Planning your postdoc For recent PhD graduates, a postdoctoral fellowship is frequently a first ‘job’, and particularly so for those wanting to deepen or continue their research training and remain in academia. Postdoctoral research fellowships are normally awarded, on application following advertisement, to individuals within five years of having achieved a doctoral degree. In essence, these are individuals who undertake research and gain professional research experience (often for a future academic career), under the mentorship of a host/ principal investigator.
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Start looking and applying for these positions before finishing your PhD degree. Postdoctoral fellowships are available globally, and offer great opportunities for a student in the final throes of their PhD degree.
2. Step outside your comfort zone. PhD students are sometimes tempted to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in the same department or lab they undertook their doctoral degree in. Don’t! From a career development perspective, it is usually much more useful to switch research projects, labs, groups or even universities.
