Postdoc fellow vs doctoral fellow

The differences between postdoc fellows and doctoral fellows can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a postdoc fellow and a doctoral fellow. Additionally, a postdoc fellow has an average salary of $58,376, which is higher than the $53,366 average annual salary of a doctoral fellow.

The top three skills for a postdoc fellow include molecular biology, data analysis and CRISPR. The most important skills for a doctoral fellow are patients, cell culture, and data analysis.

Postdoc fellow vs doctoral fellow overview

	Postdoc Fellow	Doctoral Fellow
Yearly salary	$58,376	$53,366
Hourly rate	$28.07	$25.66
Growth rate	17%	17%
Number of jobs	8,499	22,661
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Doctoral Degree, 58%	Doctoral Degree, 46%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	4	4

Postdoc fellow vs doctoral fellow salary

Postdoc fellows and doctoral fellows have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Postdoc Fellow	Doctoral Fellow
Average salary	$58,376	$53,366
Salary range	Between $42,000 And $80,000	Between $39,000 And $72,000
Highest paying City	Burlingame, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Hawaii
Best paying company	TRI-AD	IBM
Best paying industry	Professional	Pharmaceutical

Differences between postdoc fellow and doctoral fellow education

There are a few differences between a postdoc fellow and a doctoral fellow in terms of educational background:

	Postdoc Fellow	Doctoral Fellow
Most common degree	Doctoral Degree, 58%	Doctoral Degree, 46%
Most common major	Chemistry	Chemistry
Most common college	University of Southern California	Duke University

Postdoc fellow vs doctoral fellow demographics

Here are the differences between postdoc fellows' and doctoral fellows' demographics:

	Postdoc Fellow	Doctoral Fellow
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 71.1% Female, 28.9%	Male, 55.3% Female, 44.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 7.3% Asian, 45.5% White, 39.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 6.1% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 9.3% Asian, 32.9% White, 47.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between postdoc fellow and doctoral fellow duties and responsibilities

Postdoc fellow example responsibilities.

Collaborate with software engineers to automate identification of 15N- and 13C- labele LC-MS features.
Perform expression profiling on primary promyelocyte samples and identify candidate genes that may be involve in SCN pathogenesis and malignant transformation.
Investigate chromatid orientation through immunofluorescence.

Doctoral fellow example responsibilities.

Lead the in-vitro biophysical and biochemical characterization of homologous recombination and investigate structure-function effects of mutant enzymes.
Attend courses in drug discovery, python programming, and next-generation sequencing analyses.
Coordinate the validation of data aquisition algorithms (C++, python) for all real and simulate data.
Conduct custom synthesis of organic molecules, key intermediates and building blocks for medicinal chemistry applications.
Design PCL/PLCL drug delivery system for DC immunotherapy.
Succeed in using CRISPR to genetically correct diseas iPSCs.

Postdoc fellow vs doctoral fellow skills

Common postdoc fellow skills

Molecular Biology, 15%
Data Analysis, 10%
CRISPR, 9%
Python, 9%
Chemistry, 8%
Conduct Research, 7%

Common doctoral fellow skills

Patients, 8%
Cell Culture, 6%
Data Analysis, 5%
Research Projects, 5%
Cell Biology, 5%
Immunology, 5%

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Postdoc Fellow
Postdoc Fellow vs Doctoral Fellow

Updated January 8, 2025

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