Lecturing jobs during a post-doc position! - (Aug/12/2017 )

Hi All,

I am a final year PhD student in Australia. I want to slowly transition into lecturing from research. To begin with, ideally, i would like to find a post doc position with a group leader who doesn't mind me gaining some teaching/ lecturing experience while i am a post doctoral researcher.

Here in Australia things are a bit different if one wants to get into lecturing. My understanding is that we will be required to do research on the side in order to lecture OR must have many years of research experience.

My question is to all post doctoral researchers in the USA. Are there opportunities in the US to lecture while you hold a post doc position? If yes, do you have an idea as in how to transition from research to lecturing (completely) in the USA? Do you need to find a mentor when you begin? I am looking for ideas and suggestions and any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Kind regards.

I have found that most post-docs in universities (in many countries; Aus/NZ, UK, USA, generally in the EU too.) can gain teaching experience if they want. They usually just communicate with their supervisor/group leader and see if they can take over some of the lectures that that person teaches. Many people in lecturing and mentoring roles actively want people to pursue their career goals, and so are happy to help. Of course, this doesn't apply to all people, so are just not that interested in helping for whatever reason. In general however, pure teaching positions are rare; most require a large research component as well, and the adage "publish or perish" still applies, at least until you have tenure.

I believe at universities in the US, post-docs usually are either required to do some teaching (TA sort of positions) or will have done similar roles during their PhD.