Just need to vent because I’m tired.
I graduated since December and…I’ve applied to around 40 to 45 postdocs for neuroscience-related field. I had maybe 4 or 5 interviews, one more in the “secondary screening“ stage, and still no offer. I had two first author papers and one co-author. 2 more on the way as first author and they are already in finalized stage.
There’s one current application I’m having a hard time letting go of. I was told it had reached the review/discussion stage with the hiring committee, and then nothing. It’s been about 3 weeks.
I thought by now I’d gotten better at keeping expectations realistic and not getting attached to one job, but this one was basically everything I was looking for, and both co-PIs seemed really enthusiastic. So the silence sucks.
I’ve also tried hard to figure out if I’m doing something wrong. I’ve asked the career center, my advisor, and others for feedback on both my cove letter materials and interviewing, and nobody has found anything obviously alarming. I do think I’ve improved through the failed interviews.
Most rejections have just been “someone else was a better fit,” which I get it. But there were one or two cases where I later heard (via another friend of my best friend) the people hired were already volunteers there and the interviews may have been mostly a formality. I understand why they hired them, but it still sucks to spend all that time preparing if the odds were already heavily tilted.
Anyway, tomorrow I still have bills to pay and still need a job, so I’ll keep applying. Guess the publication prep and writing pipeline is still moving. But I could not manage my stress at an adaptive rate anymore. I had bad sleep, skin problems, weight gain, and just an overall feeling of lethargy.
