Xintong Li (李昕彤)
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xintong-li.bsky.social
Xintong Li (李昕彤)
@xintong-li.bsky.social
10 followers 17 following 2 posts
💪🏻PhD student at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University
#attention #decision-making #eye-tracking
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Reposted by Xintong Li (李昕彤)
perfors.net
I have been emailing with a student offering advice about navigating the post-PhD job market and it struck me that the advice was general enough that more people might benefit. So here you go!

tl;dr: Figure out what you want your contribution to be, and make choices that can make that happen.
Q: When I think about what will set me up for a university job, what should I evaluate potential post-docs based on? Should I consider things like the institution and where it's based? Is it about the subject matter of the project and the kind of papers I'll publish and the skill set I'll use? Or is it more about the connections that I'll have the opportunity to make and going to conferences and that kind of thing? A: I think the main things are: (a) the kinds of papers you'll end up being able to publish; (b) the skill set you'll acquire; and (c) the connections you can make. But all of these are contextually dependent -- really what matters is that they pave the path that you want to take and support your narrative of what you do and how you fit (because once a candidate passes a certain bar for quality, hiring decisions are usually made on the basis of skills and fit). To illustrate: if you want to be the kind of researcher whose contribution to your school/field (and narrative) is that you have certain skills, or a certain area of expertise, then you want your postdoc to be one that develops those skills/expertise, where you write papers that showcases that you have those skills/expertise, and where you create connections with people who care about those skills/expertise. That's why it's so important to figure out your narrative and what you want to do: it all starts from there. So the question is not: how do I set myself up to get a university job? It is what kind of university job do I want, and how do I set myself up for that? Some people are like, I don't care, I just want any job! But people don't want to hire people who have no "why" for what they do beyond just getting money -- people hire people who have a contribution to make. So figure out what contribution you want to make, and then choose a postdoc that will best set you up to be able to make it. (And you can always change direction, people do that often, but you want to start with a direction).
December 18, 2025 at 12:32 AM
xintong-li.bsky.social
From science to sightseeing — Boston really knows how to chill 😎 Loved every corner of this city!
October 10, 2025 at 6:19 AM
xintong-li.bsky.social
Had a fantastic time at #SNE2025 — so many insightful talks and inspiring conversations! I shared my poster spotlight on attention and loss aversion, and had great chats with many researchers. Grateful for all the feedback and new connections!
October 10, 2025 at 6:11 AM