How Many Postdoc Apps is Too Many Postdoc Apps?

[bigdreamer3]

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So internship requires 15+...but what is the norm for postdocs? I had someone tell me that 10 was way too many. Thoughts? Advice?

 

[AbnormalPsych]

Really depends on quite a few variables, including your area (e.g., neuro vs. pri-care; clinical vs. research), type of site (e.g., VA vs private prac), and geographical area. Without any other info, I think 10 is too many.

From what I recall, when I went through this most of my colleagues were between 5-8.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

Might be different now, but when I was interviewing for fellowships it definitely felt like more of a buyer's market. I applied to 5 and got interviews at all 5, with multiple offers from a few sites (that was weird for me since the year before it was the height of the internship scare). That being said, 10 seems a bit high.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

It seems very person specific. I picked 8 and got 8 interviews for neuro fellowships. I ended up doing two interviews and accepting an offer outside of the match. This too was during the internship crisis and back before tou could talk with your match sites about an outside offer, so I felt very very stressed but fortunate. It’s been nearly a decade, but if you are a good to solid candidate it seems to typically lean towards a buyer’s market.

 

[WisNeuro]

I was 7/7 in neuro postdocs. I was all in the match. Kind of depends, some areas are slightly more competitive, but it also depends on how competitive you are as an applicant. If I thought my CV was average or below, I would have applied to more.

 

[Harry3990]

Just to throw in a differing sample: I have also seen/heard similar numbers as listed above. However, I've also known a couple of people who applied to 15-20 VA sites and got interviews at only 3-4 and offers at 1-2. Really depends on how flexible you want to be with geographic/program restriction, but I don't really see much of a downside to leaning on the side of applying to more so as to give yourself more options.

 

[123EW]

The main difference for me was that each referral had to write a separate letter for each application. Because I applied to specialty post docs, each letter had to be different. That is a lot to ask of a letter writer.

 

[foreverbull]

Dreading post-doc apps

Scour this thread. I like to remind folks that location saturation/competition & connections are important factors when considering how many applications to submit for postdoc.

 

[psydstudent2020]

Is the process of applying to post-doc similar to internship? Are there fees to apply? Are you expected to attend in-person interviews? How do people afford this when they're at a site that pays 20k or less...

 

[foreverbull]

Is the process of applying to post-doc similar to internship? Are there fees to apply? Are you expected to attend in-person interviews? How do people afford this when they're at a site that pays 20k or less...

It is similar. You submit your applications, wait to hear back about interviews, and depending on the site, can be Skype, phone, or in person. I had mostly Skype interviews and one in-person interview for postdoc, and the for the in-person interview, they reimbursed some of my travel expenses up to a certain amount, although not all sites will do that.

No fees to apply UNLESS you apply via APPIC, then yes, each app has a fee. I didn't go through APPIC's system.

I found that some postdoc sites varied in their protocol, communication, and timeline for responding after applications, but generally 2-4 weeks seemed to be the response time after applying. If a site doesn't get back to you at all, it should be a red flag to everyone interested in that site that the site doesn't have the decency to make even minimal effort to communicate to folks who spend several hours putting in work to apply. One site in particular is on that black list for me: I contacted the site after 3-4 weeks of nothing, and got a terse response that said basically "you should've assumed you were rejected after you didn't hear anything." I think this is pretty rare, but it happened.