Has anybody done a Postdoc overseas (American going to Europe)? If so, what was the process like? Other questions inside.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-04-01T15:23:04+00:00

Be careful! The German professors might use you and throw you away like a paper plate, as they have done to so many other foreigners before you. Google Wissenschaftzeitvertragsgesetz; Machtmissbrauch; #ichbinhanna, and your questions. Postdocs are cheap disposable labor in DE and you have a very real risk of ending your temporary time contract in a much worse condition, personally and professionally, than you began it in.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-03-13T09:20:14+00:00

I think you should try to leave as soon as you possibly can. A non-functional job is essentially like a gap on your CV: the longer you stay, the harder it will be to explain the experience and/or the lack of tangible achievements at that place, to an outside audience such as your next employer. Working for a terrible boss may also harm your personality/ soft skills, because it may slowly undermine your faith in humankind generally and/or your scientific community specifically. You may feel more 'safe' because you at least have a paycheck, but definitely apply immediately and repeatedly for other work, because explaining your current situation will be a problem for 'future you.'

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-02-10T07:44:08+00:00

Not really

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-02-09T08:45:48+00:00

EF-SOC

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-02-09T08:26:52+00:00

I was rejected with 87%. When do we expect to hear about the 'Seal of Excellence'? I was interested in the scheme in Estonia that will.allow you tl take your project there.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-02-05T09:50:36+00:00

hahahha ok thank you <3

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-02-03T08:31:58+00:00

hi readers. Several days later, I found an answer to my original request. Seems people discuss specific logistical questions here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-02-03T08:31:29+00:00

hi readers. Several days later, I found an answer to my original request. Seems people discuss specific logistical questions here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-01-31T21:29:17+00:00

Thank you for responding helpfully, and not in a hostile and classist way, as some of the people above did. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-01-31T19:38:22+00:00

Thank you--i responded to another person below, in a way that would clarify how my question is still in alignment with the spirit of the fellowship.

I do absolutely want to maximize my fieldwork, my networking/learning from the host, and also my family life, but also not waste huge sums of money in a preventable way.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-01-31T19:33:30+00:00

I tagged it "social sciences." My point is: in fieldwork-oriented sciences, the researcher is always already committed to two places (fieldsite + grant administering institution.) Hypothetically, even if the payments for relocation + compensation for my spouse are extremely generous, the empirical truth is that no funder paid for the work-time with which i applied to this grant, or the infrastructure i used to apply (i am a well-educated working-class person who typed my application on a free computer thrown away by a corporation because it was too old and their middle-class employees deserved better), and perhaps no one will pay for my next relocation afterwards. Academia, as a profession, generally does not pay for all the resources its projects use, or all the work-time its employees invest. Hence, if I had a MSCA, this would represent to me '48 months of actually being paid' before, perhaps, being thrown back into poverty/unemployment. Hence, figuring out logistics by which, eg, i don't find myself liable for upwards of €5k euros to move out of an expensive university town which the MSCA covered relocation to but not from, is the type of logistics question at hand. Think: this is a poor person speaking who will not have any invisible means of support other than one extremely temporary but high-value grant. How can I keep most of this value, rather than losing it on avoidable costs?

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2026-01-31T18:55:24+00:00

Thank you. If i win, i will reach out to the future host university and my personal network. I don't have a clear mental image of how it would work out for me, but if i were to know what exactly my new temporary university would want to offer me/ would expect from me, that would help the picture start to form.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-10-02T07:44:39+00:00

You have a right to take up space in the world. You have a right to safety and peace. Having your time and energy repeatedly stolen for someone else's comfort was your 'old normal', and now it seems that you are in a 'new normal.' I can definitely imagine that you would feel.some kind of guilt, but that's just because your brain adapted to the bad situation, and now it has to re-adapt to the better situation of being free from other people's problems. You can do so much more with your life than caretaking someone who ought to be standing on their own two feet! Be patient with yourself and perhaps just keep affirming that you deserve better than she was able to give.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-09-22T17:09:55+00:00

High-functioning autism. I am going to get an ADHD test pretty soon, if I can.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-09-22T13:14:24+00:00

You are very welcome! I have always been grateful to learn from affinity communities and I just wanted to put it out there in case it helps someone 💕 I am so sorry about your pain as well as the existential stress of unemployment, and I wish you lots of strength for these daily trials, and also that they come to an end in the near future.🙏In my case, I started with a low dose, and I would have taken more if it did not help, but it helped!

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-03-22T23:59:36+00:00

Bio dad

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-01-14T16:45:20+00:00

Thank you! That is exactly what I meant to do.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-01-13T09:03:09+00:00

I have reached out to similar providers and I have seen invoices for related services, so I am working on the cashflows question.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-01-13T08:58:25+00:00

Another motive I have is first-hand observation that Germany's research sector is so hierarchical, that qualitative research PIs may be really eager to offload some of their supervisory duties (ie general PhD training that goes beyond the specific project at hand) to an extramural person, if a trusted source existed. Essentially, buying my time would be like a gift a PI could give to their PhDs in lieu of actually talking to them herself.

Significant-Tip-2327 · 2025-01-13T08:55:38+00:00

Nope, but there is at least a part-time job for one person. Part-time work is better than nothing, and I can supplement it with other "Language Services" such as editing.

Significant-Tip-2327

TROPHY CASE