What is a Postdoc? Key Insights for Aspiring Academics

I’ve now been working in postdoc researcher roles for over three years. Therefore I figure we must be overdue a bit of postdoc content on the site!

Over the next few months I’ll be providing an in-depth look at life as a postdoctoral researcher. We’ll kick off with an overview exploring what a postdoc is, followed up by a detailed insight into a week in my life as one.

Please let me know of any other questions relating to being a postdoc or post-PhD life more broadly and I can try to cover it in an upcoming post.

If you’re considering staying on in academia after your PhD I hope you’ll find these posts insightful!

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What is a postdoc?

Postdocs are people working in research who have already gained their PhDs, post doctoral, as the name suggests. Like “PhD”, “Postdoc” can refer both to the person doing the postdoc, and the role itself.

In the UK most people refer to these researchers as ‘postdocs’ for short, but they may also be called postdoctoral researchers, postdoctoral research associates (PDRAs) or postdoctoral fellows.

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Do you get another qualification for being a postdoc?

I get asked this by PhD students surprisingly often! And the answer is no.

Postdocs are just members of staff at the university who are contracted to work on fixed-term research projects. Besides money, and hopefully some publications, you don’t earn anything like a degree from being a postdoc.

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How long is a postdoc position?

Spending some time as a postdoc is often a transition job before getting a full time permanent “tenure track” faculty position on the path towards becoming a professor. It therefore isn’t common to stay as a postdoc for much more than 4-5 years. Universities generally try to stop people from staying in the same postdoc positions for longer than this: and I’d agree with them that it’s not good!

However this doesn’t mean that you’ll be on a single contract for that whole length of time. Most postdoc contracts are likely to be for around two years, however there are often opportunities to extend your contract by securing additional funding which we’ll touch on more shortly.

My first postdoc role was advertised as only six months long, which probably was so short that it put a lot of people off. The second one, which I’m currently in, was advertised as being about two years’ long but also with possibility of extension which I’ve since done. There are positions for five years or longer, but I’d caution against staying in one place for so long.

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What is the career progression for postdocs?

At the university I work at, Bristol, there are three career paths: research-only, teaching-only, and the traditional tenure track pathway where you do some of both.

Postdocs are at the bottom of the ladder on the research-only pathway (research associate). Although in theory someone can continue all the way up to professor being on the research-only pathway, it isn’t at all common. Most of the time someone may stay as a postdoc for a few years then either get a tenure track position (i.e. assistant professor) or leave academia.

Interested in how much money people earn for each of these roles? Here are the pay scales. TLDR: the full time salary for someone in my current role (a few rungs above a postdoc) is £48,350, approx 57,000 EUR or $62000 USD. You can almost certainly earn more in industry!

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What’s different compared to being a PhD student?

In many ways the job role of postdocs can be similar to PhD students: you’re still dedicated to research and publishing papers. The differences are that often with postdocs you’re taking on more of a supervisory role, sometimes with several projects to manage.

This isn’t always the case though: in my first postdoc role I was working independently on one single project, in much the same way as a PhD student.

However, postdoc researchers often apply for grants to start new projects, for instance to enable extending their own job contracts. Whereas PhD students typically already have funding in place and not much of a requirement to apply for grants.

Everything else (supervision duties, teaching etc) varies so much that it’s difficult to generalise.

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What do postdocs spend their time doing?

You’ll see in my upcoming ‘week in the life’ post that I broadly spend my time:

• Reading published literature – yes, sadly this is still required. It’s particularly difficult to stay up to date with AI with the quantity of research being conducted!
• Having meetings with fellow researchers and end users (e.g. medics) on collaborative projects
• Actually doing “research” – just like PhD students. Writing code, conducting experiments, analysing results, drafting papers etc.
• Applying for grants

Also depending on the time of year:

• Student supervision – supporting undergraduate projects via meetings, answering emails, proofreading their work
• Teaching – not typically part of a postdoc’s job describing, but it’s something I’ve done a bit of to gain experience and bolster my CV
• Reviewing papers for conferences

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Is life harder as a PhD student or postdoc?

Personally my work-life balance is worse now than during my PhD. But I don’t attribute this much to my postdoc role, more that I’m trying to both be a postdoc and CEO of a start-up at the same time. Which is really something I would not advise!

However, there is no reason to not be able to treat a postdoc researcher role just like any other job. Certainly when I started my first postdoc role life was balanced. I would also advise treating your PhD like a job: I only ever worked on mine during office hours (full post here with my PhD diary) .

The nice thing with being a postdoc researcher is that I feel like the research you do is slightly less wrapped up with your personal identify than when you’re a PhD student.

This is for a few main reasons:

• You’re an employee getting paid to do a job, therefore:
  1. You can quit whenever you want with less of a sunk cost issue than during a PhD*
  2. In some ways it can feel less like a project that you own yourself and more someone else’s project that you’re getting paid to do. Sometimes this can be the case with PhDs, but usually you’ll have a lot more room to shape them.
     
• Postdoc researcher roles are often shorter than PhD projects
  
• You’re often working on several distinct projects, some of which are being led by other postdocs or PhD students.

*Sure, you can quit either a PhD or postdoc role, but if you want a PhD you’ll have to at some point complete a PhD. Whereas postdocs don’t gain another qualification by staying on as a postdoc, just merely more time building experience and getting publications. In other words, for someone who wants an academic career, considering leaving a PhD midway through is a lot more damaging than leaving a postdoc role early.

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What is a typical postdoc salary in the UK?

Here are the postdoc salary pay scales for where I work at the University of Bristol.

Relating this into my own salary history as a postdoc researcher:

• Postdoc – £37,099 – 41,732. In my first postdoc researcher role after my PhD my salary was about £35,000 (around 3.5 years ago).

• Senior postdoc – £41,732 – 46,974. I started at the bottom of this pay range at Bristol.

• Research fellow – £48,350 – 56,021. Last year I applied for promotion and I am now a research fellow. So strictly I’m not a postdoc anymore. For all intents and purposes though the role is simply a slightly higher paid postdoc.

It’s worth noting that, in the UK at least, postdoc salaries are typically standardised across all departments within a university. This means that although I work in AI which is a very hot topic at the moment, and consequently very lucrative in the private sector, this won’t result in a pay uplift while working in academia.

You can check out my separate post to get an idea of how this compares to PhD salaries. PhD Salary UK: How Much Do PhD Students Get Paid Compared to Graduates?

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Why work as a postdoc?!

More years doing very similar work to a PhD student? For not much more money (once you account for tax – see my analysis here) and almost certainly less money than you could earn in industry?

You might be asking why anyone would work as a postdoc!

Here are a few reasons:

1. As a stepping stone to a tenure-track academic position. However a surprising number of postdocs I work with don’t actually want an academic career.
   
2. Enjoying research in academia. If you enjoy research then a postdoc is quite a nice position to be in. Relatively little responsibility and distractions but with scope for personal growth and responsibility.
   
3. Gain new experiences. I made quite a pivot to a different research area after my PhD. Working as a postdoc is a relatively low risk way of gaining experience and credentials if you want to take your research career in a different direction.
   
4. Can’t find another job / Finishing up some research after a PhD in the same research group. Getting offered a short term postdoc position by a PhD supervisor towards the end of a PhD is pretty common. It’s a way to get paid to get some otherwise unpublished PhD papers submitted soon right a PhD.

For me, it’s 60% that I enjoy research and 40% that I’m keen on gaining experience to line myself up for a tenure-track position.

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Summary: What is a postdoc?

Let’s finish up with a quick overview of what we’ve covered in this post.

• A postdoc is an academic researcher who already has a PhD.
• Postdocs do not earn another degree for their work.
• People tend to work as a postdoc for 2-5 years, with varying contract lengths.
• The role can lead to tenure-track positions, but it certainly isn’t a guarantee.
• Responsibilities include conducting research, publishing, supervisory duties, and applying for grants.
• Common motivations for becoming a postdoc include: using it as a stepping stone to academic careers, enjoyment of research, and gaining experience while finishing up PhD research.

Keen to learn more about life as a postdoc? Be sure to check out my ‘week in the life of an AI postdoc researcher’ post.

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Hopefully you now feel confident with knowing what a postdoc is. If you have any further questions about life as a postdoc let me know!

Likewise, I’m always keen to hear suggestions for other content that readers would find useful so please do share any suggestions that you may have.