Hello,

I recently did my PhD thesis defense and I am looking for a postdoc position. During the last few months, I applied for the two different fellowship programmes in another country and I was lucky enough to get both of the fellowships. However, I cannot decide to choose one, cause both of the labs seems to be quite problematic due to the future PIs.

The first offer is not actually for postdoc but just for visiting another lab for a couple months. At the begining, the PI told me that she would engage me with an ongoing project as a collaborator. After I talked to her former senior postdoc, I figured out that she was actually moving somewhere else and not planning to go to the lab regularly. She only has one PhD student. It was strange that she did not explain none of them, even though I asked her about the lab.

The second offer is for two years. But I doubt about the lab and PI a lot, because his former international students did not graduate with a good record of publications ( one published paper coming one year after the graduation). His former postdoc spent there 4 years but she only got one paper. During our interview, he also mentioned that he first contacted the lab (in another country) that we were in collaboration to check out if I really spent some time there. I think it is an unsual way to evaluate somebody's application since it is lack of trust even before speaking with her/him.

So I need advice about those two labs to understand whether I exaggerate things or they are really problematic. I would like to do other applications but I still need some time to get my published papers from my current lab.

I think that I can ask to the second lab to wait until next year, if they do not mind. Do you think it would be so bad if I find another job and do not show up next year?

Thanks a lot in advance.

I would ignore the first offer, since this isn't a postdoc and there is no guarantee that this will come to anything.

For the second offer, I think it sounds fine. How do you know the other students don't have many more publications in the pipeline? I think 'checking up' on you is fine - maybe they were just getting a reference?

It's not good practice to accept an offer and then reject it a year down the line, and you may burn bridges by doing this, but you won't be the first and you won't be the last.

Hello, Thanks a lot for your reply! The other students that I mentioned, they left the lab almost 4 years ago. I do not think that they are still expecting something from the lab. I also sent them messages to ask for their opinions but I couldn't get any replies.

I think it it is totally fine to check the references, but he did it before interviewing me and he also mentioned that it was done to see if I was telling the truth about my visit in the other lab. I just did not understand why he thought I could make it up but still contacted me. He also did not contact my own advisor, which I found strange cause I spent longer time there.

I just thought I could be honest with him and ask for extra time to start without making a promise since it is a fellowship programme and he isn't paying any salary.

Thanks a lot once again!