How to Secure Your First Postdoc Role

Thinking about your first postdoc, or already applying? In September, jobs.ac.uk ran a free webinar on exactly that, hosted by Katie Hoare, a careers and employability skills specialist for postgraduate and early career researchers. She covered where to find postdocs, how to plan for one while you’re still doing your PhD, and how to write applications and handle interviews that get you the job. Here’s a summary of her advice, and you can watch the full recording at the end.

What a postdoc is, and why you might want one

A postdoc is a fixed-term research post on a project that has already been funded. A senior researcher has won a grant and needs a team to deliver the work, and you’re one of that team. Postdocs can be advertised at associate or fellow level. For a first postdoc you’ll most likely be applying at associate level, which comes with less seniority and independence than a fellowship.

Katie’s test for whether it’s the right step was simple: do you enjoy research and want to broaden your skills, or do you see it as the logical next step towards an academic career? If neither applies, it may be worth thinking again about what you want next.

Where to find postdoc roles

Use specialist job boards rather than a general web search, because that’s where the most complete listings are. Searching “postdoc” on jobs.ac.uk and filtering by discipline is a good start, and our own jobs board lists postdoc posts across dementia and neurodegeneration. Not every postdoc sits in a university, either. Research institutes, funders and public sector bodies all recruit postdocs too.

Beyond the job boards, Katie suggested:

• Tell people what you’re looking for. Your supervisor, other academics, postdoc friends and fellow PhD students may pass roles on to you.
• Keep an eye on the departments leading your field. Conferences are a good way to spot them, and you can then sign up for their job alerts.
• Don’t underestimate word of mouth. Recruiters are being flooded with AI-written applications from candidates who don’t always live up to what’s on paper, and some are leaning more heavily on recommendations from people they know as a result.
• Look beyond the UK if you can. Katie cited Vitae’s What Do Researchers Do? research, which found UK-trained doctoral graduates working abroad were almost twice as likely to be in postdoc-type research roles as those who stayed in the UK, at 44% against 23%.

For more on where to look, see our blog on how to find a postdoc job.

What you’ll actually be doing

The heart of any postdoc is producing high-quality research that leads to publications in strong journals. That’s what the project lead needs from you. Around that, you may also:

• look for funding opportunities and contribute to grant proposals
• prepare articles for publication
• present data to the project team, to colleagues across the university or to industry partners
• present findings at conferences
• mentor or train students, and sometimes teach

Teaching isn’t part of every postdoc, so read each job description carefully to see what’s expected.

Build a postdoc action plan

If you know a postdoc is your next step, Katie’s advice was to be strategic about how you use the rest of your PhD, and to put together an action plan that builds the experience recruiters look for:

• Get some publications in progress. They don’t have to be top-tier journal articles yet. Book reviews and opinion pieces still give you experience of submitting, responding to feedback and meeting a publication’s guidelines. Job descriptions often ask for the potential to publish well, so showing work submitted or in preparation counts.
• Have a plan for publishing your thesis, whether as a series of papers or a single manuscript.
• Apply for small pots of funding, such as travel or conference grants from your university or funder. Winning them shows you can write a competitive application.
• Present at conferences, so you get experience and your name becomes known in your field.
• Build your network, inside and outside your department, through societies, committees, poster competitions and events like Three Minute Thesis.
• Sign up for job alerts, both at your own institution and at others working in your area.
• Score yourself against real job descriptions. Read them as if you were the recruiter. Would you hire you? Anything missing goes on your action plan.

If you’ve already finished your PhD, some of these will be harder to come by, but there are still conferences to attend and funding you can apply for.

Writing an application that gets shortlisted

Many researchers undersell themselves on paper, hedging their language and not making enough of what they’ve achieved. Katie’s advice was to present yourself with confidence, and to tailor every application.

• Tailor your CV for every role. Make clear why you want this project, at this institution, and what you’ll bring to it.
• Use the job description’s own terminology. If it names particular software, methods or data protocols that you’ve used, say so in the same words, and show what you did with them.
• Write for the shortlisting panel. An early career academic post can attract over a hundred applications, with only four or five shortlisted. Panels score each one against a grid built from the job description, and they won’t go hunting for evidence. Put what’s most relevant to the role at the top.
• Moving fields is fine, but you need to be especially clear about how your skills transfer and why you want the role.
• Submit at least 48 hours before the deadline if you can. Applications often reach the panel in the order they arrived, so a last-minute submission can end up at the bottom of a long pile.

Our guide to making a stand-out research assistant application covers a lot of the same ground, and much of it applies to postdoc applications too.

Talk to the hiring manager before you apply

When Katie polled the audience, they were split roughly fifty-fifty on whether to contact the named person on a job advert. Her advice was clear: do it, and leave yourself enough time before the deadline.

Many universities build job descriptions from standard HR text, so adverts can read as generic and may not reflect what the project lead really needs. A short Teams call lets you check your understanding of the role, learn what success would look like and what matters most to them, and then tailor your application to that. It also shows your interest. The project lead won the funding and wants the right people working on it, so they’re likely to remember a candidate who took the time to talk to them about it. It’s fine to follow up after you’ve applied too, with a short note to say thank you and that your application is in.

Preparing for interview

Being shortlisted is already a big achievement. Katie’s advice for the next step: research, research some more, and then research some more.

• Reread the job description and know which evidence you gave against each criterion. Don’t assume the panel remembers your application.
• Reuse the examples from your application. They’re what got you the interview, so go into more depth and reflect on what you learned, rather than hunting for new ones.
• Research the project and department. Who funded it, who the stakeholders are, where it sits in the department and the institution’s strategy, and whether it links to wider policy such as the government’s industrial strategy, which UKRI funding is tied to.
• Research the panel. Look at their profiles and recent publications. If their work shaped your PhD, or you see it differently, that’s well worth bringing up.
• Practise out loud. Turn the person specification into likely questions and answer them, ideally in a mock interview with a friend or your careers service, which often supports alumni too.
• Nail the first question. It’s almost always a version of “why do you want this job?” Cover your motivation for this specific project, your skills and achievements so far, and how the role fits your career plans.
• Prepare two good questions for the end. Avoid anything already covered or easy to find online. Ask something that shows real interest in the project, or about training and development in the role.

Above all, remember that you wouldn’t have been shortlisted if they didn’t think you could do the job. The interview is about fit. Recruitment is slow and expensive, and the panel needs someone to deliver their project. If you show you understand the role and have what it takes, you’re the answer to their problem.

For more on interviews, see our blog on fellowship writing and interview tips.

Questions from the audience

• Do I need teaching experience? Not usually for a postdoc, where the focus is on research and publications. It becomes more important if you’re aiming for a lectureship later on.
• Do I have to stay in my PhD research area? No. Interdisciplinary moves are often welcomed, as long as you show why you’re right for the project.
• How many Q1 or Q2 papers do I need? There’s no set number. Many applicants haven’t finished their PhD, and recruiters usually look for the potential to publish well.
• Do I have to do a postdoc to build an academic career? No. Depending on your discipline, a teaching fellowship or junior lectureship can be the first step. A postdoc is most useful if you want a research-heavy career leading your own projects.
• Can I apply in the last year of my PhD? Yes. Many adverts accept candidates who are nearing completion, and some set a window, such as within three years of your PhD. Give a sense of your timeline in your application.
• What if I’ve already left university? That’s no barrier, since most posts are advertised publicly. Moving to a new institution can also broaden your experience, though staying is fine if your circumstances need it.
• What if I’m missing some of the skills? If you’ve been shortlisted, the panel has seen your potential. If you’re repeatedly not being shortlisted, though, that’s the sign to build the missing experience first.
• Is it harder for international candidates? Moving between countries is common in academia. Show how your skills transfer and what you bring as an international candidate, and it can become a strength.
• Who should my referees be? Usually your principal supervisor and a second academic who knows you well, or your examiners if you’ve finished. Always ask first, and tell them about the roles you’re applying for so they can tailor their reference to the skills that matter.

Watch the webinar

This webinar was produced and hosted by jobs.ac.uk. You’ll find more webinars and career advice on the jobs.ac.uk career advice site. If you’re weighing up where to do your first postdoc, you may also like our blog on the pros and cons of staying in your PhD lab.