Can be a great, stimulating place to do research. - Post Doc MIT Employee Review

4.0
13 July 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great intellectual atmosphere. Nice resources. Opportunities to meet and collaborate with lots of smart, motivated people. They are at least making an effort to improve relations with their postdoc community.

Cons

Though there are really great resources here, they are often owned by particular labs; so you may not be able to have access to them. Postdocs are in a strange category of personnel here, and they don't quite know how to deal with us. They don't give postdocs access to the careers office, and many PIs don't have time for or knowledge of the job market (even inside academia), which doesn't help postdocs to move on. Your experience will largely be dictated by your PI, your project(s), how hard you work, and luck, just like everywhere else. Don't assume, as many do, that because it is MIT it will automatically be better than a postdoc position elsewhere.

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5.0
7 July 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fantastic work-life balance and lots of freebies. Join the sailing program! They teach you for free!

Cons

Got hit by the federal cuts. Not their fault but you would think they'd have better savings

4.0
26 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

High quality core facilities and well resourced labs. Countless brilliant colleagues who can serve as mentors and collaborators

Cons

Students and Postdocs are expensive due to high overhead, so unreasonably high productivity is often expected compared to other institutions. PIs are typically stretched very thin. Most departments/labs are very space limited which makes it harder to do safe and productive research.

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