How To Become A Postdoctoral Associate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a postdoctoral associate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Betsy Smith

Some people enjoy studying. These people pursue graduate degrees after college. Some would even go on to get postgraduate degrees. They just never want to stop learning and educating themselves. Often, these people have a vested interest in a particular topic. They dedicate themselves to research and to finding solutions to their problems. What happens after one finally gets their postgraduate degree? Now that they have a doctorate, what do they do? Well, if they still want to learn and do research, they can apply to be postdoctoral associates.

Postdoctoral associate positions are available in universities and research centers. These institutions aim for higher learning and forwarding education. Postdoctoral associates are employed by these institutions to conduct research and to advance their learning. This arrangement will also be beneficial to the institution since they will be part of the research and will be with the postdoctoral associate when they publish.

If you enjoy learning and would like to build a career as an academic, this is a great one. Of course, if you will pursue this, you would have to be both passionate and patient!

What general advice would you give to a postdoctoral associate?

Dr. Betsy Smith

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Elmira College

I would advise students just graduating to be flexible and open-minded in their job search. Chemistry is a challenging major, and students who succeed in it have learned how to learn, so they shouldn't assume that pure chemistry is the only thing they can do. One growing field is biomedical research, and chemistry majors are often qualified for jobs in that area. If you have other strengths, like writing, there are often jobs that can combine them as a technical writer or work for a science journal. There are jobs out there that might be perfect for you that you haven't heard of until you see an ad for it, so be open to different possibilities.

ScorePostdoctoral AssociateUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $54,350

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.3

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.15%

Asian 39.40%

Black or African American 5.75%

Hispanic or Latino 8.82%

Unknown 3.91%

White 41.97%

Gender

female 36.78%

male 63.22%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

6.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a postdoctoral associate

Explore postdoctoral associate education requirements

Most common postdoctoral associate degrees

Doctorate

47.3 %

Bachelor's

37.5 %

Master's

14.0 %

Start to develop specific postdoctoral associate skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	7.74%
TIP	6.70%
Data Analysis	6.08%
Biomedical	5.46%
CRISPR	5.40%

Complete relevant postdoctoral associate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New postdoctoral associates learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a postdoctoral associate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real postdoctoral associate resumes.

Research postdoctoral associate duties and responsibilities

Develop and manage third party claim investigations and contractor remedial oversight for various insurance companies.
Co-Authore NIH grant proposal on membrane protein folding.
Participate in writing research grant applications including NIH and NSF.
X-ray protein crystallographic studies on the structures of antibodies and DNA.

Prepare your postdoctoral associate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your postdoctoral associate resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a postdoctoral associate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable postdoctoral associate resume templates

Build a professional postdoctoral associate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your postdoctoral associate resume.