Considering career options for after your PhD? One career step you may consider is additional training as a postdoctoral scholar. The goal of this guide is to provide some questions that may help you to determine if a postdoctoral position matches your career goals and practical considerations.
Follow the dropdown menus to reflect on the purpose of a postdoc and whether it makes sense for you. For help answering these questions, see the tips at the bottom of the page.
A postdoc is a temporary training position meant to further your longer-term career goals. Start by answering:
Then, consider whether a postdoc is necessary for your career path. Expand this list for responses from professionals explaining the utility of a postdoc for their career in:
In addition to your career goals, it is important to consider whether doing a postdoc makes practical sense for you.
Is doing a postdoc a practical choice for you?
Can I stay on as a postdoc (temporarily) at UCSF, after finishing my PhD?
To help answer any of these questions, consider:
- Informational interviews with the professors, postdocs, and students in the departments where you are considering postdoc opportunities can be informative.
- Discussing these questions with your PI, mentors, colleagues, and alumni of your doctoral program can also be very beneficial.
- The UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development also provides career consultations to talk through any of these topics or can help if you are not sure where to begin!
- Discussing these questions with family and friends can also be valuable.
This resource was based on work developed by Sarah Gallalee, PhD during her internship at the Office of Career and Professional Development in 2023. These questions were developed during conversations with 25 faculty, staff, students and postdocs with the goal of helping social and population sciences students determine if a postdoc position would be a good next step.
