{"doi":"10.1016/j.tcb.2022.01.007","title":"The postdoctoral blueprint part one: creating a niche","abstract":"Current postdoctoral fellows have a range of career options; however, following a career path into academia can be daunting. Here, we discuss essential elements needed to transition the postdoctoral position into faculty candidates. Furthermore, we provide critical hacks to help postdoctoral fellows to be well prepared to navigate the application and interview processes. Current postdoctoral fellows have a range of career options; however, following a career path into academia can be daunting. Here, we discuss essential elements needed to transition the postdoctoral position into faculty candidates. Furthermore, we provide critical hacks to help postdoctoral fellows to be well prepared to navigate the application and interview processes. A blueprint is a roadmap. The blueprint is needed to facilitate the postdoc-to-faculty transition. However, there is no one blueprint to follow when preparing to transition from a postdoctoral fellow to a faculty position. Postdocs usually learn this process from communicating with their mentors, but the mentor’s experience as a postdoc themselves may have been years ago. If they have not been recently involved in faculty recruitment, mentors may not recall some of the details or many of the stressors involved in the postdoc experience. Postdocs can also learn about the process of seeking a faculty position by talking to peers who recently went through the same process. However, keep in mind that their time may be limited while they are working to make their own transition. Needless to say, postdocs often do not have the right tools or knowledge to make informed decisions as they prepare to enter the faculty job market. Here, we discuss some of the key steps to take during postdoc training to best equip you to successfully navigate the faculty job hunt. Postdocs often fail to make a smooth transition because they are not aware of essential details that are often not recognized as critically important early in the process. Before starting this endeavor, remember three critical concepts: (i) give yourself sufficient time; (ii) get involved in many opportunities; and (iii) stay focused. During your postdoctoral training, the focus should be on cultivating your technical skills and building your reputation in your field by publishing papers, giving talks, presenting posters at meetings, and networking, all of which will be needed to become an independent, tenure-track faculty member. Developing a well-defined scientific niche will allow you to establish yourself as an expert in the field and will set you apart from your colleagues [1.Shehzad W. Move two: establishing a niche.Ibérica. 2008; 15: 25-49Google Scholar]. A postdoc must invest time not only to make a well-organized plan of action in the laboratory but also to plan for a smooth and successful transition from being a postdoc to becoming an independent faculty member. Making a well-organized research plan means being able to manage several interrelated but distinct research projects simultaneously. At least one of these projects should be a high-risk and high-reward type. If this project is successful, it will be paradigm shifting! Think of this project like investing in Bitcoin: if you are right with your investment, you will be rich. However, you do not want to invest all your money in one investment and end up with nothing. Therefore, also develop lower risk projects that are highly likely to result in publishable data but might not get published in the highest-ranking journal. These projects are like investing in government bonds: you will make some money but, in the long run, you will not get rich overnight with this type of risk-averse investment. If you have both types of research in your portfolio, you will arm yourself with a diverse research repertoire that will be an asset during your faculty job hunt. After becoming established in a lab and generating some research results in your first year, we suggest that you start looking fo","journal":"Trends in Cell Biology","year":2022,"id":262902,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":815540,"name":"Elsie C. Spencer","orcid":"0000-0002-4934-3704","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":297596,"name":"Antentor Hinton","orcid":"0000-0002-7730-952X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":307534,"name":"Sandra Murray","orcid":"0000-0002-8267-9138","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":8,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:26:25.074177Z","pmid":"35210164","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}