Faculty and Staff Resources
On-Campus Resources
- The Graduate School hosts a website solely dedicated to posting postdoctoral positions at CU Denver and CU Anschutz (https://gs.ucdenver.edu/postdocjobs/). Posting positions is quick and easy, and you have control over who receives the applicant's information (e.g., CVs and references).
- CU Careers - This database posts job openings throughout the CU System and is accessible worldwide.
Off-Campus Resources
- HigherEdJobs - A database featuring a wide array of positions in higher education.
- Minority Postdoc positions - A web portal highlighting the minority postdoctoral experience.
- National Postdoctoral Association website and jobs board - Free individual affiliate membership. Register using your University email.
- Postdoc Jobs - A recruiting channel to bring together recent PhDs, professors, research institutions and other employers to find a good match.
- Science Magazine Career Site - Includes career resources and a searchable jobs database.
- Your professional society's website often has opportunities to post positions.
On-Campus Resources
- The Graduate School hosts an online database of funding opportunities available to students and postdocs.
- The Career Development Office has compiled a list of funding opportunities available to international postdocs (here).
- The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) aims to catalyze the translation of innovative science into improved health and patient care at CU Denver, CU Anschutz, and other affiliated institutions. The CCTSI provides career development training and funding opportunities, and membership is free for CU Denver and CU Anschutz constituents.
- University Research is the home for all research activities at CU Denver and CU Anschutz and provides a platform to navigate research infrastructure resources, expertise and best practices for researchers, study staff and administrators. Links to grants and funding opportunities, key research resources, and a calendar of research events.
- Submitting a training grant? Contact us for boiler-plated descriptions of our career development opportunities.
Off-Campus Resources
- The National Institutes of Health allows you to search for funding based on your career stage.
- The National Science Foundation lists funding specific for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees.
- There are also many other resources that can be found online. For example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hosts a site to identify funding, as do many professional societies.
What Does it Mean to be a Great Mentor?
Mentoring comes in many forms and many different mentoring styles can be effective. In general, though, great mentoring means that you…
- invest your time in developing another person's career and well-being
- are committed to advancing the individuals's personal academic and professional goals
- understand and accept that your trainees will have varying career goals
- will tailor your mentoring style to accommodate differences in culture, ethnicity, gender and disability
Why Be a Great Mentor?
In addition to the satisfaction of seeing your trainees succeed, being a great mentor has additional benefits for you. For example, being a great mentor can help you…
- attract the best and most competitive trainees
- create a more productive working relationship, in turn, increasing your own success
- broaden you professional network as your trainees achieve their own career success
Where Does Great Mentoring Begin? With a Detailed Plan.
The NIH now requires progress reports to include discussion of how Individual Development Plans (IDPs) were used in the training of any pre and postdoctoral trainees supported by NIH funds. Furthermore, the NIH also expects postdocs to be actively engaged in their career development regardless of their mechanism of support. As if those requirements were not reason enough, a detailed IDP can help your trainees ensure they are acquiring the skills and qualifications they need to transition in their careers.
We encourage all trainees to create a Career Plan or IDP early in their training and to discuss it with you - you can provide extremely valuable insight into what it really takes to move on. Feel free to have your trainees use our online Individual Career Plan (ICP) tool, or any of the resources online (e.g., AAAS's myIDP.)
In addition to a career plan, setting expectations can alleviate future conflict and foster an environment of clear communication. We also encourage you and your trainees to formally discuss expectations, and a great place to start is with the AAMC Compacts for graduate students or postdoctoral fellows. Finally, the National Postdoctoral Association provides some recommendations for developing a postdoctoral mentoring plan that may be useful.
How We Can Help
The Postdoctoral Office and Career Development Office are here to support you in your mentoring efforts. We can assist with providing data and boiler-plate documents for your grant applications, serve as an informational resource for the exploration and pursuit of your trainee's career goals, and offer a centralized location to identify career development training events on campus. In addition, we also can provide resources that may help you as you help your trainees prepare for the next stage of their careers. There clearly will be other resources that you would find helpful, and we hope you will let us know how we can provide additional support.
Career and Mentoring Resources
Policies and Administrative Resources
As of May 15th, 2015 the Graduate School has discontinued its oversight of the hiring of postdoctoral fellows. This includes signing off on any letters of offer; approval for either new hires or raises; and terminations. These all can now be managed within
your School/College with no additional insight outside of standard HR policies and procedures.
- Policy for Research Postdoctoral Fellows-Trainees.
- You can advertise postdoctoral positions on the Graduate School's Postdoc Jobs website and/or on the CU Careers website.
- Postdoc Job Template
- Postdoc Letter of Offer Template.
- Postdoc Addendum Letter Template.
- Postdoc Stipend Rates for FY 2024 (new minimum $61,008) and Fringe Benefit Rates.
- SOM Procedures for Hiring Postdocs.
- Just hired a postdoc? Ask them to complete the Postdoc Entrance Survey.
- Postdoc Termination: Termination letter templates can be obtained by contacting the HR Director of Employee Performance and Development, Brad Mathers, at Brad.Mathers@cuanschutz.edu.
- Have a postdoc who just completed their training? Ask them to complete the Postdoc Exit Survey.
If you still have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us - we're here to help.