A 10-Step Plan for Better Postdoc Training

It used to be that the postdoctoral years were a bridge to permanent tenure-track employment. For some, that's still true, and by working with established scientists, all US and Canadian postdocs are still getting quality research training. But such training isn't enough to make postdocs competitive for permanent employment, given the growth of research positions in industry and in nonresearch career options. Because the number of students pursuing a PhD has grown while the number of academic positions has not kept pace, the percentage of PhDs pursuing academic research careers has dropped significantly. Fewer than one-third of postdocs will end up in an academic, tenure-track research position.¹,²

Despite the fact that most of them will not become academic faculty, postdocs are often uninformed about their career options, and their training may neglect essential, nonresearch skills such as public speaking and grantsmanship. Indeed,...