Applying for a postdoc position - advice from Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman

Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman answers the question 'How do you respond when people ask to join your lab?'
Dr Schekman visited Maryland, United States, as part of the Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative. He offered advice to young scientists, discussed his influential discoveries and explained his views on scientific publishing.
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[@nbharakey]

They forget to mention why this nonsensical "postdoc" position exists in the first place. Too many researchers are trained. It is a cheap way for governments to manufacture medium quality research through doctoral training programmes while paying PhD students peanuts and essentially wasting several years of their lives. This also creates a competitive hell in academic research and elsewhere. Plus, it creates diploma inflation where now you need a PhD to perform basically a technician's job in industry. The whole thing is broken beyond repair. Just think of the grant system, academic publishing, PIs becoming managers on the account of being productive scientists, understaffed laboratories where PhDs and postdocs have to maintain all the equipment, insane expectations and work hours...

[@ericfelli5689]

So If I understood well...You study the articles from a Lab, you work on a brilliant idea for months and you put all your know how. After that you give everything in ONE email to the PI who decide if you can be treated as human being and receive an answer, or not. Moreover, if the idea is really nice, he can just let apply for the funds to his son’s colleague or whatever is the guy politically closer to him. This is why this is not working at all.

[@eduardomen81]

bingo! And there is no guarantee the PI is going to be a good one, THEY are the choosing side

[@Sky_Math_Cafe]

100%, we need to end postdocs, this was a temporary invention that became yet another crappy fix to exploit the ones who should be getting some type of training instead of a scam

[@himanshu_sethi]

PI politics is the reason I left my PhD

[@shaswatachowdhury9032]

Fitting response. Thumbs Up!

[@khalidbashir4033]

Many big scientists have got no Nobel prize but they really did wonderful experiments. Prize should not be the motive , neither the prize winner should be inspiration. What actually matters is idea. And the idea cannot be put on social media for free.

[@laserlaser1220]

Hallo Professor, my work has been stolen twice in my life. The first one was a patent and now i am without a job in europe while people have some contacts relatives, or boyfriends can get position at the uni. I respect your opnion but the reality is much far away.

[@shaswatachowdhury9032]

This is true as well. And not getting a reply is the worst thing. You kind of lose the respect for the person - 100%. That's the case for me. I truly appreciate those who stays humble enough to reply back to an enthusiastic candidate.

[@teymoorsaifollahi2727]

I’m not sure if all these professors can make it through academia nowadays…

[@wahaajali1009]

I don't agree. The time in the end of phd is quite pressurizing. You can expect prospective postdoc to detailed customized letters to profs whose majority dont even reply

[@neetzmaria1]

Honestly I've written a lot of customized cover letters. I spend days on their current projects and came up with a short proposal. I've not got noticed in these labs too. I just think it's the skill that matters. Because I'm transitioning from yeast biology to translational research. But I do have skills that are transferrable. Only if someone would give me an opportunity. I worked really hard. I hope I don't have to quit and move into a desk job because research is what gets me excited.

[@larry8306]

How is your hunting going? I started finding from last Fall but no offers yet.

[@toanhien494]

there are so many concurence in life science. I wish you the best.

[@Drkiruthigabalakrishnan3533]

Have been trying for 3 years .Not getting offers

[@souryabanik]

I dont care if a Nobel laureate says it or not, a postdoc is a bogus thing to do. A postdoc is a way of getting work done cheaply by the professors.

[@shekoofe79]

Ideas are very expensive and you need to pay for it!

[@mathematics5573]

ideas are thoughts. how do they cost anything? I havea great revelation to do with biology in July. It has cost me nothing.

[@THEMrHorus]

To have ideas you spent energy. To replenish your energy you have to eat food and drink water, both costs money; you have to rest, so you need a house or a hotel room, it costs money. So, how can you say that your ideas are worthless, in terms of money?

[@mathematics5573]

maybe we should work out the Gibbs Gree energy changes of ATP synthesis, during this process of eating and drinking water and walking up hotel stairs and thinking, of all the biochemical reactions. Then you will know much ideas really cost and how much energy they use. Or maybe everyone should stop complaining about ideas costing money.

[@DarioCortese89]

"...I don't even answer those!" - That tells me that you might be brilliant and busy, but you are also rude, arrogant, and self-important, Professor Schekmnan. I wish I didn't see so much of that attitude as I do in academia.

[@DarioCortese89]

First of all, I doubt you'd receive 100 email a day. If you do a quick calculation it would mean that the world is covered in postdocs aspiring to work for you. With all due respect, it's unlikely. Secondly, if you have time to read them, it doesn't take you much longer to write. Dear X, I am sorry but I am not looking for a post-doc at the moment. Kind regards, Prof Y. Or, if you want to even be freed from reading the body of all the 100 emails, you can have an automatic reply saying that due to vast number of email that Prof. Y receives, you may not hear back from him. Apologies, etc etc. Which is still not very polite, but at least apologetic. Also, in this video , if he cared and was sorry that he can't get round to replying all, he would have said - I am really sorry for those who don't even get a reply, but I get so many emails and I have to select only a few to reply to. He said "I don't even reply to those" - in a scornful tone.

[@mathematics5573]

see my response. You can't rruin the lives of others, just because it is convieient to.

[@THEMrHorus]

It's a pitty that youtube does not have the heart icon for your answer. I loved it! I think and feel the same as you. I am currently in the search for a post-doc position and know that this happens a lot.

[@smaanan]

@@THEMrHorus Hi. How did your postdoc search go so far? Did you obtain the position you wanted? Sorry if my question seems to be inappropriate, but I'm also preparing to start my first postdoc next month, and I would like to see how other researchers are doing.

[@THEMrHorus]

@@smaanan Hi. I just did a presentation of PhD work but they still have one more presentation from another candidate to see before they can give me answer. I applied for several other positions before, but this is the first one that I think I stand a chance. Which is a position that interests me a lot. I am crossing my fingers, my hand, my arms, my legs..

[@mathematics5573]

To Randy Schekman, did you find it easy to communicate your thoughts when you were just starting out as a post doc, as you expect others to? I have come across many academics, who are terrible communicators and who are very selfabsorbed. One, finally after about 17 years of knowing him, and hearing him critisise my errors in comunications, finally admitted that he had also make mistakes in the past. I think you are being rather unfair to junior scientist, unless you can convince me that you are perfect and never make mistakes. I woulnd't believe that anyway, as there is no such person. Many scientist are introverted and struggle to communicate. The physicist, Paul Dirac, hardly spoke. Junior scientists are often shy about expressing their ideas. What got him jobs, were references, according to the Biograpy, by Graham Farmelo. Mr FW Hooton, BSc, MSc Biochemistry, MRSC, Ecology research student

[@mathematics5573]

when I said 17 years, I meant about 14 to 15 years.

[@muhammadaminkhan2249]

I think contacts and references are playing key role. However, do your work as per your capacity rest be patient and wait for your consideration

[@mukeshmaharjan9449]

It seems... all they need is a labor who can do HIS work ... where is the thought for what kind of person you are selecting for science ? In this way all you will gather is people who want to show how many publication they will have and just sit in lab, do science and do not care about what is important for this world or even his life but just pursue your mere self-centered desire...

[@mintusaren895]

Was alfred noble had post doctoral degree

[@Rockyraccoon007]

How many peoples work you will read and generate a thought process before getting a confirmation prof. Schekman? Its easier said then done.

[@mathematics5573]

Randy Schekmanm I don't know to wriite letters, to persuade lab leaders to interview me. Paper work tells you nothing. You have to meet people and talk to them. If you gave me data or a graph to analyse, I would analyse them to death.

[@muhammadaminkhan2249]

I didn't even get the professor of having what to transfer.....we know a little bit ....who takes the position

[@Salah-vg4tn]

So one should spend months reading somebody else’s work only to get a response? Huh. You must be kidding. This is rude, and I won't even want to work with a person of such an attitude.

[@ajeetsingh9134]

Still doesn't work. They only want students from their own circle of friends.

[@smaanan]

He is exaggerating, a cover letter of one page cannot contain more information than the applicant's history and few things about the lab where he is applying. At least that's what I have been doing.

[@user-uc7sl4ku7o]

seems committe has awarded most prestigious nobel prize to a wrong person who is arrogant.

[@khanslivecanada]

rude, arrogant, and self-important

[@dimaginz]

In general , he is right. The problem is that sometimes apply for a general post-doc position and not for a specific lab. Also, sometimes you have to apply for a lot of places to maximize your chances. You can do what he says to 2-3 position. But not for all of them. If you apply for a Nobel Laureate, your should definitely write a customized letter.

[@aromamit]

He is telling the truth. It may hurt, but it is hard truth even for mediocre labs... they are way too many applications for postdocs and too less positions.

[@skleroosis]

It's not arrogance (he might be arrogant, most big name scientists are, but this is not proof of it), he just probably gets a lot of these emails, and a lot of other emails, and has very little time. Therefore such letters become more like spam mail, and the thinking goes, whether a useful heuristic or not, if they have spent no time on me, why should I waste my time on them. Whether they respond back to you or not, most PIs want candidates to write something relevant to the project or lab and about their fit in the lab, so this is a good tip. And it's certainly not too much to expect from someone with a doctoral degree.

[@mathematics5573]

If i apply for a research job, and quote some of their papers,m it means I am serious about meeting them to discuss it. But i struggle to write letter and convince people. I think he isn't respecting this point of view,.

[@skleroosis]

Francis Hooton Sorry, I don't have time right now to verify, but maybe this course can help: www.coursera.org/lecture/careerdevelopment/writing-a-cover-letter-for-a-specific-job-cbzvA Unfortunately being convincing in applications (e.g. grant applications) is part of the job for a post-doc as well, so it's a valid criterion for acceptance in my opinion. But luckily it's a skill that can be improved.

[@mathematics5573]

skleroosis are you a post doc or an lab leaader? EVen Sir Paul Nurse has said that you need to meet people properly. Paper work tells you nothing. I have met many post docs with 1sts, who were great at persuading lab leaders to give them jobs, but they weren't scientists.

[@mathematics5573]

skleroosis Please stop arguing. I am not a post doc. I am a phd student, who has been very badly treated by arrogant acaemics in the past.

[@mendelian8768]

Just simple, don't do it. Your life time is not social welfare for those universities. And more smart people don't seem to go the postoc route and universities will get less good applicants.

[@Forest82Gump]

I guess he is BSing about 0.1 % of all postdoc positions, because in most of the cases the important, usually highly narcisistic and often psychopatic professors already have description of the work that the postdoc is expected to do in order to boost professors carreer, so why on Earth would the postdoc write 'I would do this or that'? if the professor (or some of his slaves) already wrote what the future postdoctoral slave is expected to do? And in that description usually a list of tasks that could be done in 5 years is sqeezed in 1.5 years. So, this old man who got nobel prise because every year some narcisistic or psychopatic maniac has to get it, should shut up. And one more thing I want to add: even worse is that it often happens that the day you show up on your work place you realize that you are not even going to do the job that you applied for. So, please give me a break.

[@hbeing3]

Harsh but true...

[@yagmurkat4077]

He sounds like a lazy person to me.

[@amirmirou8037]

So then you can claim that idea and get another noble? 🤔

[@DrDarvaishAhmed.]

He is right