双语|如何寻找、申请和选择博士后职位-申请篇

是否做博士后？如何寻找、申请及选择博士后职位，这位美国神经科学家给出了建议和答案。知识人网小编采用双语对照的形式分别叙述。本篇为申请篇

IV. First Contact

四、首次联系

You've trimmed your list down to a shortlist, and now it's time to contact the PIs on your list. If your current mentor or others in your network have a relationship with a PI you're interested in, you might opt for asking them to send an introductory email connecting you to the prospective PI. In my case, I opted to reach out myself to everyone on my list. Also in my case, every PI was someone who's never met me or engaged with my work before (to my knowledge). So, it was cold email time. Unfortunately, there isn't much guidance out there for how to establish contact and what to include in the first email. Some PIs do mention on their website how to reach out (i.e., should you include a cover letter, CV, names of references, etc.), and if you see that you may choose to follow those instructions. Ironically, in my case I didn't check if the PIs had guidance on their sites and just sent the cold email, but later found out that they had guidelines on their website. So, it might not actually matter? Unclear, *shrugs*.

你已经将列表缩小到了候选名单，现在是时候联系名单上的导师了。如果你当前的导师或网络中的其他人与你感兴趣的导师有关系，你可以选择让他们发送一封引荐邮件，将你介绍给潜在的导师。就我而言，我选择与我感兴趣的每个导师联系。同样在我的情况下，每个导师都是从未见过我或从未参与过我工作的人（据我所知）。所以，现在需要发送冷邮件了。不幸的是，关于如何建立联系以及第一封电子邮件中应包含什么内容，没有太多的指导。一些导师确实在他们的网站上提到如何联系（即，你是否应包含一封求职信、简历、推荐人姓名等），如果你看到这些指导，你可以选择按照这些指导操作。具有讽刺意味的是，就我而言，我没有检查导师的网站是否有指南，只是直接发送了一封冷电子邮件，但后来发现他们的网站上有指南。所以，这实际上也许这并不那么重要？不清楚，“耸耸肩”。

Below is an example of a cold email I sent to a PI I was interested in. I used this same structure (while changing content of course) for all five of the PIs I wrote, and received responses from all five. With the three of those whom I moved forward with, we scheduled informal interviews (chats, really) before going further. I know some people have subject line paralysis, so if it helps my subject line for this was a simple "Inquiry about postdoctoral position". This was sent Nov 2020. (click image to enlarge).

下面是我给一位感兴趣的导师发送的冷电子邮件的示例。我对我列表上所有5位导师都使用了相同的结构（当然，同时更改了内容），并收到了所有5位导师的回复。与其中的3位导师安排了非正式交流（真的是聊天），然后再继续进一步交流。我知道有些人会犯难在邮件的主题上，所以如果有帮助的话，我的主题是一个简单的“关于博士后职位的询问”。这是2020年11月发送的。（点击图片放大）

I never submitted a cover letter when contacting a PI about potentially doing a postdoc with them. But I do know some people like to do that, and some PIs even expect it. If it helps, the general structure of the inquiry email above can double as a cover letter too. Also note that your email can totally be shorter than this one, but I would definitely avoid going longer. If you don't get a reply to your cold email, that's fine; it happens. After 10 business days, send a follow up. You can also ask someone you know who is connected to the PI you're trying to reach to nudge them to check their inbox. Whatever you do,don't take a no-response personally. If the PI is interested, the next step will probably be an informal zoom interview or going straight to an in-person visit.

在我联系PI关于有可能和他们一起做博士后的事情时，我从未提交过求职信。但我知道有些人喜欢这样做，有些PI甚至期望这样。如果有帮助的话，上面询问邮件的一般结构也可以兼作求职信。另请注意，你的邮件完全可以比这封短，但我绝对不会写得更长。如果你的冷邮件没有得到回复，那也没关系；它发生了。10个工作日之后，发送一封跟进邮件。你也可以询问你认识的与你想要联系的PI有联系的人，让他们检查一下收件箱。无论你做什么，都不要把没有回应当成是针对你的。如果PI感兴趣，下一步可能是非正式的Zoom面试或直接进行面对面的访问。

V. What When

五、时间安排

When should you start building your postdoc list? When should you begin to reach out to people? Do you need to have published X number of first author papers before reaching out? What about coauthored papers?

你应该什么时候开始建立你的博士后名单？你应该什么时候开始与人联系？在联系之前，需要发表X篇一作论文吗？合著论文呢？

These questions are not unusual and are in fact a common source of stress and anxiety for senior graduate students. I honestly believe that there isn't a correct timeline for searching for a postdoc lab. There are too many variables for there to be one correct way. That said, there are things that you can control timeline-wise, so let's talk about it a little. I'll use the questions above to frame these points.

这些问题并不罕见，实际上它们是高年级研究生常见的压力和焦虑来源。老实说，我相信寻找博士后实验室没有正确的时间表。变量太多，不可能有一个正确的方法。也就是说，有些事情你可以控制时间线，所以我们来大致讨论一下。我会使用上面的问题来展开这些观点。

(Note: considerations for timeline also include whether or not you will be doing virtual interviews or in-person visits. I interviewed in a pandemic, so it was all virtual. It sucked because I prefer in-person interactions, but it was useful in that it took up way less time that if I had to fly to multiple cities)

（注意：时间安排的考虑也包括您是否将进行虚拟访谈还是面对面访问。我在新冠大流行期间进行了面试，因此一切都是虚拟的。这很糟糕，因为我更喜欢面对面的互动，但它很有用，因为这样比我必须飞往多个城市花费的时间少得多）

When should you start building your postdoc list?

你应该何时开始构建你的博士后列表？

There cannot be a time that is too early, but there can be a time that is late. Throughout your PhD, take note of papers that blow you away, PIs or postdocs you hit it off with at conferences, or questions that you came across and thought "I would love to do this next". All of this will be useful to you when it comes time to build an actual list. If you know a rough date by which you plan to start a postdoc position, I recommend starting to build your prospective lab list at least 9 months before, preferably one year before. For reference, I was aiming for a July start date, and began building postdoc list in September the year before.

可以改成，没可能过早，只可能过晚。在你的博士生涯中，请注意那些让你感到震惊的论文，那些你在会议上与之建立共鸣的导师或博士后，以及那些你遇到的问题并想“我很想接下来做这个”。所有这些都将对你建立实际名单时很有用。如果你知道你计划开始博士后职位的大致日期，我建议至少在提前9个月开始构建你的潜在实验室名单，最好提前一年。作为参考，我的目标在7月开始，并在前一年9月开始建立博士后名单。

When should you begin to reach out to people?

你应该何时开始与人联系？

Again, depends on whether visits and interviews will be virtual or in-person. I recommend reaching out to your shortlist as soon as you have it honestly. As long as you articulate your intended start dates, there is no such thing as starting the conversation too early. I could be wrong here, but I just don't see a downside. Also keep in mind that you may have to revise your shortlist if you don't get positive responses from the labs you want, so having a cushion of time helps. For reference, I was aiming for a July start date, and began reaching out to labs in late November the year before.

同样，这取决于访谈是虚拟的还是面对面的。我建议一旦你有了确定的候选名单，就立即与人联系。只要你能清楚地表达你计划的开始日期，我认为就没有过早开始对话的这回事。我在这里可能是错的，但我就是没看到负面影响。另请记住，如果你没有得到感兴趣的实验室的积极回应，你可能需要修订你的候选名单，因此有时间缓冲会有所帮助。作为参考，我的目标实7月开始，而在前一年的11月下旬就开始与实验室联系。

Do you need to have published X number of first author papers before reaching out? What about coauthored papers?

在联系之前，你需要发表X篇一作论文吗？合作论文呢？

There is no rigid rule here. It really is up to the PI you're talking to and the status of your manuscript. Some dissertation papers take longer to come together than others, some people publish 3 first authors in their PhD and some publish one. It's so variable that it just comes down to communication. If you don't have a publication yet, but have a paper in the pipeline, let the PI know in your email and include it in your CV as "in prep". If it's ready to be posted on a preprint server like bioRxiv, work with your current mentor on posting it and getting the work out there.

这里没有严格的规则。这完全取决于你联系的导师和你的手稿状态。有些博士论文需要比其他论文更长的时间才能完成，有些人在博士期间发表了3篇一作论文，而有些人只发表了一篇。这里变数很大，以至于最终归结为沟通。如果你还没有发表论文，但已经有一篇论文在撰写中，请在电子邮件中告知导师，并在简历中将其列为“准备中”。如果论文已准备好发布在bioRxiv这样的预印本服务器上，请与你当前的导师合作发布它并在那里发布工作。