Postdoc Support Thread

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neurotic_cow said:
I feel this! I had initially made a countdown of days, but that made it worse lol... I'm just trying to take it one day at a time.
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Counting down does make it worse. Something I did in the past is give myself pleasures to look forward to during the day, like I used to walk to this fantastic taco place for lunch most days. Obviously didn't solve it, but made it slightly more bearable.
 
R. Matey said:
Counting down does make it worse. Something I did in the past is give myself pleasures to look forward to during the day, like I used to walk to this fantastic taco place for lunch most days. Obviously didn't solve it, but made it slightly more bearable.
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That sounds awesome! I used to look forward to my daily energy drink after the morning patient but I've been working on cutting out caffeine so I don't give myself a stroke or heart attack, so I gotta find something else to look forward to....
 
neurotic_cow said:
That sounds awesome! I used to look forward to my daily energy drink after the morning patient but I've been working on cutting out caffeine so I don't give myself a stroke or heart attack, so I gotta find something else to look forward to....
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If you like tea or sparking water, I have recommendations.
 
I am a little opposite. I love my postdoc and wish I could stay on, but there is someone else coming to replace my spot 🥲 I’m going to be sadly looking into the windows as it rains haha

I have a different gripe- job searching! Applying and then they never get back to you or it’s two months for them to look at applications.
 
R. Matey said:
If you like tea or sparking water, I have recommendations.
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OO yes! I've been drinking these peach flavored Steaz teas because they have a tad of caffeine and aren't overly sweet or loaded with calories, but still have some flavor other than tea because I apparently have the tastebuds of a 5 year old. I've tried so many times to be a tea or coffee drinker and my tastebuds just won't cooperate! I love me some sparkling water though.
 
bluecolourskies said:
I am a little opposite. I love my postdoc and wish I could stay on, but there is someone else coming to replace my spot 🥲 I’m going to be sadly looking into the windows as it rains haha

I have a different gripe- job searching! Applying and then they never get back to you or it’s two months for them to look at applications.
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Yay!! We love to hear it!! Make sure you put on some sad songs while you look out into the rain!

Oh noooo job searching can be so annoying! The waiting is painful. Even after finally getting interviews, I had some places where I waited MONTHS to hear about next steps. I literally just heard from one that I interviewed for in January. I just assumed I was out of the running but apparently not?? Hang in there!! Something will work out 🙂
 
neurotic_cow said:
Yay!! We love to hear it!! Make sure you put on some sad songs while you look out into the rain!

Oh noooo job searching can be so annoying! The waiting is painful. Even after finally getting interviews, I had some places where I waited MONTHS to hear about next steps. I literally just heard from one that I interviewed for in January. I just assumed I was out of the running but apparently not?? Hang in there!! Something will work out 🙂
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Yeah, some places are not set up well. I thought I was ghosted after 2 rounds for a non-clinical industry job, only to get a call 3 months later (I had sent emails/voicemails to the admin contact person with no response in the meantime) saying that I was invited to headquarters to give a job talk to execs as the last step. At that point I already accepted an offer somewhere else.
 
neurotic_cow said:
OO yes! I've been drinking these peach flavored Steaz teas because they have a tad of caffeine and aren't overly sweet or loaded with calories, but still have some flavor other than tea because I apparently have the tastebuds of a 5 year old. I've tried so many times to be a tea or coffee drinker and my tastebuds just won't cooperate! I love me some sparkling water though.
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Good choices all around, Good Earth's Sweet and Spicy is basically drinking a cinnamon roll though I think there's a bit of caffeine in it. I want to say there's a caffeine free version though.
 
I'm on a research postdoc and overall it's been really great. I went hard early (already hit some of the program's 2nd year goals) and for the last 2ish months took a step back and worked at a slower pace. I'm still producing and my mentor's happy with me, but I felt like I wasn't doing enough (lingering from grad school beliefs). I met with my mentor in person for the first time in months yesterday and it was one of the best things for me. He's a great guy and I enjoy his professional development talks, so it was great to chat and have some impromptu discussions. I feel like that was the exact thing I needed.
 
This thread reinforces my decision to back out of the postdoc site that I matched at for the 2022-2023 training year. I am so upset that this site even offered me the position to begin with.
 
It seems that many postdocs make you work like nobody’s business and then haze you on top of that?
 
PsychedOut2291 said:
It seems that many postdocs make you work like nobody’s business and then haze you on top of that?
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I don't know how common it is, and I wouldn't say that this thread creates a lot of evidence that what you described is rampant. By nature, this is a postdoc support thread so that we can vent and support each other, so of course it's going to attract people who may be having some problems. But unfortunately it does happen sometimes, and that was my experience. I know many people who have absolutely loved their postdoc. All training is just such a different experience for everyone at every level.

I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out with your postdoc! I hope you find one next year that is a better fit for you!
 
PsychedOut2291 said:
It seems that many postdocs make you work like nobody’s business and then haze you on top of that?
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May be more prevalent in PP postdocs. My experience, and a lot of friends/colleagues, who went through the VA had a different experience. A lot of time set aside for didactics and adjunct experiences. I rarely felt overworked on postdoc. That's pretty similar to friends who did VA postdocs elsewhere as well.
 
WisNeuro said:
May be more prevalent in PP postdocs. My experience, and a lot of friends/colleagues, who went through the VA had a different experience. A lot of time set aside for didactics and adjunct experiences. I rarely felt overworked on postdoc. That's pretty similar to friends who did VA postdocs elsewhere as well.
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I am reneging on the postdoc agreement. I don’t want to be a glorified workhorse. I’m actually upset that the site even offered me the position. I never even wanted it to begin with.
 
PsychedOut2291 said:
I am reneging on the postdoc agreement. I don’t want to be a glorified workhorse. I’m actually upset that the site even offered me the position. I never even wanted it to begin with.
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At the risk of rehashing what is already on your other thread I can't stop myself from reminding you that: You ranked them! and were thus matched with them!
 
The people I work with are lovely. The role of postdoc is just hard. I know I will miss having so many eyes on my work one day, but I'm ready to settle into a simpler routine. I have between 4-5 supervisors at a time who all evaluate different things. I've been doing this process for years, and I'm just worn out. My supervisors have never treated me like a workhorse. The only equivalent coming to mind is loving my parents, but wanting to move into my own place.
 
neurotic_cow said:
Since this was mentioned in a previous thread, I thought I'd start a postdoc support thread! Open to any psych postdoc!
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Thank you for starting this thread. I'm a current postdoc who is two months away from starting my first non-trainee position. I am eagerly anticipating being compensated appropriately and am transitioning from full-time research to full-time clinical.
 
PsychedOut2291 said:
This thread reinforces my decision to back out of the postdoc site that I matched at for the 2022-2023 training year. I am so upset that this site even offered me the position to begin with.
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Not the point of the thread. Sure postdoc can be hard, but it doesn't mean it's not worth doing at all.
 
SomeGreatNotion said:
Thank you for starting this thread. I'm a current postdoc who is two months away from starting my first non-trainee position. I am eagerly anticipating being compensated appropriately and am transitioning from full-time research to full-time clinical.
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What made you shift to 100% clinical after postdoc? Happy to discuss individually if you want.
 
SomeGreatNotion said:
Thank you for starting this thread. I'm a current postdoc who is two months away from starting my first non-trainee position. I am eagerly anticipating being compensated appropriately and am transitioning from full-time research to full-time clinical.
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I'm also definitely looking forward to being compensated appropriately and having more control over my schedule! Can't wait to be done with being a trainee and having to grit my teeth and smile when I'm told I need to see 2x the number of patients as my supervisor because "that's how postdoc works"
 
neurotic_cow said:
I'm also definitely looking forward to being compensated appropriately and having more control over my schedule! Can't wait to be done with being a trainee and having to grit my teeth and smile when I'm told I need to see 2x the number of patients as my supervisor because "that's how postdoc works"
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2x the number? Is that even legal?
 
PsychedOut2291 said:
2x the number? Is that even legal?
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Really depends on how the clinic is setup and the duties of the supervisor. If they have an admin role that is .5 FTE+, then this is a purely reasonable situation. We also may be talking about brief inpt evals vs longer outpt evals. Devil is in the details.
 
hopefulclinicalpsych said:
What made you shift to 100% clinical after postdoc? Happy to discuss individually if you want.
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My current postdoc made me an offer for a clinical (25%)/research (75%) position. I determined that there wasn't enough institutional supports for me to be successful in leveraging grant funding in the future. I figured that I would have to work my butt off (nights and weekends) to be successful on the research side. It wasn't worth it for my quality of life. Additionally, I've come to the realization my AMC also uses split time/hybrid positions to get one person to take on responsibilities for two jobs.

On the flip-side, I found a clinical position (group practice) that compensated more and had comparable benefits. The group practice is owned by and fully-staffed by psychologists. They understand the role of psychologists in a way that the AMC did not.

EDIT: I'll also add that the current postdoc setting was willing to offer me 100% research gig but the salary was laughably low. The 25% clinical time was the only way they could justify a higher salary (which ended up being 92k).
 
SomeGreatNotion said:
Additionally, I've come to the realization my AMC also uses split time/hybrid positions to get one person to take on responsibilities for two jobs.
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Very true - some split research/clinical gigs are ideal and others, not so much to potentially nightmare-ish. Good luck with the full clinical gig!
 
SomeGreatNotion said:
My current postdoc made me an offer for a clinical (25%)/research (75%) position. I determined that there wasn't enough institutional supports for me to be successful in leveraging grant funding in the future. I figured that I would have to work my butt off (nights and weekends) to be successful on the research side. It wasn't worth it for my quality of life. Additionally, I've come to the realization my AMC also uses split time/hybrid positions to get one person to take on responsibilities for two jobs.

On the flip-side, I found a clinical position (group practice) that compensated more and had comparable benefits. The group practice is owned by and fully-staffed by psychologists. They understand the role of psychologists in a way that the AMC did not.

EDIT: I'll also add that the current postdoc setting was willing to offer me 100% research gig but the salary was laughably low. The 25% clinical time was the only way they could justify a higher salary (which ended up being 92k).
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Thanks for replying! Makes a lot of sense. Congratulations and good luck on the clinical gig! And also being a rockstar that they wanted to keep you so much. 👍🏻
 
T-minus 5 weeks until I'm done with postdoc. My sup had initially said I wouldn't see any patients in the last two weeks to finalize all reports and all that jazz but has now changed their mind and says I'll be seeing patients up until my last day. Joy.

Also getting really annoyed with the nit-picky edits on my reports. Rarely any changes for the clinical aspects of my reports. For example, my sup insists on using the patient's name for the first sentence in every new paragraph vs. pronouns. I don't care about it and don't think it makes a difference, so when I write I don't even pay attention to it, but my sup left comments on my last report where I made this "error" saying "it's almost like it's intentional that you do this." While I am nervous about operating on my own I'm really looking forward to not having to deal with this.
 
neurotic_cow said:
Also getting really annoyed with the nit-picky edits on my reports. Rarely any changes for the clinical aspects of my reports. For example, my sup insists on using the patient's name for the first sentence in every new paragraph vs. pronouns. I don't care about it and don't think it makes a difference, so when I write I don't even pay attention to it, but my sup left comments on my last report where I made this "error" saying "it's almost like it's intentional that you do this." While I am nervous about operating on my own I'm really looking forward to not having to deal with this.
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Idiosyncratic writing critiques are SO annoying since they vary so widely between settings--it always felt like petty tyranny to me.
 
If you don’t have a lot of neuronpsychology experience during grad school can you still get a neuronpsychology postdoctoral fellowship experience that is not at a private practice?
 
smalltownpsych said:
I'm confused. What is neuronpsychology? I would think there is a lot more bio-chemistry involved in understanding neurons than there is psychology. I envision a meme with a neuron laying on a couch.
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Probably involves a lot of exploration about their potential...
 
newlyneuro said:
I’m just trying to get an understanding I'm sorry for the typo…
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Just having a little fun with puns. Actually very glad to see new students in training getting info and guidance as they figure out what they want to do in this very broad field. It shows a willingness to learn which is important. I am still trying to figure it out myself and I have been licensed since 2009. Damn that was a long time ago. Keep getting older by the minute. 😎
 
R. Matey said:
Idiosyncratic writing critiques are SO annoying since they vary so widely between settings--it always felt like petty tyranny to me.
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One of the times that I've most respected a supervisor is when they clarified between which of their edits were idiosyncratic writing feedback and which were actually substantial clinical feedback. Ironically came from the most self-unaware supervisors I've ever had...
 
I have beefed up the self-care, scaled back my client load, and been very intentional about protecting my energy. I still feel like I'm barely making it through the week. I have a therapist too. I think the last step is just to accept that finishing is hard, and it's okay that it's hard.
 
Finishing up postdoc the end of next week. Been freaking out the past few days, vacillating between being really sad to leave, anxious I made a mistake picking the job I did, worrying about moving, etc. It's been rough. I'm honestly surprised to be really sad to be done and leave, considering that I haven't exactly had the best experience here, is this Stockholm syndrome? lol kidding. I think it's probably at least partially related to the fear of operating on my own without a safety net (aka supervisor reading over all of my work, there to back me up with patients, etc). Hope everyone else is hanging in there!!
 
neurotic_cow said:
Finishing up postdoc the end of next week. Been freaking out the past few days, vacillating between being really sad to leave, anxious I made a mistake picking the job I did, worrying about moving, etc. It's been rough. I'm honestly surprised to be really sad to be done and leave, considering that I haven't exactly had the best experience here, is this Stockholm syndrome? lol kidding. I think it's probably at least partially related to the fear of operating on my own without a safety net (aka supervisor reading over all of my work, there to back me up with patients, etc). Hope everyone else is hanging in there!!
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Flip side of not having the safety net is not having a supervisor read all over your work or there to second guess your work with patients. Congrats on finishing your postdoc. I am sure that you are ready. 😊
 
neurotic_cow said:
Finishing up postdoc the end of next week. Been freaking out the past few days, vacillating between being really sad to leave, anxious I made a mistake picking the job I did, worrying about moving, etc. It's been rough. I'm honestly surprised to be really sad to be done and leave, considering that I haven't exactly had the best experience here, is this Stockholm syndrome? lol kidding. I think it's probably at least partially related to the fear of operating on my own without a safety net (aka supervisor reading over all of my work, there to back me up with patients, etc). Hope everyone else is hanging in there!!
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I finish up in about a month and will be staying at the same site, just shifting to a different part of the hospital. Although I am SO ready to not have a supervisor reviewing my notes, I am moving to a position where I will be the only psychologist on the team and am anxious about needing to be more intentional in seeking consultation that was previously available through supervision. I do have the occasional imposter syndrome type thoughts of "do I REALLY know what I'm doing?" But at this stage, I'm able to just ignore them and move on.
 
Dr_Bee said:
I finish up in about a month and will be staying at the same site, just shifting to a different part of the hospital. Although I am SO ready to not have a supervisor reviewing my notes, I am moving to a position where I will be the only psychologist on the team and am anxious about needing to be more intentional in seeking consultation that was previously available through supervision. I do have the occasional imposter syndrome type thoughts of "do I REALLY know what I'm doing?" But at this stage, I'm able to just ignore them and move on.
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I agree, regular consultation is of great benefit for a number of reasons and part of why I didn’t like solo practice because it was harder to get that.
 
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