Interdisciplinary Work

[PsychResearch]

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Hi!

I would like to seek some of your thoughts on my situation.

I am in contact with a researcher who is willing to hire me for a postdoc for 2 years with the possibility of a third. He offers many incentives and I'm inclined to accepting the position. My only hold is that he is a doctor in Education not Psychology. He does intervention work in schools and will provide me with the context to develop my own developmental study while working on his grant.

How much of a difference does it make later on when I apply for faculty positions that my postdoc mentor has a degree in Education? I should also say that the co-PI has a degree in both Education and Psychology and I'll be collaborating with her, too. They tend to publish in Education journal though past trainees also published in Developmental Psych journals, which is the types of journals I am aiming for. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Ollie123]

If you are concerned about getting licensed, you should make sure there will be a way to finangle that within this setup.

Otherwise, it sounds good. I can't answer on the consequences of working with someone whose degree is in education...I'd think the work you do would matter more than the degree, but it also depends what your end goal is. Perhaps this could open up jobs in education departments for you. Interdisciplinary work is all the rage these days so that isn't necessarily bad, unless it pushes your career in a direction you don't want to go.

 

[PsychResearch]

I'm not really sure if it pushes me in a direction I don't want to go. The content of the work is not exactly what I want to do -- he does work on aggression whereas I'm interested in anxiety and depression. When it comes to methods and theoretical orientation, he is more holistic/person-centered in approach than the individual-oriented approach I am used to. My degree is in Developmental Psych. and my research background is in intervention research. I want to be able to move into Developmental Psych. when it comes to the actual research. Thus far, I have only been exposed to developmental theories through my coursework. I see a gap between clinical and developmental research with respect to the content area I want to pursue. He will offer me the context for developmental work although his work is still on interventions. I don't see myself doing interventions in my career, but I do see myself working on research that tries to understand developmental processes that lead one toward or away from disorders. His collaborator is an associate editor for a developmental journal, so I'm thinking it's a good sign (i.e., they do developmental work).

 

[PsychResearch]

Anyone else has any thoughts on this? I really don't know what to do..If I don't take this one, I'll have to wait until the Spring to apply for other positions.

 

[roubs]

Anyone else has any thoughts on this? I really don't know what to do..If I don't take this one, I'll have to wait until the Spring to apply for other positions.

I had the same concern as Ollie and from your reply It isn't clear to me whether you are pursuing licensure. Are you? If so won't you need a supervisor who is a licensed psychologist?

 

[PsychResearch]

My degree is in Developmental Psych. My university has a program in Mental Health Counseling and I've taken all the courses (60 credits) from that program in parallel with the Developmental coursework. I've done this thinking that one day I may want to apply for licensure (though again, the counseling program is just that, not a clinical or APA accredited). I also accumulated 1500 hours of practicum and internship on my advisor's clinical trial grant. I've done the counseling classes and logged the hours as a back up though getting the license is not my priority. Logging in the hours made sense because I was getting paid on the grant and seeing families anyways.

I want to go into research full-time and aim for a faculty position in Psychology. I'm sort of stressed out because I contacted this person letting him know that I am looking for a postdoc. He offered me a position though I'm not sure about the consequences of working with someone from Education.

In the meantime, I've heard from another PI I applied to work with. This one can't offer me a postdoc because I don't have some specific experience required. He nevertheless offered to write a book chapter with him and encouraged me to apply for postdocs that will become available at his university in the Spring. If I don't take the first one, it will be a risk with the second since there is no guarantee I'll get in.

 

[Pragma]

My degree is in Developmental Psych. My university has a program in Mental Health Counseling and I've taken all the courses (60 credits) from that program in parallel with the Developmental coursework. I've done this thinking that one day I may want to apply for licensure (though again, the counseling program is just that, not a clinical or APA accredited). I also accumulated 1500 hours of practicum and internship on my advisor's clinical trial grant. I've done the counseling classes and logged the hours as a back up though getting the license is not my priority. Logging in the hours made sense because I was getting paid on the grant and seeing families anyways.

I am not sure how it works for mental health counseling, but I can tell you that a number of states do require both and internship year and a postdoc year. Practicum doesn't mean anything for licensure, really. For a state that only requires the internship year, I am not certain if the hours you will accumulated will count. Also, there are some limits for when hours are completed, which also varies by state. I am not sure if your existing hours will "expire" at any time.

 

[PsychResearch]

I'm really not interested in getting my license. My priority is research. I don't see myself doing counseling if there is a way to continue doing research.

 

[PsychResearch]

My advisor says she disagrees about education being a problem...Now I'm worried because the postdoc professor e-mailed me on Friday and I only responded to him yesterday b/c I was not sure what I want to do. Now my advisor says she hopes I did not lose the offer..Is Friday-Monday such an awful wait period to give a response? He esentially was saying that he hopes I'm still interested and described the steps that would need to happen before they give me an offer in writing. I hope I didn't mess up.

 

[Ollie123]

If you aren't that interested in a license, I would take it. This could very well open doors for you, especially if you would be open to working in an education department. I don't fully understand your timeline, but if you got an offer Friday and replied Monday (and it wasn't to say "No") I'm not sure why the offer would have been given away already.

 

[PsychResearch]

I got this offer through my own networking, so it is essentially an informal postdoc. I don't know if it matters, but I wanted to say it. I esentially contacted him and he is open to offer me a position though he needs to open one. He says he doesn't see any barriers to me joining the team. He asked me to let me know if I am still interested. This was on Friday. Last week I had my dissertation defense. After I sent the e-mail to state that I am still interested (on Monday), I received a response from the Co-PI who works with him. The Co-PI congratulated me on the defense and said she is looking forward to working with me. No word from the PI though.

 

[PsychResearch]

Unfortunately, still no word from the professor who was open to offer me a postdoc. I e-mailed them on Monday that I am interested, but I haven't heard any confirmation of my e-mail or anything. I'm thinking to send a follow-up e-mail to reaffirm my interest though I hope not to bother him or anything. I don't know what to make of it. He cc'ed the Co-PI who answered me in private and said she is looking forward to working with me. I don't know if her e-mail stands as a confirmation from the PI, as well, because he was not cc'ed. So, I really don't know. I realize that other people on the forum deal with a lot more stressful circumstances, but I wanted to write again in hopes that someone would offer an opinion about my situation and what you would do if you were in my shoes.