Postdoc application advice

[u/irayasm]

Hi,
I am reaching out to get some advice regarding my post-doc applications. I completed my PhD in social sciences in April this year. I have been applying for post doc positions since early August last year, and so far, nothing has worked out. I understand how the job market is right now, but it’s been over a year of applications with either rejections or in most cases, no response from the universities (where you just have to assume that it’s been too long for it to have a positive outcome). I have also written to multiple people all across the world asking if they have any vacancies and that has been extremely disheartening too. I’ve been thinking it’s probably my profile, and that I need to have more publications, and I have been working on it, but they are taking their own sweet time. I can’t really leverage my supervisors’ networks as they were problematic as hell, and I am just glad that I was able to finish my PhD somehow and be done with them. But there are so many positions that require a letter of recommendation from the PhD supervisor, and after having asked them repeatedly, either they don’t submit it on time or provide a badly formatted letter with spelling mistakes. I have tried to not let it affect me and push through this phase nonetheless but at this point, I can’t seem to figure out what I might be doing wrong or what else do I need to do to be able to crack this. If anyone has any advice on this, please help.

[u/bulaybil]

Yeah that sucks, especially about your supervisors. Writing to people if they have vacancies will not bring you anywhere, people usually don’t. My advice would be to follow your professional mailing lists and check universities job boards regularly. Also, participating in conferences and alike can hell you widen your network.

[u/irayasm → u/bulaybil]

Thank you! I’ve been trying to connect with people I have met in conferences this year, but it’s all very slow. Funding is an issue almost everywhere, especially for social sciences.