Finding a full-time faculty job can be a daunting challenge for doctoral graduates. University of Cincinnati anthropologist Kathleen Grogan says postdoctoral researchers can benefit from having peers review their applications.
Finding a full-time faculty job can be a daunting challenge for doctoral graduates. University of Cincinnati anthropologist Kathleen Grogan says postdoctoral researchers can benefit from having peers review their applications.
She learned this herself while working as a postdoctoral researcher. She realized that she and other postdocs routinely solicited feedback in an online messaging app dedicated to aspiring scientists.
« I was on the job market and wanted people with broad scientific expertise to look at my stuff, » said Grogan, an assistant professor in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences. « And I saw there were repeated requests on the Slack channel asking people to look at their applications, too. »
So she set up a pilot program that invited postdoctoral researchers to review each others’ job application packages. These documents include a curriculum vitae, cover letter and research, teaching and diversity statements.
She wrote about the pilot program in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Postdoctoral research is a bit like career purgatory—a weigh station between defending a doctoral dissertation and accepting that first academic faculty position.
« It’s a precarious existence and you feel it, » Grogan said. « A postdoc has to apply for new jobs almost immediately. I was very aware of my last paycheck.
