When should Ph.D's look for Post-doctoral positions?

[moleculardude]

When should Ph.D's look for Post-doctoral positions?

just a general question as I am curious to know when is a good time....

thanks waiting for your answers!

[kiki06]

i think during Ph.D final stages ie writting? maybe

[moleculardude]

Yeah that seems like a good time, however aren't you very busy at that time? I guess a Ph.D is always busy...

When do you apply for funding for Post Doc positions?

[subhash juneja]

Since you will be joining post-doc after submitting your thesis. So you start contacting people from your research area one year before when you are near completion of your lab work and proceeding towards data analysis and planning to write. Good labs like that you should secure post-doc salary from external source. Get a letter from the good lab indicating "they want to accept you providing you bring funding from external source". Attach this letter along with application for external funding. This helps.

Otherwise get a commitment well before submitting your thesis. That is the right approach. Do not start looking for post-doc after submission since you were busy in writing. Now a days e-mail has made things more easy rather than earlier time people use to send big envelopes of documents and papers to people for application.

I hope that helps.

Subhash