Isolated in the Lab: Examining Dissatisfaction with Postdoctoral Appointments

Dissatisfaction with postdoctoral appointments is associated with demographics, career goals, types of research, postdoc-advisor interaction, and program quality. Rather than a simple inverse relationship to dissatisfaction, the effect of program quality depends on the postdoc’s autonomy to shape a research project, interaction with an advisor, and the advisor’s commercialization-related activities.