How to apply for postdoctoral positions
Applying to Positions in Academia in Canada and the United States
Applying to Positions in Academia in Canada and the United States
Applying to postdoctoral positions is strange, because there are so many different types of them, and postdocs in general exist in a nebulous cloud within academia. There are a few different ways that you can do this, and you may need to pursue a few of them before you land a spot you're happy with. No matter how you end up finding a postdoc position, you should start looking early. It can take a good year or so between first contacting a prospective advisor and actually starting your postdoc - so don't wait until you defended your PhD to start looking.
Find a job ad and apply for it. This is the simplest option. Make sure to follow all the instructions in the job ad.
Meet a PI that just happens to have money and a position for you. This sounds crazy, but many postdoc positions happen like this. A PI might have a grant or start-up money available and need a postdoc. They might not have created a job ad, but if you're the right fit, they might be able to hire you. Perhaps you just meet this type of person at a conference but you might find this type of position by emailing the PI. If you know people that you're interested in working with, send them an email. Follow the instructions below.
Apply for a government or foundation postdoctoral fellowship. Typically, you need to have identified a prospective postdoc advisor before you do this. The advisor will typically give you feedback on the proposal you submit, and they may need to also submit a letter of support. See the bottom of this page on more information about fellowships.
Apply for an institution-specific fellowship. Many universities have postdoctoral fellowships available. Your prospective PI may support your application.
One thing that all of these different options have in common is the importance of the PI. Unlike many graduate programs, you are not applying to attend that institution, you are specifically applying to work with that PI. So, the first point of contact is very important - you need to build a relationship with the PI and demonstrate to them that you would be a great person to work with and a great mentee.
The email is your first point of contact with a prospective advisor, so make sure you spend time on getting this right. Unless the advertisement specifically asks for a cover letter, an email will suffice.
Things to do:
Open your email with Dear Dr. [lastname of person] or Dear Prof. [lastname of person]
Explain why you are interested in being a postdoc in this person's lab. It's a good idea to refer to work that they have done, and why you find it interesting.
Explain what qualifies you for the position. At this point, you have (or will soon have) a PhD, so you have research experience. Make it clear how your research experience makes you a good candidate for this lab. Don't just apply to every postdoc position you see come up - make sure you're actually interested in the research that's happening in the lab, and that you have something to contribute.
You may want to mention that if they don't have funding, that you'd be willing to apply for their institution's postdoctoral fellowship, or one of the governmental or foundation fellowships, with their support.
Bonus: give specifics about what you would like to study, or project ideas. This is not mandatory for entering a new lab, but will certainly help boost your application.
Make sure to proof-read your email. Give it to someone else to read over. If you type it up, don't send it right away. Sleep on it and read it again the next day before sending it.
Things not to do:
Do not use salutations that imply the professor's gender. In the United States and Canada, the custom is that you refer to professors by Dr. or Prof. Do not use Ma'am, Ma, Mr, Mrs, Ms, or Sir. Also do not refer to the professor by their first name. If they reply to you and sign their email with their first name, then you can use it, but it's still generally good to lean toward the formal rather than the informal.
Do not use ChatGPT or similar programs to write your email for you. The PIs can usually tell when these programs write the emails. Also, if the quality of writing is very high in your initial email but then you are not able to communicate to the same level verbally or your future writing doesn't match, it is a red flag.
Do not send the same email to every potential advisor. If you follow the things to do above, you will be writing a unique email to each prospective advisor. Yes, this takes some work, but this potential advisor will be investing a lot of resources (money, time, emotions) in you, so the least you can do is send a custom email.
Try not to take it personally if you don't get a reply, or if you get a rejection. If you don't get a reply, it's ok to send a follow-up email (wait a week or two first), because yours might have been missed. If you get a rejection, it's hard, but it's also just a part of life. The more you do this, the easier the rejections become.
The CV is what shows the prospective advisor the things that you described in your email or cover letter.
Things to do:
Send this as a PDF
Follow these general guidelines
Make sure to proof-read
In addition to publications, if you have manuscripts that are in progress but not yet submitted, include them in a separate section.
Go online and check out CVs from people at a similar career stage as you to see the level of information you should include. Plenty of people have their CVs available online.
Things not to do:
This is not a resumé, so keep in mind that the format should be a bit different. Follow the guidelines in the link above.
Do not include personal information. In some countries, this is the norm, but in Canada and the United States, personal information such as religion, gender, marital status, and country of origin should not be included.
Do not include a photograph. Again, this is a regional cultural thing. In many places around the world photos are often included in applications, but not in North America.
If the posting for the position asks for a cover letter, include that as a separate PDF. Make sure to use an official letterhead from the institution you are at (or that you were most recently at). Follow many of the same guidelines as for the email as described above. If you include a cover letter, then you don't need as much detail in your initial email. Just briefly describe who you are, what you're applying for, and what you have attached in the email.
In your email you may want to include PDFs of your publications if you have any (at most three). This saves the prospective advisor time and effort in having to track them down.
By this point in your career, you should definitely have a Google Scholar account, so link to that. And if you have made a personal website, that's a great bonus. Make sure to link to that too.
This list is NOT EXHAUSTIVE. It is mostly for folks in the United States that are working in non-human life sciences. There are other NIH options that I am not getting into here, and there are many other options outside of the United States. But since I'm in the US, and working in the eco evo world, this is what I'm most familiar with.
Check out this list, curated by folks at Johns Hopkins University. There are many that are human health related, but I like this list because it's regularly updated and has details about whether opportunities are open to international applicants. It can be overwhelming, but it's worth a look.
The NSF PRFB has been one of the best postdoctoral fellowships available. Unfortunately, because the US government is currently being destroyed from within, the program has been archived. It might come back, so I'm keeping the link here and will update if I hear that it's back. Typically the due date is in the fall.
The USDA offers both graduate student and postdoctoral fellowships.
This EcoPhys job website has a lot of postings. I don't know why, but lots of people post their available postdoc positions here.
The EcoEvo Jobs board is mostly focused on faculty positions, but there is a tab for postdoc positions as well.
Some folks post postdoc jobs on LinkedIn but I am not familiar with how things work there, so you're on your own.
I haven't spent a lot of time here, but jobrXiv seems to be a great place to find postdoc jobs.
And here is another place, the Texas A&M job board, which I just learned about.
I will say again, this list is not exhaustive - there are plenty more places where you might find jobs. Also, folks often share job postings within their networks. Being on BlueSky and being engaged in the science community there might help you find opportunities. Also, let people in your networks know that you're looking for a postdoc - they might forward you postings. As I mentioned at the top of the page, some PIs don't post their job ads publicly because they get overwhelmed with the number of unqualified applicants, so they will often share just within their networks.
Many universities and research institutions will have internal postdoc fellowships available. As you're looking for a postdoc, one of the best ways to find one, is to just reach out to professors that you want to work with. Email them, with the instructions above, and they might invite you to apply for a fellowship at their institution. These are a great option because they usually pay well, and fewer people apply to them, compared to national or international postdoc fellowships. It's not guaranteed that you will get one of these positions if a professor invites you to submit an application with them, so it is important that you apply elsewhere as well, but this can be a great option.