Beals

Congrats to you too!! It was in the 'notice of decision' letter.

I got my results (got an email with my extranet account link + a message saying the results were up). It took several minutes of resetting passwords and error messages but - I got it! I was in committee 3. I ranked 9/90 and my score was 5.13/6. The letter says the last funded score is 4.84/6, and that overall in the competition 28% of applicants were offered a fellowship (much higher than previous years!). Good luck to everyone else! As for me - I'm still shaking and cannot believe it!!! Edit: forgot to mention - my letters were uploaded on Feb 24 so they really have been sitting on this.

Yes, those are certainly factors to consider! I had been under the impression SSHRC postdocs are taxable at the regular rate, unlike SSHRC doctoral scholarships (see the 'value and duration' section: https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/fellowships/postdoctoral-postdoctorale-eng.aspx ). For folks in Ontario their after-tax take home pay would be just over $33,000, though as you mention folks in other provinces with a lower tax rate will see a higher amount. However - I just did some digging and I saw a McGill webpage saying SSHRC postdoc tax info is included on a T4A.... within which income is generally considered non-taxable (that's where my non-taxable SSHRC CGS is listed anyway)??? Svaaron, if its true that award holders take home the entirety with no tax deductions you have just made my day!! Edited to say: feel like I can't get too excited about this fact since I've still only got a shot in hell of getting the award. Stay humble, Beals!!!

I'm applying to hold internationally too, and I've also appreciated the outside perspective reaction to SSHRC. All the issues you reference above, but I also had a 'funny' interaction with the research office at my prospective school: as he was reviewing the fellowship details to make sure there'd be no issues with me holding SSHRC at the uni he saw the funding sum and said "$45,000? You know that's not equivalent to full time funding, right?" Because here postdocs generally speaking start at $90k. Like, yes Mr Research Officer Man, I am aware Canadian postdocs are exploited, but I still want the fellowship ? Nothing like some honest international perspective. I think at home everyone is so used to SSHRC that while we complain we don't really expect anything different.

I'm currently living on the other side of the world, where we're technically a day ahead due to time zones. I think the time difference has reduced my stress while waiting a bit, because if I don't have a result by the time I wake up I know I'm probably not getting news that day. That said .... I really really really really really hope I wake up to an email with (good) news tomorrow! Fingers crossed for all of us that we can avoid another week of anticipation!

I imagine the turnaround time to accept the award is somewhat short (before end of April). However, I know you can accept the award and then reject it before starting with no issue (and maybe your award would then be given to the next person down the list - I think? If this operates like a SSHRC doctoral award? Anyone know?). I am basing this off a personal anecdote of a friend who won a SSHRC postdoc, accepted, and then several months later got a TT job and thus rescinded her acceptance of the postdoc. She had no issues doing this, and I assume it's a fairly common occurrence as the folks who are competitive for a postdoc are often the same folks who are competitive on the job market. I'm not sure what the protocol is for those who start the award but then quit part way through. I assume this is common as well (scenario: someone accepts a 2 year SSHRC postdoc, starts it in November, but gets a TT job that starts the following July and thus only actually holds the postdoc for 8 months). Don't know what the funding repercussions of that are though (does the unused funding $ go back into the pot to open up another postdoc? Seems unlikely since the number of people awarded does not vary from year to year).

Do you think you could actually finish your PhD in the two years of funding you have left? You use the word 'paralyzed' which implies the answer is no. Personally, I don't see the point in spending two years running into a wall and making no progress, and then upon reaching the end of your funding either leaving the program anyway (and thus having been miserable for two years to no end) or taking on heaps of contract work while trying to complete your thesis (and thus extending your misery for extra years). I think if you can do as PsyDuck suggests and bang out a mediocre thesis just to get it over with - go ahead and do it! If that's what you want! But if you're in anguish ... is it worth it? Which leads to my next question - you're interested in teaching. At what level? Only CC? Would you be interested in teaching at the high school level? I have heard that hiring criteria is quite different for those schools (rather than at a uni) as they don't care about research, so you very well might be able to get a job without a PhD (even with a PhD you still face the chance of not getting a job - having a PhD doesn't guarantee anything, for any job). From my perspective, if sounds like you already know what you want to do. It sounds like if you stay a certain amount of misery is guaranteed - I guess the question is whether enduring the misery is worth it to you. Good luck making this decision - it sounds like a tough one.

Oh wow, I read that as IF, not WHERE. To answer the actual question you asked - my proposed host institution is a university in Australia! I've submitted a complete first draft to my supervisor a month ago, and hope to get comments back by the end of Feb. I really hope to defend in July/August, but I feel as if I can't bank on anything given how common timeline disruptions are (at any point, but especially in this pandemic context!). That said, my SSHRC funding ends in April, and I'm grumpy enough about paying tuition with no funding for the summer semester - I'd better defend then since I'll be super peeved at having to pay for two semesters!!!

Oh, it's wonderful that you have options! If you moved into Data Science, would that involve more education or is there a job in Germany you might have lined up? Sorry to hear that! I hope you get better news when the SSHRC results come out! I think I'll do the same re: putting off the decision to enter alt-ac for a few years (ie trying exclusively for an academic job for a while). You sound very resilient with your many plans so I'm sure you'll be successful no matter what path you follow

I wanted to ask a similar (but more depressing) question, Gleefullygloomy! If successful I will take the postdoc - though I still hope to find other (more lucrative and long term!) work before the postdoc starts (i.e., TT job). Though - if I apply to another postdoc scheme using the same project/supervisor/school and am successful ... can I hold both SSHRC and that other award? Scanning SSHRC's conditions it seems that I can (as long as its not Banting), and I think I've seen other folks hold both SSHRC and Killam. I do want to know what ideas folks have regarding work if they're not successful? What other employment is everyone looking at as a backup? If I defend over the summer, as I plan to, but don't get SSHRC I plan to apply for international postdocs I'm eligible for (where I live now many postdocs apps open in Sept/Oct and the award starts in January for those successful), and in the meantime do contract lecturing and RA work (through which I would actually make more money than on a SSHRC postdoc - go figure). As you can see from this post, my brain is spinning with all the different possibilities! Oh, the uncertainty of academia!

Hi Mrazy, Thanks for the info! I thought we received letters via snail mail - so great that we can check online! Much more efficient! And hopefully we hear in Feb this year too!

I'm applying for the first time. Currently ABD, applying to hold the postdoc at a uni abroad. Based on last year (and, ya know, how SSHRC operates as an institution) we'll likely have to wait until early March ... but would be thrilled to be put out of my misery within the next 4 weeks instead!

They don't sound like they mean well and they do sound like terrible people. If they're not interested in teaching you the skills you need to successfully do research that is not your fault. If they wanted someone who already knew advanced research techniques, they should have hired someone with advanced research techniques - not a fresh college grad. It is the responsibility of senior researchers (postdocs) to mentor new hires with less experience. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of pedagogy would know that showing someone something once and then expecting them to be an expert is NOT good pedagogy. I'm sorry they're treating you like this. You don't deserve to work in a toxic environment like that.

The difficulty I'm facing is that postdoc applications are due 11 months before I plan to graduate, so I need a good number of pubs by Sept 2021, even though I'll probably defend in July/August 2022. By the time I graduate I should have 7, two of which will be co-authored and five sole-authored. Six will be in peer reviewed journals, five of which have an impact factor. One is a book chapter. I'll probably have several under review at that time too. I've learned over the past few years it's hard to make any solid guesses when it comes to publishing though, so who knows! I currently have 3 publications with 2 submitted/under review, and two more in the works. I have plans for at least two others, but haven't started yet (and won't start for a few more months). Also am beginning to suspect there's a point of diminishing returns for pubs when it comes to the TT job market so am trying not to stress too much.

Do you mean to find CfPs, or to publish one for a conference you're organizing? If the former, I've had the best experience identifying key conferences in my field and going to their specific websites, and joining a field specific listserve.