Postdoc Recommendation Letters

[MiaWallace]

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Hi SDNers! I am wondering about postdoc recommendation letters. I see a lot of places request 3 letters. I imagine one is from my doctoral advisor and one is from my current internship supervisor. But who is normally the third recommendation writer? Do folks ask practicum supervisors for letters or is that viewed as inappropriate, once one is at the internship stage? I appreciate your advice and wisdom.

 

[EmotRegulation]

Are you applying for clinical postdocs or research postdocs? Because who your letters are from should be geared to the relevance of the skills needed for your desired placement.

 

[Member6677]

I used two supervisors from internship and my dissertation chair (PI).

 

[smalltownpsych]

I had a plethora of supervisors to choose from after internship. 🙂 Well, it was actually only four, but it seemed like a lot at the time. Each one could speak to different skills based on what i was doing. I could also choose to use the training director of the VA I did my last practicum at because he really liked my skills and I had a really solid training experience there. I didn't use my chair because he could be pretty flaky and the letter would end up being late the way my dissertation was. 😛 If I was applying to a place that was an adolescent inpatient unit, I might even get a letter from the supervisor I had during that practicum I did the year before that. I would think recommendations from supervisor for relevant experience has to be balanced with a supervisor of recent experience.

 

[psyched2graduate]

I applied for postdocs in November and December, so only one of my letters was from an internship supervisor. The other two were from my advisor and a practicum supervisor.

 

[PhDToBe]

For a clinical postdoc, I used someone from internship and two from grad school placements (and not my mentor as he had limited insight of my clinical skills).

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Agreed with the others in that it'll depend on the type of postdoc. For me, as I was still on my first rotation at the time of applying, I used one supervisor from internship and two from grad school (advisor and a clinical and research supervisor). Seemed to work out ok.

 

[MiaWallace]

Thank you all for your answers! Very helpful.