r/postdoc

Hi everyone, I’m curious how people usually handle this situation.

Say you get a postdoc offer from your second-choice lab first, but your top-choice lab is still in the interview/decision process. You genuinely still prefer the top-choice lab because the project fit is better and you’d really like to work with that PI/team.

Would it be reasonable to email the top-choice lab and say something like, “I’ve received another offer, but I’m still very interested in your lab/project and wanted to ask whether you have any updates on the timeline”?

Could that help expedite their decision, or would it come across as pushy/threatening?

I’m asking partly because I come from a more hierarchical culture where mentioning another offer can feel like applying pressure or being too forward, so I’m not sure how this is usually perceived in academic hiring/postdoc contexts, especially by PIs or hiring managers in the U.S./Western settings.

Would appreciate any advice, especially from people who’ve been on either side of this.

Like a lot of researchers, I end up doomscrolling in my downtime… but I was lacking a good platform to scroll for research papers the same way we scroll everything else.

So, I asked my brother to build me one — and he actually did.

scollr is a personalized feed for scientific papers:

Follow topics, journals, and authors

Get a feed of relevant papers (new + older gems)

Separate tabs for latest publications + notifications for new publications specific to your interests

It’s still early and we’re actively improving the algorithm, so I’d genuinely love feedback from people who read papers regularly.

Web + iOS:

https://scollr.com/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scollr/id6761957461

Curious if this is something others would actually use — or what’s missing.

I am looking to apply to fellowships like humboldt, msca. Should I cold email multiple profs at once or email them at a gap and wait for their response? The deadline for them is in a few months. Profs often take more than a week to reply and they mostly say they have another candidate. Is my project idea bad?

How difficult is finding a host for these fellowships?

Hey yall. I searched this forum and found plenty of overlap but there is one difference I’d like advice on.

NOTE: I know this all hinges on if I actually get the job. I am considering these factors ahead of time just in case.

During the last few months of my PhD program, I reached out to my now PI expressing interest in joining his lab as a postdoc. He wasn’t advertising for a postdoc but we have overlapping interests so he ultimately created this position for me. I also didn’t come with any funding so he’s paying me with his startup until he gets another grant.

He moved the lab to the East Coast from the Midwest so we have been building up the lab together and I’ve been serving as a lab manager of sorts in addition to working on my research. He did, however, hire a few grad students to take over these admin tasks beginning in the summer so I can focus 100% on my research.

My PI is extremely supportive and flexible. I can work remote 4 days a week and he has recently allowed me to go back to the West Coast to visit my family and work from there every few months.

But I have really been struggling with this move. I am by myself in this city and state and have had a hard time building roots. I’ve been here for 8 months but have wanted to go back to the West Coast for 5 of those 8 months. I work but not very much. I do have guilt about how I spend my time, but I just can’t get into it right now.

That said, I just received an interview to work for a university in my hometown where my parents still live. It is outside of academia so I would basically be leaving this field entirely. I would get a pay bump of $13k-$29k (bit of a wide range, I know).

If I was working for a big company, I would leave without hesitation. But I was the one who reached out to my PI and asked him to create a position that didn’t originally exist for me. The plan was for me to stay for 2 years so I would be leaving 14-15 months early IF I were to get the job and take it. I am feeling very stuck. I would love to move back home and try a new career but I feel obligated to stick this out.

Re: research interest- I’m doing exactly the work I wanted to do in grad school but I’m not as excited about it anymore which is what pushed me to consider other fields.

What would you do in this position? I know it is ultimately my decision, but I would love to hear other perspectives. Thanks!