Research
Be productive. Shoot for quantity AND quality.

If you are fortunate to gain grant writing experience as a senior  graduate student, soak it all up. If not, a postdoc is a great opportunity to get started. Step 1 - request an NSF/NIH/DoD/etc ID and create your NSF/NIH/DoD/etc Biography.

Teaching 
If you are seeking an academic teaching position, do, Otherwise don't do.

Service
Don’t do it! DON’T DO IT!

Job Hunting
Computing Research Association - Job Announcements.
Chronicles of Higher Education - Job Search.

Your faculty position application includes cover letter, CV, research agenda, teaching statements, professional references and scholarly publication samples. When submitting your faculty position applications, you may want to provide your professional references draft letters of recommendation. As you write, you should strongly consider how the role of gender influences your word choices, phrases and statements. You can read J. Madera, M. Hebl and R. Martin's research entitled “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences”.  Communal terms center on helping others (kindness, nurturance) while agentic terms center on influencing others (assertiveness, initiating tasks). Their studies resulted in two major conclusions “women were described as more communal and less agentic than men (Study 1) and (b) that communal characteristics have a negative relationship with hiring decisions in academia that are based on letters of recommendation (Study 2)” using a psychology department’s tenure-track faculty search.

Let's assume your application is well-received by at least one faculty search committee. You make it to the on-campus interview. Please consider interviewing your potential bosses (Department Heach/Chair, Dean, Provost, etc) and colleagues (fellow departmental junior and senior faculty) as they are interviewing you. Here are some starter questions and comments:
  • How do assistant professors in the departments acquire graduate students? Is there a partnership between the department and some schools? What are the recruiting efforts?
  • How long has the Department Head/Chair been is his/her current position? What is the Department Head/Chair's vision for the department? Most likely, he/she will not be in that position when you are seeking promotion and tenure in 5-6 years.
  • How are teaching assistantships distributed? Does the Department Head/Chair or Division/College/School Dean allocate them? How does this process operate? For instance, the Dean of the College allocates number of TA position to each department based on faculty contact hours and the Department Head assigns these TAs to the faculty who are instructing those courses. Note: contact hours are some combination of class size and number of times the faculty is in front of the students. If you teach smaller classes, you will not be awarded a TA position.
  • Is there a maximum number of trips you can take in one semester? Are there location restrictions e.g. domestic only?
  • Comment: Google the Department Head/Chair to find out if he/she was an internal or external hire? This may indicate the department culture of mostly internal/external department-level administration.
  • Comment: Investigate the research collaborations within the department. Who are publishing papers together? What are their respective faculty ranks? It helps to know who are collegial and who are not to junior faculty. Ditto for external funding activities.
  • Comment: Identify which undergraduate classes at that institution are required for any student (grad or undergrad) to assist you in your research objectives? Ask specific questions about course topics (if you can speak directly with the faculty member who teaches the course, that would be optimal).
  • Comment: Make no assumptions about what students know. Students may remember the term but have not used/implemented that concept.

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