Post Doc For What?
On the merits of the postdoc experience.
I am a great believer in postdoc positions in computer science. Postdocs are useful for the majority of individuals, but almost vital for those whose Ph.D.s are only three years in duration (as is the case here in Denmark). While a large portion of newly minted North American Ph.D.s are accepting faculty positions straight out of grad school, an increasing number is now also choosing to go on a postdoc first. Let me explain why I think this is a good choice.
For the record, my own postdoc experience was one of the most formative and productive periods of my career. I was fortunate to join Jean-Daniel Fekete’s group as a postdoc for an initial six-month period starting January 2007. After my faculty job search that year yielded a grand total of zero offers, Jean-Daniel extended my position for 15 months under the new joint INRIA/Microsoft Research center. Working with (and learning from) JD and living in Paris for almost two years was an incredible boon for both my professional and personal life, and I hope that many of my young colleagues get the chance to have the same wonderful experience.
A postdoc position can be good for several reasons. First of all, it buys you time. Time to improve your publication record, time to think and plan your future career (which can be hard when you’re in the middle of writing your dissertation), and — above all — time to decide whether a career in academia or industry is right for you. The latter is particularly important for European Ph.D.s, where three years of intense research is just not enough data to decide whether a life spent in academia is the correct choice. The fact that postdoc positions are temporary can be greatly liberating in this way.
Of course, the flip side of the time argument is that if a postdoc is not the right choice for you, it can feel like time “wasted” that you could have spent better in industry building your career and gathering seniority for the next promotion or salary raise. For some people, the very fact that the postdoc position is temporary and reliant on “soft” money can be a great source of stress. I can definitely understand that, especially as it comes during a time in many people’s lives (late 20s and early 30s) where they are looking to form a family, settle down, and have children.
Next, the new environment that a postdoc offers can also be liberating and refreshing. Unless you are doing the postdoc at your old university (which I would only recommend for a short transitory period; see my post about cutting the academic umbilical cord), you will be traveling to a new place, you get to meet new people, you will learn new ways of doing things, and you will hopefully collaborate with new people that may become references for your future job search. Being exposed to a new academic environment will — quite literally — broaden your horizons and open your eyes to any local, idiosyncratic, or even provincial practices or biases you didn’t even know you had.
Of course, this new environment can also be another source of stress for certain individuals. Having to physically relocate to a new place, maybe even across the world, is not everyone’s idea of fun, especially if they have a significant other or spouse whose career is not as readily mobile. Furthermore, it wreaks havoc with a great many practical considerations such as taxes, social security, personal belongings, and pension plans. To add insult to injury, new places can appear threatening, new people exhausting, and new senior folks daunting, especially for an introverted person. Just having to learn all these new ways of doing things will invariably slow you down and waste time that you could argue would be better spent building your career, inside academia or without.
It is clear that all these factors will have to be carefully weighed by each individual to determine whether a postdoc is right for them. For me, the balance was clearly in favor of taking the postdoc when it was offered, especially when my job search dragged out. In retrospect, knowing what I know now, it was absolutely the right choice.
Let me close with a word on job hunting as a postdoc. Remember that postdocs are by definition temporary and stepping stones to a more permanent position, either in academia or industry. Yes, it is considered bad form to leave for another position only six months into a three-year postdoc, but no PI will begrudge a postdoc accepting a tenure-track faculty position. Never feel guilty for job hunting or interviewing while you are a postdoc — it is understood by all that at least some of your time as a postdoc will be spent on your own personal career, and the best postdoc mentor is not only supportive, but actively cheering you on in your search. Good luck and I hope your postdoc experience is as rewarding for you as it was for me!
