In the physical sciences, postdoctoral positions appear to be all but necessary if you want an academic position. In the humanities, post docs are relatively uncommon. And in social science, post docs are increasingly common, but not necessary 100% of the time. Among graduates of our program in 2015-2016, we have 9 going into postdoctoral positions, 3 alt-academic positions, 2 research-focused tenure line positions, 1 teaching-focused tenure line position, and 1 still searching. Academic positions straight from grad programs in the social sciences are becoming rarer, but are not impossible.
 
I recommend to most students that even if they are doing an academic job search, they apply for post docs as well. It is hard to know what will happen in the market in a particular year, and much like an undergraduate safety school, knowing that you could go to a post doc if you don’t get an academic position is extremely helpful. But post docs aren’t simply back up plans. For many students, post docs are the best choice after grad school. Here are some suggestions for figuring out if a post doc is right for you:
 
How strong is your record? The most obvious question. If you are finishing grad school with few publications, you will need a post doc to be competitive. If you have a very strong record of publications (and, a huge plus, external funding), then you may be able to land a tenure line position without doing a post doc first.
 
What are your career goals? If your career goal is a tenure line position at a top research university, then having a couple of years more to improve your publication and grant-getting record, to demonstrate a more independent line of research, and to gain additional experiences before launching a truly independent career can be useful. If your career goal is a teaching position, than staying in graduate school for an extra year to gain more teaching experience might be a better CV builder. And if your goal is an alt-academic career, at, for instance, an applied research institute, then a post doc might not be the best use of time.
 
How ideal of a job do you want? If your goal is to find your dream job and stay there forever, then 2 years at a post doc might help you better position yourself. If your goal is to get into a tenure line position as soon as possible, to have a higher income quickly, or to not have to move twice in the next 3 years, then you may want to apply for tenure line positions broadly to see where you land.
 
What are your geographic and/or family constraints? Constraints could lean you either one way or another. If you feel like you can’t move multiple times in the next couple of years because of a spouse’s job or children’s needs, you might want to skip a post doc and take a job right after grad school. Alternatively, if you know your long term goal is a job in a particular region of the country, limiting your search, you may need a post doc, both to wait for the right job to become available, and to make yourself competitive for it.
 
There are a few other reasons that you might want a post doc, even if you could land a top tenure line job right now:
 
Post docs increase your network. You have your mentor, dissertation committee, and other faculty and colleagues at your graduate school program. But if you do a post doc, you substantially increase your lifelong network with a new set of colleagues and collaborators. Each senior person tends to have a relatively large network, and if a post doc doubles yours, that’s can be a substantial difference. I’ve seen at conferences that people who did post docs generally have much larger networks.
 
Improve your record. As described, post docs provide time to add publications and grants to your CV. Even if you could land a tenure line position right now, extending your record before doing so does not only help you get the right job, it helps your record when you go up for tenure.
 
Publish from your dissertation. Many post doc positions will provide time to write up your dissertation work in addition to joining new projects.
 
Breathing room. Are you ready to launch into a tenure line position where you truly need to balance research, teaching, and service? Perhaps you are. But if not, a post doc gives you a period where you can almost exclusively focus on research.
 
Post docs may be the emerging adulthood of the academic career.  You are not a mentee in the same way that you were in graduate school, but you have not yet fully launched an independent career. During emerging adulthood, assuming adequate resources, individuals have more leisure time than during any other period of development. Emerging adulthood is an excellent time for identity exploration with fewer consequences than one would have in adulthood. Similarly, post docs provide a period where exploration is less costly than in a tenure line position with 6 years on the clock. Post docs are a bridge period between graduate school and independent researcher.
 
In my last year of graduate school, I went on 4 interviews for tenure line positions. I became nervous, and started applying for post docs. Soon after I went on my first (and only) post doc interview. I did a there and back in one day, leaving on the 6:00 AM flight, having meetings all day, and flying back on the last flight of the day. I came home a bit discouraged, in that I felt ready to be a grownup, and it was clear to me on the interview that I would be expected to be, well, an emerging adult. And when I returned home, I had a message to call the department head at Penn State, who offered me my current position the next day. I was elated that I would not have to do a post doc and would instead get to, well, be a grownup.
 
I do not regret my decision or my career trajectory. And yet, it was a rough couple of years, and in sharp contrast to a good friend from grad school, who also interviewed for both academic and postdoctoral positions, and chose to do a post doc. In my first year I taught 3 classes (2 preps; 400 students total), served on a search committee, supervised graduate and undergraduate research, worked to publish my dissertation, worked to start a new program of research, all while living in a small college town as a 30-year-old single woman. Simultaneously, my friend worked to publish his dissertation, worked on a new program of research, and lived in Toronto where he had plenty of time to enjoy city life. In the end, we both ended up where we wanted to be, we just took different paths there. Neither one was right or wrong, but I was frequently jealous of him in those 2 years.
 
So, should you do a post doc? Only you know, and there probably isn’t one right answer for you. Just remember – becoming an adult is great in many ways, but many of us wouldn’t mind extending the years before a bit more if we could do it all over again.
 
 
“The post Should you do a post doc? was first published on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on April 11, 2016.”

At Society for Research in Adolescence (SRA) this year, two young scholars announced to me and my friend/colleague, “We’ve known each other for 7 years!” I may have audibly scoffed (sorry!) when I replied, “come to me when you can say 23 years, then we’ll talk.”

Rose is my person. We met early in grad school and worked together in the same lab for 5 years. She has been my conference buddy since our first conference together in the 1990’s. In grad school at conferences, we would scout out places to watch March Madness. Actually, not much has changed except the atmosphere of where we watch and the type of drink we consume.

Every academic needs a best friend who doesn’t assume you get summers off or doesn’t wonder what you do with all that free time between the only 2 classes you teach per week. Who in grad school sometimes made you take a break from presentations to go for a long walk or actually see the outside of the convention center (these days, I’m more likely to do that to her). With whom you have code names for other people at the conference (but not for you, dear reader, definitely not for you). Who can sleep right through your insomnia when you share a hotel room. Whom your students are excited to get to meet, and you can say, I know her. It’s so helpful to have someone in the same career and stage as you, but not at your same institution, to check in about prickly work situations. You know you will never have to walk into an intimidating reception alone because you will always have her by your side. It is in conference hotel rooms and on the streets of conference cities that we have confided in each other about many of life’s stressors, whether work or children.
In grad school, we were usually crammed 4 to a room, negotiating shower schedules and bed sharing.  These days it’s usually the two of us, going to sleep earlier than we used to, but still having plenty of time to chat and catch up. Or to ignore each other while we get work done or zone out after a long day of professional social interactions. One year we were given a suite, and we invited a friend up to hang out. When she showed up she saw us each with laptops in front of us and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were both working.” But no, that’s just us hanging out in a hotel room, reading emails between conversations about our latest administrative headache or student accomplishment.

When my kids were babies, she was the one who, even though replaced as my conference roommate for a few years by my husband and kids, immediately came up to the room after getting a text that said “help!” and entertained babies  while my husband and I packed. She’s the one who, when my kids were toddlers and I had to give a presentation, went to Reading Terminal with my husband and kids and helped chase them down when they took off in opposite directions.

When my kids were 2 ½, I attended my first conference without them since their birth. Rose was happy (I think) to get me back as a roommate. I was feeling very confident. I had presentations two days in a row scheduled, and this was my first chance in years to show competent-conference-Eva rather than scattered-Mama-conference-Eva. On the first day, I was at the front table right before it started, when I wondered, why is everyone from tomorrow’s panel here but no one from today’s panel here? Oh. I had mixed up my talks, and had not only been practicing the wrong talk, but also had the notes for the wrong talk. Rose, from the audience, immediately saw the panic in my eyes, and texted to ask what was wrong. I texted her back. And Rose ran the 1 mile back to the hotel room, texting me from the room to find the talk, and ran it back to me in the middle of our session. Not my most polished presentation, but a lot better than it would have been if I hadn’t had my person there.

I like to think I occasionally do things for her as well. For instance, there are few other people I’d do this for:

When I make a list of things that I gained in grad school, there’s writing and stats skills and professional development. But more than any of those things, I gained my person. I don’t think I could have navigated this career these past 23 years without her. It’s hard to convey to grad students the value of the friends you make in grad school. It’s not just the conferences, it’s all of the in betweens, whether work or standing up at each others' weddings or visiting with families in tow. So every year, I know I’m going to end the conference with sushi, wine, and my person. Sometimes a movie, too. But always the sushi, wine, and Rose.

“The post Find your lifelong conference buddy was first posted on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on April 7, 2016”