Recruiting a Postdoctoral Trainee

A central repository of available WCM postdoctoral opportunities is maintained on our website. Please visit our “Postdoctoral Positions” page to submit job openings.

Tips for Effective Recruiting

  • Spend time at national meetings, poster presentations and local networking events talking to trainees in attendance for a potential match.
  • Notify your colleagues that you have an opening for their most capable graduate students.
  • Advertise on job boards:
  1. Biospace
  2. Chronicle of Higher Education
  3. Medzilla
  4. Metro-New York/Southern Connecticut Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
  5. Nature Jobs
  6. PhDJobs
  7. Postdoc Jobs
  8. Postdoctoral Life
  9. Science Careers
  10. Top Higher-Education Jobs
  • Use the telephone interview process for initial screening. This step will save you the time and trouble involved in meeting in-person and interviewing job candidates who, despite strong resumes, aren’t compatible. When screening over the telephone, be sure to raise any concerns that arose when you first read the candidate's resume.
  • During the on-site interview you can better determine whether the candidate has a passion for science or is simply letting inertia move them along.
  • Find out what they want to accomplish with a postdoc—do your needs match their goals?
  • Let other colleagues interview them –including your lab members.
  • Call and speak with references—do not rely solely on letters—If a negative is brought up, it is likely only the tip of the iceberg.
  • Let them know what you expect from a postdoc at the beginning of the interview.