I am interested in the work of a particular researcher in my field and I would like to do a postdoc in his lab. Unfortunately I have never met him in person and at the moment he doesn´t advertise any open position in his lab. I thought of just contacting him, stating my interest in his research and asking him to consider me as a potential postdoc there. Thinking of the massive such emails PIs must be getting daily I am wondering if there is something I could do to stand out and somehow show my real enthusiasm for the research subject. I really think this lab could be a good fit so if you have any ideas how I can increase my chances would be great hear. Did any of you land with a job offer by contacting a researcher out of the blue? Thank you for any input!

Good idea! I hadn't considered browsing relevant groups and initiate contacting them. Does any one know how effective this would be?

I can't see how this would work, given the regulations about hiring people.

I don't know anyone who has done this and found it to be successful (except international students with funding looking for PhDs) but I do know people that have got postdocs from their supervisors contacting their 'friends' and asking them if they want a postdoc. They would then just go through normal employee enrolment.

My supervisor told me to contact random PIs directly, but like you, I wondered how to do it and how effective it would be so I didn't.

well i don´t know what else remains to do except for just contacting people. since there is no advertised position in my broader field of research at the moment. and I am searching in many different countries basically in whole europe. if I search for position in the even broader field they ask for techniques i am not familiar with and my chances of success are rather limited because I guess one would pay a postdoc to be already experienced and independent.

Yep this is what I have found - I've had rejections without interviews (2 so far) from 6 postdocs I've applied to where I don't have the exact skill set required.

There are blogs and articles I've read from academics saying how to write these contact emails for PhDs so I assume you can adopt a similar style. I can't find the links now though.

yes i already did this search and it does help the way of writing. but it just scares me off to send this email to a guy who i have no previous contact. i think maybe he just deletes it without a second thought. oh well i guess i just have to try and see how it goes. in the worst case i am back to square one.

oh and good luck to you for your search treeoflife :-)

I should have added that I also applied to one postdoc where I did have the skills required and got it :) Not exactly my dream job or location but it's something! Hope you find one too!

Hey congratulations. I guess it's very hard finding a dream job. I would be happy finding something close to the subject of my phd as i really like my work. But as the time passes i broaden my search. So i will post back to let you know how/ if cold emailing is working :-p