What do you think?
Rate this book
What Every Postdoc Needs To Know
Thinking of starting a postdoc? Want to know how to move on from a postdoc? Or simply want to make the best of your postdoc years? Being a postdoc is not a career ... but it can be the pivotal point in the making of one. This friendly, practical, and occasionally humorous guide to all things postdoc combines the three authors’ vast experience of postdoc careers and personal development.
This is a guide to developing, advancing and furthering yourself and your career. In working through exercises, learning from the experience of others (including the trials and tribulations of the authors), and seeking out information, we hope you will consider what success means on your own terms. In its pages you will find advice Your postdoc is part of the journey towards a range of career destinations; from an industrial R&D specialist to politician, from lecturer to spin-out Chief Executive, and this book is designed to help you get there. Providing indispensable advice on UK-based postdocs for national and international students, it is perfect for those making exciting transitions (student to postdoc, postdoc to the wide world of careers beyond) or for those who simply want to take their postdoc up a gear.
National and international postdocs, student to postdoc, postdoc to a career, or for those who simply want to take their postdoc up a gear.
This is a guide to developing, advancing and furthering yourself and your career. In working through exercises, learning from the experience of others (including the trials and tribulations of the authors), and seeking out information, we hope you will consider what success means on your own terms. In its pages you will find advice Your postdoc is part of the journey towards a range of career destinations; from an industrial R&D specialist to politician, from lecturer to spin-out Chief Executive, and this book is designed to help you get there. Providing indispensable advice on UK-based postdocs for national and international students, it is perfect for those making exciting transitions (student to postdoc, postdoc to the wide world of careers beyond) or for those who simply want to take their postdoc up a gear.
National and international postdocs, student to postdoc, postdoc to a career, or for those who simply want to take their postdoc up a gear.
- GenresNonfiction
278 pages, Paperback
Published February 27, 2017
3 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 24, 2019
I’ve been working with researchers for over a decade, and still I learned new things from reading this book. I recommend it to clients that are considering or undertaking a postdoc role (and those that are looking to move on, out, or up from one).
This book sets out to be a handbook for new and not-so-new post-docs, and (indirectly) for their PIs and managers. It succeeds in this mission, and in under 300 pages too - it is by no means a burdensome read. Succinct and clearly written, the tone is often direct, at times humorous, and always companionable.
The authors set out to map the postdoc landscape, and explore the multiple territories that make that landscape: starting with the HE sector and the research context, moving through research-related topics, transferable skills, relationship-building, decision-making and career strategies. This is a handbook that will give you a head start as you move into a postdoc role, help you navigate it to success, and prepare you for how to make your choices on what you could do next (spoiler: it’s not just a narrow career ladder propped against an academic wall with ‘professorship’ at the summit).
Along the way, you’ll encounter practical things to actually *do*, that will help you grow personally and professionally, put your insights into action, and gain your own balance and self-reliance in what is increasingly becoming a shifting and uncertain landscape. The material and advice is supported brilliantly with real experiences of postdocs past and present, who candidly talk of their own journeys, the successes, the challenges, and how they apply what they’ve learned along the way.
The book is laid out such that you could read it from cover-to-cover, or just dip in and out when you need ideas and advice around a specific topic. The structure is logical, but lends itself to non-linear, ‘just in time’ scanning when you have a specific problem to solve, opportunity to navigate, or decision to make. The chapters are well defined, easy to consume in short sittings. Don’t just read it though… to get the most from this excellent little volume of collected wisdom, I recommend doing the activities suggested. There’s a good balance of reflective activities and action-based activities too.
This book sets out to be a handbook for new and not-so-new post-docs, and (indirectly) for their PIs and managers. It succeeds in this mission, and in under 300 pages too - it is by no means a burdensome read. Succinct and clearly written, the tone is often direct, at times humorous, and always companionable.
The authors set out to map the postdoc landscape, and explore the multiple territories that make that landscape: starting with the HE sector and the research context, moving through research-related topics, transferable skills, relationship-building, decision-making and career strategies. This is a handbook that will give you a head start as you move into a postdoc role, help you navigate it to success, and prepare you for how to make your choices on what you could do next (spoiler: it’s not just a narrow career ladder propped against an academic wall with ‘professorship’ at the summit).
Along the way, you’ll encounter practical things to actually *do*, that will help you grow personally and professionally, put your insights into action, and gain your own balance and self-reliance in what is increasingly becoming a shifting and uncertain landscape. The material and advice is supported brilliantly with real experiences of postdocs past and present, who candidly talk of their own journeys, the successes, the challenges, and how they apply what they’ve learned along the way.
The book is laid out such that you could read it from cover-to-cover, or just dip in and out when you need ideas and advice around a specific topic. The structure is logical, but lends itself to non-linear, ‘just in time’ scanning when you have a specific problem to solve, opportunity to navigate, or decision to make. The chapters are well defined, easy to consume in short sittings. Don’t just read it though… to get the most from this excellent little volume of collected wisdom, I recommend doing the activities suggested. There’s a good balance of reflective activities and action-based activities too.
April 29, 2020
A lot of stuff presented in the book may seem like common-sense and common-advice so prevalent in academia, but the impact and coherent view really puts everything in perspective together. There are lists, checklists, and areas where you are asked to stop and think before moving ahead. This book presents a great exercise in shaping the postdoc career from the start and is a good reference to keep coming back to in the first two years. Receiving this at the end of my PhD was a delightful (and useful) gift. That said, I would go ahead and recommend this to PhDs who are curious about careers in academia and want to move on the becoming a postdoc.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews