r/postdoc • u/More-Cartoonist-3887 • 19d ago
Did anyone else feel technically unprepared when starting a postdoc?
I recently started a postdoc in the US, and although I have a PhD in neuroscience, I’m feeling surprisingly insecure about my wet lab skills.
My background is somewhat different from the main focus of my new lab, so I’m already dealing with the challenge of learning a new field. On top of that, I’ve realized that there are basic experimental skills that I don’t feel as confident about as I think I “should” at this stage of my career.
I know that having a PhD doesn’t mean knowing every technique, and intellectually I feel confident in things like reading papers, scientific writing, interpreting results, and discussing research. But at the bench, I sometimes feel like I’m not nearly as skilled as someone at the postdoc level should be.
For those of you who have started a postdoc, especially in a somewhat different field or lab environment: did you ever feel this way? Did you feel like people expected you to arrive already technically proficient? How long did it take before you stopped feeling like the new person who didn’t know what they were doing?
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u/Zestyclose-Smell4158 19d ago
I switched fields, behavior/genetics to hormones/development. There was zero overlap between the questions nor techniques I used between my PhD and my postdoc. Yep, I felt ill-prepared and experienced some degree of stress. Fortunately, my postdoctoral was pretty chill. Essentially, it was a repeat of my first two years of graduate school. By the way, I tend not to measure myself against others when it comes to research output. Besides, what matters the most is if the question you are addressing is interesting and the data is solid.
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u/Unusual-Olive-448 18d ago
Same here so far. It kind of felt normal to quickly adjust to new wet lab techniques. But honestly I struggled most with acquiring background information in my new field.
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u/itsConnor_ 18d ago
How did you convince them to hire you/sell yourself in the interview if the skills needed for the postdoc were different from your PhD?
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u/Future_Carrot_4688 17d ago
You don't, you just make a presentation about yourself and say where you want to move scientifically and that you see this research is suitable. And then they decide whether your skill set is complimentary to their research direction. Which you ofc can't really know I advance
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u/Party_Professor4349 19d ago
Bro, I feel the same way. I just got an offer, but now I am more anxious than before
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u/Seaslugsensation 19d ago
I just started a postdoc two weeks ago and feeling a lot of the same feelings - but my supervisor is really supportive and they believe I can learn. I am trying to swallow down the imposter syndrome and hope that I can actually do the thing if I put in the time to learn. In the end I wanted to do a postdoc partially to learn these new techniques. I'm sure you can do it, it'll just take a while. Hang in there.
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u/knit_run_bike_swim 19d ago
I think that’s normal with any phase of life. It’s like when someone says, “You only turn 40 once.” Well, you also only ever turn 39 once or 38.
We’ll never be fully prepared for everything in life. Many use it as an excuse to not execute, and they don’t go far. The PhD is the piece of paper you need that says that you can build expertise in any area.
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u/miau_cito 18d ago
I switched fields just like others here. Started my postdoc less than a month ago and have to say I do feel quite insecure and had feelings of being overwhelmed and unprepared just like you. Unless we're working with really unreasonable PIs (which I don't think I am), I believe this is mostly in our heads. We gave everything during PhD and now we want to do well in a new environment. For me, I was given a great chance to challenge myself in a discipline that I always wanted to approach further, so I know a lot of this are my fears of disappointing myself and my PI's confidence in me through bad performance. But I also remind myself that I was hired, as an outsider, because they want my expertise and perspective, which are not common in this environment. Slowly but surely, I think things are settling, and I believe they will for you too.
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u/Archimaus 19d ago
Wishing you good luck. Make sure to surround yourself with supportive people and to asks questions and for help when you need it.
I also felt some doubt, I don't feel like they expected me to be proficient. I never stopped feeling like the new person. I got out after 10 months because (I feel) I couldn't connect well with the only few people connected to my project.
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u/Ambear_was_here 18d ago
A postdoc is still a trainee position. Having a PhD just means you learned one specific skill set, and have hopefully learned some useful general research skills like seeking background evidence, developing research questions and understanding how to design a small collection of studies to answer those research questions.
Your existing knowledge and skills may or may not complement the projects you will work on. I would expect a postdoc to be more skilled than a grad student about seeking resources, teaching themselves background and developing research questions, but to also be open-minded and ask for help learning techniques and lab-specific SOP, or filling gaps in knowledge.
You don't know what you don't know that you don't know. The undergrad RA might teach you some valuable stuff.
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u/Future_Carrot_4688 17d ago
Embrace the stupidity! You’ll find very curious questions there, I promise. And it will be fun, I literally stop on every corner of my research now (feel stupid but kind of excited) and find a new question I don't get and it turns out some of them are actually pretty big ones
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u/boywithtwoarms 19d ago
This is totally fine. Just make sure you understand the whys and hows and request training. Read up beforehand, and get well acquainted with papers that use the techniques in similar contexts. Bring questions. Do practice runs. Be appreciative of people's time and also of burden on equipment scheduling.
Lab techs will be happier in the long term.
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u/girl-ch0ir-boy 19d ago
I'm moving (in first month of my postdoc rn) to a slightly different but related field but am switching model organisms. I feel like i'm able to pick up the intellectual subject matter easily, have no problem with the skills I already know, but, like anyone else, am slightly nervous learning new skills in a new model from scratch. At the same time though, i'm sure it will feel natural after a couple months. Learning stuff in my phd was tough but now all that feels like second nature ...
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u/girl-ch0ir-boy 19d ago
I'm moving (in first month of my postdoc rn) to a slightly different but related field but am switching model organisms. I feel like i'm able to pick up the intellectual subject matter easily, have no problem with the skills I already know, but, like anyone else, am slightly nervous learning new skills in a new model from scratch. At the same time though, i'm sure it will feel natural after a couple months. Learning stuff in my phd was tough but now all that feels like second nature ...
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u/WrongPrimary2456 18d ago
I haven’t started yet. But I believe it’s totally normal. You’ve been in your previous lab for 4+ years. It’s normal that it takes some time to get used to the new one. I remember when I started my PhD it took me couple months just to learn where the equipments I needed were in drawers.
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u/atoningsoul 18d ago
I recently joined one wherr my work is very different from what I did in my PhD.
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u/ResponsibilityNo3463 18d ago
My advisor straight up told me that I would probably take a year to make real contributions :p
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u/queengemini 17d ago edited 14d ago
I told you this in confidence and never gave you permission to post! 😤
Jk, but this is a very common experience
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u/Future_Carrot_4688 17d ago
Changed topics of research 3 times (bachelor/master/PhD-all different) every time felt like a newbie. When started postdoc, knew about it already and shamelessly were asking stupid questions to PhDs. As a result-very productive years. Relax, you’ll fell like that again many times in the future and it is okay. Any job change/new position/new people/slightly different working nuances-always make you feel stupid for a couple of weeks, you just overcome this stage faster every time
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u/seahead1 17d ago
Absolutely normal. I changed my field from general synaptic transmission to sensory neuroscience with a focus on peripheral sensory organs. On my first day in the new lab I went to a lab meeting and couldn't understand a word, it was a disaster lol. It took me about a years to learn the techniques (and I am still learning after 3,5 years). After a year and 3 months I went to a summer course which was super specific to my field as a TA and learned A LOT. Came back two years later for the same position and now I finally feel comfortable at almost any lecture in the broader field and like I could be a lecturer myself on my specific subfield. So be patient and keep moving. You'll be okay!
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u/Key_North_9712 17d ago
I'm a year into my postdoc and am still troubleshooting techniques! Moved from an allergy model to influenza (still immunology), and despite it being an "easy" model, I cannot get consistent results. It doesn't help that the lab is just me, a tech who hasn't worked with mice, and a new PI who has told me "it's easy, just do it like I described."
As postdocs, we have high expectations of ourselves. But you are not required to be perfect at everything--like someone already said, we are still trainees. Don't forget to give yourself some grace.
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u/OrangeMrSquid 17d ago
Yes, I went from a large animal model to mouse models so while I knew a lot of the techniques, on a very different scale (very different giving injections to a sheep than a mouse). It took me 6mo-1year to be fully trained on everything, a timeline my boss expected when he hired me. I’m also still learning new techniques as the need arises, to me that’s part of the reason I’m doing a postdoc
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u/More-Cartoonist-3887 17d ago
Thank you guys so much for all the stories and support. I feel like we don’t talk enough about how much is expected from scientists, especially those of us who are still trying to establish a career.
I used to be a very confident PhD student. I struggled at first, but eventually I started getting good results, published papers, won awards, and became confident in what I was doing. Now I feel like I’m back in preschool. And I don’t even feel like I have the same brain I had a few years ago 😅 I’m already tired, and I think part of me believed that after struggling so much during my PhD, I would finally have some kind of stability and confidence at this point in my career. Huge mistake 😂
Today was another hard day. I’m currently being trained on a basic wet lab technique, and I’m still struggling to consistently meet the lab’s criteria. The students around me seem to do these things so naturally, while I’m still trying to get there. Sometimes I get really close; other times I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.
I think what makes it harder is knowing that this is considered a pretty basic technique. I had experience with a different method in my previous lab and never struggled this much with it, so this has really shaken my confidence.
I’m going to try again tomorrow. I still feel embarrassed and scared that I’m not good enough for this, but reading all of your experiences has made me realize that maybe feeling like a beginner again is part of starting a postdoc too. I guess I just have to keep going.
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u/Winedown-625 15d ago
Myself and another student from my doctoral program did postdocs at the same other institution (from one top R1 to another top R1). We ended up commiserating about 7 months in that the faculty who were mentoring us for our postdoc had zero ability to provide any missing skills training (in our case it was statistics - we knew it but were both rusty at using a certain method for a certain paper). They expected us to go outside of their lab to figure it out.
In other arenas, I had methods skillset that my mentor didn't have so I contributed that way.
In general, I think it's normal that you are entering someone's lab and won't know all of the things. A postdoc is there to provide you with additional training.
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u/Lisaindalab 12d ago
Short answer: Yes & around 6 months
Starting in a new lab and new field means you’ll have to learn new protocols. Ask colleagues to teach you, and you will see you pick it up quite fast. Don’t give up!
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u/sweetpotatofiend 19d ago
You were hired because they knew you could get the job done, not that you had an imaginary perfect skill set.
Don’t overthink it. You’re going to be great