hiya - am still in 15months into the phd. I have been thinking about postdoc positions and where i would like to go. I really like a department in the states that is totally in my field of study etc. With postdoc positions, do you have to wait to see if they have a vacancy or do you approach the head of department and tell them what you are doing etc? I know its early, its just that if i need to approach them then I should start networking early right?

from what ive found you can approach them beforehand this seems to be how the majority of people obtain postdocs. ive been told to start networking now.. (1.5 into my PhD)

I am soc-sci.
;-$ Although I have a vague idea I'm not really 100 % sure what a post-doc involves.
I have a had a few people say to me after I've presented at a conference that thay think the thesis has book potential & and one of my supers has said a couple of times I could get a good post-doc out of it- I was under the impression that it is where you spend a year or so exploiting your research, writing papers, speaking etc and the uni pay you a pittance in return. Is that right?

that should have been a

Briefly (in academia/science anyway), a post-doc is like doing a PhD for hopefully more money (unless you are one of these lucky students getting 18K tax free in which case expect to get less money!). It's tougher than PhD in some respects because you are usually juggling multiple projects, writing multiple funding applications and teaching too. You can, of course, try to find a position prospectively by networking, sending out your CV to people you'd like to work with etc. Otherwise, like any job, check out the adverts in the relevant press and apply! Good luck!!