2013 Postdoc Applicants

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I think therein lies the rub. I want to call the other site (app submitted 6-7 weeks ago but deadline just passed last week) to find out if I'm even under consideration...but...I don't want to hear it if I am not! Ha.

Thanks for the helpful advice - I think I need to be more business-minded about this.
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Milk Milk Milk said:
I think therein lies the rub. I want to call the other site (app submitted 6-7 weeks ago but deadline just passed last week) to find out if I'm even under consideration...but...I don't want to hear it if I am not! Ha.

Thanks for the helpful advice - I think I need to be more business-minded about this.
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It's a different process to be sure, and not necessarily one that graduate training prepares you for directly. It stinks, but just like anything else, with time you get used to hearing it and are able to personalize being turned down a lot less. On the flip (and positive) side, this may then allow you to feel less bad about attempting to finnagle as optimal a hiring package for yourself as possible, as you'll be viewing it from a business rather than personal angle.
 
Milk Milk Milk said:
I think therein lies the rub. I want to call the other site (app submitted 6-7 weeks ago but deadline just passed last week) to find out if I'm even under consideration...but...I don't want to hear it if I am not! Ha.

Thanks for the helpful advice - I think I need to be more business-minded about this.
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You submitted your apps that far in advance?? I think you deserve a postdoc based on your timeliness. :)
 
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Milk Milk Milk said:
I think therein lies the rub. I want to call the other site (app submitted 6-7 weeks ago but deadline just passed last week) to find out if I'm even under consideration...but...I don't want to hear it if I am not! Ha.
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I'm in the same boat in terms of deadlines. I'm holding one offer, and have contacted my first choice but haven't heard back. If I don't hear something soon to indicate that my first choice is at least interested in interviewing me, I'm going to have to take the offer that I already have.

I think it's tricky for both sides - from the perspective of my top choice site, their deadline has just barely passed, so it probably seems insane that I'm already bugging them about a decision, given that they haven't done interviews. On the other hand, from my perspective, I submitted my application ages ago, so it feels like they've had plenty of time to at least skim my materials. Especially now that I'm holding an offer, I'd like to at least know if I'm in the running at my top choice, and if more time passes, I'm going to have to interpret that as a lack of interest in my application.
 
Mayo-Rochester, Adult Health/Bmed called with interview offer

Minneapolis VA, Adult Primary care/mental health integration called with interview offer
 
unlkyduck said:
Rejection email tonight, personalized.
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friend of mine got a rejection email from UCLA caps as well. This is not surprising given that they only have 2 positions and already have 4 interns. I'm sure they end up hiring their interns.
 
AcronymAllergy said:
I would agree that with the way training programs are nowadays, coupled with the requisite one-year pre-doc internship, the required year of supervised clinical practice just seems archaic at this point. Some states have obviously done away with it, so hopefully that trend will continue.

That being said, I wouldn't at all be surprised if the popularity of postdoc doesn't drop off much even if this happens, given that the board certification process seems to be picking up steam.

And yes, the postdoc interviews were infinitely more enjoyable than for internship. Not because I had any bad internship interviews, mind you (quite the opposite), but the degree of inherent pressure was reduced and the overall approach/theme of the questions was much different, as you've said.
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Care to expand on the differences between internship interviews and post doc interviews?
 
Bex223 said:
Hi all!
I'm also in the postdoc application phase, and I'm going the university counseling center route. Any other UCC folks following here? I'd love to hear others' experiences!
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Me! Good to see there is someone else out there. I have had one interview so far and just got the second round interview from the same site, so I'm super excited. :luck:

Good luck all!
 
psyunknown said:
Me! Good to see there is someone else out there. I have had one interview so far and just got the second round interview from the same site, so I'm super excited. :luck:

Good luck all!
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Congrats! :thumbup: So far, all I've gotten is an anxiety-inducing email letting me know my app is complete and being reviewed... I've got 5 postdoc apps out and a couple of jobs, as well. How many applications did you submit? I'm not sure how many apps are recommended for the UCC route.....
 
Bex223 said:
Congrats! :thumbup: So far, all I've gotten is an anxiety-inducing email letting me know my app is complete and being reviewed... I've got 5 postdoc apps out and a couple of jobs, as well. How many applications did you submit? I'm not sure how many apps are recommended for the UCC route.....
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SAME HERE, my heart skips a beat each time! C'mon UCC's start sending out interview invites!
 
psychRA said:
I'm in the same boat in terms of deadlines. I'm holding one offer, and have contacted my first choice but haven't heard back. If I don't hear something soon to indicate that my first choice is at least interested in interviewing me, I'm going to have to take the offer that I already have.

I think it's tricky for both sides - from the perspective of my top choice site, their deadline has just barely passed, so it probably seems insane that I'm already bugging them about a decision, given that they haven't done interviews. On the other hand, from my perspective, I submitted my application ages ago, so it feels like they've had plenty of time to at least skim my materials. Especially now that I'm holding an offer, I'd like to at least know if I'm in the running at my top choice, and if more time passes, I'm going to have to interpret that as a lack of interest in my application.
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In situations where people are sitting on one offer from a less preferred site, and decide to contact their first choice site and let them know. Are you informing your first choice site where you've gotten your offer?!?! I would prefer to keep this information confidential, but was wondering if they can ask about the exact site.
 
PHD12 said:
In situations where people are sitting on one offer from a less preferred site, and decide to contact their first choice site and let them know. Are you informing your first choice site where you've gotten your offer?!?! I would prefer to keep this information confidential, but was wondering if they can ask about the exact site.
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I've also been wondering about this. Do applicants ask for a certain amount of time to consider the offer or do sites typically make their offer and automatically say the applicant's response is requested in x number of days?

I'm not sure how much time we might have between getting an offer (from a less preferred site) and having to reply, and if that will allow enough time for us to contact a first choice site.
 
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Bex223 said:
Congrats! :thumbup: So far, all I've gotten is an anxiety-inducing email letting me know my app is complete and being reviewed... I've got 5 postdoc apps out and a couple of jobs, as well. How many applications did you submit? I'm not sure how many apps are recommended for the UCC route.....
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Ah yes I got one of those anxiety producing e-mails today as well "we have your application, and its under review." GAK!

Anyway, I have sent out 9 postdoc apps (a number are in a competitive city and don't feel I have much of a chance at, but I threw them out there) and I have 2 job applications out but I'm much more picky with those. From my understanding it doesn't hurt to send at as many apps as you feel like you are a fit to and see what happens, at least that is what I'm doing. We'll see how that works. :cool:
 
AcronymAllergy said:
Personally, I wouldn't be at all hesitant to call up a site I hadn't heard from yet to let them know I had an offer (assuming I hadn't just turned in the application yesterday or something similar). You just have to prepare yourself for hearing something along the lines of, "you should probably take the other offer" from the more-preferred site.
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What do you do if you contact your top site, and they're not willing to give you ANY information about where you stand? Now that it's a total free for all in terms of deadlines, I'm in that boat, and am totally unsure of what to do next. I had really hoped for a "you should probably take another offer" OR a "great, let's get you in here for an interview asap" and not having either of those things is really making this tough. I was expecting sites to follow some semblance of the old reciprocal offer protocol, but I guess that's out the window now.
 
psychRA said:
What do you do if you contact your top site, and they're not willing to give you ANY information about where you stand? Now that it's a total free for all in terms of deadlines, I'm in that boat, and am totally unsure of what to do next. I had really hoped for a "you should probably take another offer" OR a "great, let's get you in here for an interview asap" and not having either of those things is really making this tough. I was expecting sites to follow some semblance of the old reciprocal offer protocol, but I guess that's out the window now.
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If a site hasn't even finished conducting interviews, I don't know if they can provide you with an offer or with any information about where you stand.
 
PHD12 said:
If a site hasn't even finished conducting interviews, I don't know if they can provide you with an offer or with any information about where you stand.
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In my area, sites will routinely expedite scheduling an interview for an applicant in situations like this one. I'm not saying that every site will do this, but I know that if they are highly interested in an applicant based on their materials, sites can absolutely provide information and even offers if they feel inclined to do so.
 
Non-Neuro/Adult
Kaiser Oakland - Eating Disorders track
Phone call interview invite
 
I was just wondering the same thing about the Bedford VA. I havent heard from them.
 
If you accept a postdoc offer, how soon do you need to contact other sites to withdraw your application? It seems like it would be important to wait until your contract is signed, but in the meantime, it's a small world, and other sites might find out/get annoyed that they weren't notified.
 
psychRA said:
If you accept a postdoc offer, how soon do you need to contact other sites to withdraw your application? It seems like it would be important to wait until your contract is signed, but in the meantime, it's a small world, and other sites might find out/get annoyed that they weren't notified.
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Can you ask the site to send you the offer via mail this week or at least get an offer via email that lists your position, start date, salary with an electronic signature? I would personally notify sites as soon as I got the offer on paper. I'd be too anxious to notify sites before.
 
psychRA said:
If you accept a postdoc offer, how soon do you need to contact other sites to withdraw your application? It seems like it would be important to wait until your contract is signed, but in the meantime, it's a small world, and other sites might find out/get annoyed that they weren't notified.
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I waited until I signed my contract, which arrived pretty soon after my informal acceptance over the phone. It's better safe than sorry and an extra couple of days shouldn't be a big deal.
 
Just because things seem slow on here for the non-neuro positions, I've been asking other interns what interviews they have gotten (so I can post them for everyone's benefit). I heard from one intern that she is interviewing for two positions at Brown Clinical Psychology Training Consortium, particularly for two positions at the Providence VA.
 
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Also: heard from another intern that he received a rejection email from the non-neuro postdoc at the Washington DC VA yesterday. :(
 
Phone call for phone interview invite
 
Just heard from the Minneapolis VA (non-neuro, trauma emphasis). Mass rejection email.
 
Does anyone know how many interviews on average that VAs give out for postdocs? I'm sure it depends on how big the VA is but just wondering.
 
I thought I'd share what I've heard so far in case it's helpful to others. All are non-neuro.

Interview invites from:
West Haven VA - phone call back in Dec
Central Arkansas VA- email 12/31
Durham VA- email 1/15
Minneapolis VA- Phone call on Tuesday 1/22

anxiously waiting on some hospitals and a med schools...
 
Well, today was personally productive. I jumped from 2 to 5 interviews. Wishing others similiar success soon!
 
nicoleh13 said:
Does anyone know how many interviews on average that VAs give out for postdocs? I'm sure it depends on how big the VA is but just wondering.
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You might be able to find some of this info on APPIC. But I've already heard a few sites state that they have received a "record number this year." Oy.:cool:
 
For those of you posting VA positions, I'm hoping you wouldn't mind also indicating if an interview (or rejection) you received was for a clinical postdoc or research postdoc (e.g. MIRECC, NCPTSD, etc.) Some of them have different deadlines and, I assume, different dates of notification.
 
Interview offer from Mary Free Bed (adult neuro, INS) via personalized email today :)
 
Milk Milk Milk said:
Well, today was personally productive. I jumped from 2 to 5 interviews. Wishing others similiar success soon!
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Nice!

I have a handful of interviews as well. I went on a few already. I'm waiting to hear from a couple of sites that have yet to give out notices...keep them coming

Good luck everyone. We've come this far and are almost done!!!
 
I have friends who have gotten non-neuro child/peds postdoc interviews for Columbia University Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
 
Definitely got asked to name every single site I was applying to / interviewing at the other day at an interview. That was a bit awkward.
 
anonyrat said:
Definitely got asked to name every single site I was applying to / interviewing at the other day at an interview. That was a bit awkward.
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I think I know where you're talking about, and it was super awkward. :eek:
 
anonyrat said:
Definitely got asked to name every single site I was applying to / interviewing at the other day at an interview. That was a bit awkward.
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Yeah, I can see how that'd be awkward, although I suppose it makes sense at the postdoc level...a way of attempting to gauge how serious you are about the specialty area perhaps.

My interviewers never actually asked me; they'd simply mention nearby neuro-heavy sites and say something like, "I don't know if you applied there, but just in case, here's why we're better..."
 
HomeworkHelper said:
For those of you posting VA positions, I'm hoping you wouldn't mind also indicating if an interview (or rejection) you received was for a clinical postdoc or research postdoc (e.g. MIRECC, NCPTSD, etc.) Some of them have different deadlines and, I assume, different dates of notification.
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It is pretty frustrating that research slots seem to have totally separate timelines from the clinical slots housed in the same VA facilities.

Someone from my grad program was really interested in one of the NCPTSD postdocs (West coast location ;)) and ended up interviewing there either last year or the year before (not sure which), but the whole process was so disorganized and slow that by the time they got around to making offers, it was so late in the year that all of their interviewees had had no choice but to accept other offers. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't know this person well and my information is thirdhand, but according to our DCT, the position actually went unfilled that year because the site didn't seem to have their act together.

It's really unfortunate that the whole process isn't more centralized/streamlined.
 
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Hey everyone!

I saw on the first page that someone received an invite to interview from University of Rochester CC. I received an email a few weeks ago saying I would receive word of the "next steps in the process.." in Feb. Could anyone let me know when they heard back and how? Should I email the TD and inquire about the status of my app?

Good luck!
 
Pavlov81 said:
It is pretty frustrating that research slots seem to have totally separate timelines from the clinical slots housed in the same VA facilities.

Someone from my grad program was really interested in one of the NCPTSD postdocs (West coast location ;)) and ended up interviewing there either last year or the year before (not sure which), but the whole process was so disorganized and slow that by the time they got around to making offers, it was so late in the year that all of their interviewees had had no choice but to accept other offers. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't know this person well and my information is thirdhand, but according to our DCT, the position actually went unfilled that year because the site didn't seem to have their act together.

It's really unfortunate that the whole process isn't more centralized/streamlined.
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Thanks for letting me know what you know. I applied to mostly VA research postdocs, and I have only heard from one site so far. Keeping my fingers crossed I will hear from more soon!
 
ohnoitsC said:
I thought I'd share what I've heard so far in case it's helpful to others. All are non-neuro.

Interview invites from:
West Haven VA - phone call back in Dec
Central Arkansas VA- email 12/31
Durham VA- email 1/15
Minneapolis VA- Phone call on Tuesday 1/22

anxiously waiting on some hospitals and a med schools...
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How did someone hear from the West Haven VA in December when Apps weren't due until 1/1?
 
Applied to (Non Neuro):

Bedford VA
Boston VA (Geropsych)
West Haven VA
Stratton VA
Albany Medical Center

Haven't heard from anyone yet and anxiously waiting! Please let me know if you've heard from any!
 
PostDocApp said:
How did someone hear from the West Haven VA in December when Apps weren't due until 1/1?
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I don't know about this site specifically, but it's my understanding that postdocs tend to be more "rolling" in extending their invites. Apply early, apply often ;)
 
I received an interview via email for the JRI trauma center in Boston. (Child Non-Neuro Position)
 
cervello said:
I don't know about this site specifically, but it's my understanding that postdocs tend to be more "rolling" in extending their invites. Apply early, apply often ;)
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Right - apps due 1/1. I know someone who had West Haven VA app submitted by Thanksgiving.
 
PostDocApp said:
How did someone hear from the West Haven VA in December when Apps weren't due until 1/1?
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Rolling interviews. I got a call on 12/26. They mentioned that they would be interviewing through January. It was the PSR track, others might be different.
 
ohnoitsC said:
Rolling interviews. I got a call on 12/26. They mentioned that they would be interviewing through January. It was the PSR track, others might be different.
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Has anyone gotten an invite from the West Haven health psych track? All I received was a "we received your application and it is under review" e-mail on Dec. 28th...
 
PostDocApp said:
Applied to (Non Neuro):

Bedford VA
Boston VA (Geropsych)
West Haven VA
Stratton VA
Albany Medical Center

Haven't heard from anyone yet and anxiously waiting! Please let me know if you've heard from any!
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I also applied to Bedford VA, Boston VA (PTSD track) and West Haven VA and haven't heard anything.
 
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