Illustration: David Parkins
The advice
Nature’s careers team reached out to two academics and two career coaches for advice.
“You did exactly the right thing by moving on,” says Emma Williams, founder of the Nerd Coach, an academic coaching business in Cambridge, UK. The relationship between a PI and postdoc “is so key to everything in your career going forwards”.
In terms of choosing the right PI for a postdoc, all four said the first step is self-reflection. “Start by identifying what you want to get out of your postdoc,” says LaShan Hendrix, a biomedical engineer at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. “Do you want to get more papers? Do you want to take on a new role? Do you want teaching or grant-writing experience?”
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Then, Hendrix suggests, explore what mentoring style you like. Do you prefer a mentor who is hands-on, or someone who is less involved? If you had issues with your PhD adviser, Hendrix recommends looking for a PI for your postdoc who can provide you with a different personality and mentoring style.
Next, consider what laboratory environment you need to thrive. For instance, in a large lab group, you might have the opportunity to take on a leadership role and collaborate with graduate students. In a smaller lab, it might just be you and the PI working closely on a project. “It can feel quite claustrophobic, or the two of you could be a brilliant team,” Williams says.
Navigating interviews
Understanding what you want as a researcher isn’t enough on its own, however. The next step is interviewing potential PIs. Keep in mind that this process isn’t just about the PI questioning you — you’re also interviewing them to see whether they will be the right fit. All of the specialists Nature spoke to said that it’s important to discuss ongoing research projects as well as where the funding comes from and what the PI expects of you. Williams suggests asking for written documentation about the project you’ll be working on, and for a copy of the grant that will support your work. If the PI is unwilling to provide those documents, that could be a warning sign, she says.
Williams also says that the way you phrase your questions can affect the type of information you receive. For instance, instead of asking a hypothetical question about how the PI will support your career, ask how they have supported their postdocs’ careers in the past, which encourages them to provide you with evidence of their previous efforts. Looking into how long researchers have stayed in the lab for can also be helpful. “If people are only staying six months, that would be a big red flag for me,” says Williams.
Hendrix says it’s crucial to clarify which intellectual ideas from your postdoc research you will be able to take with you after you move on, and which aspects will stay with the lab. For example, if your PI works on the 3D microenvironment in breast cancer, maybe you can go on to study the 3D microenvironment in lung cancer instead. Another example could be examining different pathways in the same disease.
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“A red flag would be if they make it clear that they don’t want you to take anything,” she says. “Another thing to look out for is whether your future research interests are exactly what that PI is working on, because then they might see you as competition. You want to have some separation in your research interests.”
If you want to do independent research, it’s important to ask whether you can work on it during the postdoc. “I usually encourage young fellows or postdocs to look for their own small grants, which can help them to establish themselves,” says Adesola Ogunniyi, a retired neurologist who worked at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
Talk to other postdocs
Along with speaking to the PI, all four experts recommend talking to current and previous postdocs. “It’s important to be professional and respectful, but also to get the information you need,” says Claartje van Sijl, who owns the academic coaching practice Van Sijl Counseling & Training in Utrecht, the Netherlands. As part of your due diligence while exploring the role’s suitability, she recommends framing questions using language such as: ‘I’ve learnt from experience how crucial the working relationship is, so I’d love to hear more about how things unfolded over time in this group. What made it work and what would you advise for someone new?”
The other specialists recommend asking what day-to-day life looks like in the lab, and how current and previous postdocs would define the lab’s culture. This can help you to determine whether the lab environment will suit you.
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