postdoc-osphere

A term to describe the realm of short term university appointments inhabited by postdocs.

"Did he get that professor job."

"No way dude, now he's applying for another post-doc. I wonder if he'll be be spending his whole life in the

postdoc-osphere."

postdoc-osphere by Hank the Monster October 17, 2009

postdoc

Somebody who has recently completed a PhD and has no idea what do with their life after discovering they are completely unemployable. Anyone with the title "Post Doc" is a bright intellectual person without direction who is killing time waiting for the right job opportunity.

She was a postdoc at the university for ten years before she discovered that she had to find a permanent job to pay for the kitty litter to keep her family together.

postdoc by the lazy ass destroyer November 13, 2005

postdoc

A postdoc is a Ph.D. holder who has not been able to secure a stable academic position and therefore sticks around in different labs. A postdoc often lives off soft money in a series of 2-/3-year appointments, until he or she lands a tenure-track position, leaves academia for an industry job, finds a room in the parents' basement, or commit suicide in despair.

Jane: "You know, something's eating away that leftover muffins on the table. Must be mice or roaches hiding in this lab."

Tom: "No, that's our postdoc John."

postdoc by a postdoc February 17, 2008

Going Postdoctoral

Describes a situation when a person with a PhD goes on a killing rampage.

A variation of going postal, but used to describe a person with a doctoral degree.

" But of course lots of people--even Harvard grads!--suffer career setbacks, and few of them go postal (or should we say postdoctoral?). source: "Going Postdoctoral The bizarre case of Prof. Amy Bishop, Wall Street Journal Online, February 18, 2010.

Going Postdoctoral by Oceanscribe February 19, 2010

PostDocalypse 

The cultural epoch accompanying the impending collapse in prestige of higher education as vast oversupplies of professional academicians epically fail at life vying for imaginary positions in nonexistent job markets for debt-laden intellectuals who know absolutely nothing about anything that is capable of turning a profit

“I was certain that ... once I racked up $120K in debt on 5 years of Ivy League undergrad and then wasted the earning potential of my 20’s surviving on Ramen in a post grad program preparing to piss away all future job prospects obtaining a PhD in ideological bullshit ... surely I would finally be positioned to achieve true fulfillment in the 2nd half of my life.”

— earliest known suicide note of the PostDocalypse, written circa 2019 on the back of a FAFSA print out

PostDocalypse by Jarretocracy July 18, 2019

postdockery 

Self-inflicted fuckery where you apply for another underpaid research position and stay in denial about your career prospects as a Ph.D.

"You were supposed to interview for that research consultancy job today! Why did you do this postdockery instead?!"

postdockery by tgwtt October 7, 2021