National Postdoc Appreciation Week: 10 must-read articles for postdocs

This week is National Postdoc Appreciation Week. For the past eight years, the National Postdoctoral Association has marked out a day or week to “recognise the significant contributions that postdoctoral scholars make to US research and discovery”.

The awareness week, which sees universities from across the world participate by holding special events, seems like a very sensible idea to us, so we have dug through our archives to pull out some articles that we think might be of particular interest. 

The postdoc experience: hopes and fears
Six early career researchers reflect on their experiences

Ten habits for a successful postdoc
Ten must-dos for postdocs identified by Catherine L Drennan, professor of chemistry and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mistakes I’ve made as an early career researcher
Nicola Hemmings reflects on the slip-ups she made as she built her career in science, and offers advice on how to avoid them

Postdocs and parenthood
Alex Holmes was surprised by the reaction of some of his colleagues when he took shared parental leave

Which should I choose: my postdoc or my child?
Elena Tobolkina got the job opportunity of a lifetime at Oxford, but the cost of childcare and housing took it away

The difficulty of saying “no” as a newbie (and why you have to)
Juggling multiple departmental roles on top of teaching and research can leave new lecturers feeling ‘punch-drunk’, explains new appointee Richard Budd

Five cities, seven years: my life post-PhD
The life of an early career researcher is a challenging one, finds Catherine Fletcher, as she heads to city number six

Drive to train next generation of African scientists bears fruit
Training world-leading researchers on the African continent

Anxiety over future careers hits French PhD students’ well-being
More than half of doctoral candidates surveyed at one university reported “abnormal” levels of stress and depression

Ten tips on applying for a postdoc fellowship
Competition for postdoctoral fellowships is fierce, so your application needs to stand out as realistic, coherent and compelling. Here, five Stanford University scientists reveal 10 tips from their own experiences when attempting to secure a place

More postdoc-related news from THE