What to do Once Internship is Through:
Finding the Post-Doc that's Best for You

George M. Slavich, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco

The Clinical Psychologist

Post-Doc vs. No Post-Doc: That is the (First) Question
The first question is whether you should consider a post-doc at all. If recent trends provide any indication, then the answer could well be yes: Approximately 50% of graduates recently surveyed were either currently completing or had just completed postdoctoral training, compared to only 10% of those surveyed in 1985 (Wicherski & Kohout, 2007). More striking, however, is how this percentage breaks down by subfield. For example, 88.9% of recent graduates in biological psychology pursued postdoctoral training versus 70.2% in the neurosciences, 57.1% in clinical neuropsychology, 45.2% in experimental psychology, 40.0% in cognitive psychology, and 26.9% in clinical psychology (Wicherski & Kohout, 2007). Thus, your decision to complete a postdoctoral fellowship (e.g., instead of going on the job market) may be informed best by your need for additional specialized training given your subfield of study.

Postdoctoral Positions in Clinical Service versus Research
Within clinical psychology, the need for additional training pertains both to individuals seeking a career in clinical service as well as to those seeking a career in research. For individuals interested in clinical service, additional training can provide the supervised post-doctoral clinical hours that are required in order to be able to sit for the licensing exam. This training experience can also provide the time needed to develop a secondary specialization. If you are primarily interested in research, in contrast, additional training can help you extend your expertise in your primary field of study, expand your expertise to a secondary subfield of study, or allow you to write-up your dissertation or additional papers that might make you more competitive on the job market. Some postdoctoral appointments involve both clinical work and research, but the majority do not and instead have one primary focus, allowing little time, if any, for the other activity. Therefore, the type of postdoctoral position you choose will put you on a firm track for that type of job and make it more difficult, although certainly not impossible, to be highly competitive for the other type of job.

Postdoctoral Positions in Clinical Service
Length of appointment may be an important factor when choosing a postdoctoral position in clinical service. The average duration of these positions is 13 months, with 69% lasting one year and 10% lasting two years (Wicherski & Kohout, 2007). Postdoctoral fellowships in clinical service are divided most notably with respect to whether they are child or adult focused, but other factors are also important. When searching for the ideal postdoctoral experience in clinical service, you should ask about how long you will likely spend performing various clinical duties, including assessments, consultations, insurance reviews, report writing, supervision, and face-to-face individual, family, group, and milieu interventions. Postdoctoral fellows working in a hospital setting may also have the opportunity to instruct psychiatry residents, which may be attractive if you need to strengthen your teaching resume. Finally, when searching for your ideal position, you should ask about the levels of care within which you will likely work. The major levels of care are outpatient, partial hospital, residential, and inpatient, and it is best to have experience with all four.

Postdoctoral Positions in Research
Whereas the majority of postdoctoral fellowships in clinical service take place in a hospital or clinic, fellowships in research can occur in a variety of settings that include departments of psychology, medical schools, and research institutes. The average length of a postdoctoral appointment in research is 23 months, with 54% lasting at least two years and 20% lasting longer than two years (Wicherski & Kohout, 2007). To find your ideal postdoctoral training experience in research, you should first consider how learning an additional methodology (e.g., psychophysiology, fMRI, ERP), studying a second population (e.g., children, adults, older adults), or mastering another design (e.g., epidemiological, cross sectional, experimental) would help you advance your program of research. The goal, then, is to locate an investigator who can provide you with the type of training that you desire.

Once you have located a potential mentor, it is useful to consider the amount of independence that you will have in your appointment. In the most restrictive type of arrangement, postdoctoral fellows work largely as project managers who carry out studies on behalf of their mentor. More independent than this arrangement type are those in which postdoctoral fellows work as independent investigators within their mentor’s lab, collaborating with him or her on some studies, but primarily pursuing their own line of research. Lastly is the most independent of arrangements, in which fellows are hired as independent investigators within a particular research program or center. This type of appointment characterizes postdoctoral fellows who are hired onto National Institute of Mental Health training grants, which require only that a fellow pursues research on a particular topic (e.g., stress, depression, and disease). Amount of flexibility is often tied to the source and purpose of the funding, so if you want to know how much leeway you will have in your appointment, try identifying whether the money is earmarked for a particular study, for you as an investigator, or for a larger program of research.

Final Considerations
The decision to complete a postdoctoral position inevitability involves the practicalities of life, so before you sign on the dotted line, know that you will not get rich completing a post-doc. The median annual salary for postdoctoral fellows in 2005 was $24,000 for those in clinical service positions that were paid for by client funds, $25,992 for those in clinical service positions that were paid by other funds, and $36,000 for those in research positions (Wicherski & Kohout, 2007). Compare that with what you would earn if you entered the job market: about $60,000 per year if you land a research position and $63,555 per year if you land a clinical service position (Wicherski & Kohout, 2007). Thus, a final consideration involves examining the trade-off of making more money now versus gaining additional training so that you will be more competitive later.

References
Wicherski, M., & Kohout, J. (2007, November). 2005 Doctorate Employment Survey. Retrieved December 30, 2007, from the American Psychological Association Web site: http://research.apa.org/des05.html#postdoctoral

George M. Slavich, Ph.D. :: Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
UCLA Medical Center Plaza 300, Rm 3156 :: Los Angeles, CA 90095-7076
+1 310-825-2576 :: gslavich at mednet.ucla.edu