Course Overview
The process of completing your PhD and securing your next position can be stressful and the guidelines on how to do this are not very clear. The Strategic Postdoc is a FREE, 3-week course designed to help trainees like you create a plan to complete their PhD training while applying for postdoctoral positions. This course allows you to evaluate different positions and opportunities while thinking about your personal and professional goals. While the content of this course is focused on the PhD-to-postdoc transition, the concepts and strategies in this course can be applied to other professional transitions after a PhD.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand if a postdoc is the right next step for you
- Reverse-engineer your postdoc search based on your needs, preferences, and values
- Create a game plan to apply for a postdoc
- Interview, negotiate, and choose a postdoc lab
- Strategize finishing your PhD and moving on
Course Structure
The course includes 3 modules with activities, reflection questions, readings, and additional resources to guide you through your postdoctoral search:
- Module 0: Getting Started: Outlines the structure of the course and how to successfully complete this course.
- Module 1: Positioning Yourself for the Postdoc: This module will help you identify your needs, preferences, and values (NPVs) to reverse-engineer your postdoc search, should it be the best next step for you. Using videos, case studies, worksheets and reflection questions, you will build a game plan to finish your PhD and secure your ideal postdoc.
- Module 2: Applying for the Postdoc: This module will guide you through the process of finding, interviewing for, and choosing a postdoc lab that is a good fit for you. You will also learn how to apply effective negotiation strategies to help you smoothly transition out of your PhD lab and into the next stage of your career journey.
Built with Your Schedule in Mind
We built this course for busy students, researchers, or professionals like you! Each module takes about 1 to 3 hours of work to complete and they can be completed in a leisurely fashion in about three weeks, allowing you to do course activities while attending to other responsibilities.
Requirements
There are no requirements needed to take this course.
Format & Certification
The Strategic Postdoc is a self-paced online course. Once you pass the course, you can apply to receive a digital badge and Certificate of Completion to share and keep for your records. Passing requires you to complete all the required activities for the course, which equals 50% of the total activities.
