What Is The Difference Between A Doctoral And A Post-Doctoral? What Exactly Do Post-Docs Do?

Answer 1

A Doctoral student is a graduate student (typically someone who has both a first degree such as a BA or a BSc and a Master's degree) and is going to university to obtain a final degree, usually a Ph.D. A Post-Doctoral Fellow (that is the usual term, others are used as well) has completed formal education, has a doctoral degree but does not yet have a permanent job, e.g. is not yet a professor. A Post-Doc typically both conducts research, usually under some degree of supervision by a more established scholar, and does a bit of teaching assuming the Post-Doctoral fellowship is held at a university. Typically a person is a Post-Doc for two years and then if you are good and or lucky you enter a job which will be permanent, e.g. a tenure-stream academic job.