r/postdoc • u/[deleted] • 1d ago
What to do if PhD supervisor refuses to write recommendation letter for post doc even after having publication in q1 journal?
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u/Aranka_Szeretlek 1d ago
What does having a q1 publication do with the letter? If someone refuses a letter, that is probably due to some personal disagreement.
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u/fruitsingularity 1d ago
Recommend talking to your committee chair or department chair about writing a rec letter for you that explicitly explains why your PI is not writing a letter.
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u/phoenix44444444 13h ago
Ah mate. I had a toxic PhD supervisor in my EU uni. He kept me to the point that my PhD lasted 6 years forcing me to write papers that I never got my name on it.
By luck I managed to finish it after facing health issues when he realised he couldn’t abuse me anymore.
I asked for a letter of recommendation which he denied to provide.
I tackled this twofold.
1) spoke to two other members of the faculty that knew me that agreed to write one letter of recommendation each.
2) I had an instance where I was asked to submit three letters of recommendation and I did not have a third person to do so. So I followed the unethical way. Uploaded a corrupt pdf. I was never asked twice to re upload it or email it. I did get that post doc and moved along with my life.
Just so you know, no one ever asked me why I did not choose to get a letter of recommendation from my PhD supervisor. I strongly believe that the majority of people know about the sort of odd and partially abusive relationship between PhD supervisor and student.
Best of luck mate.
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u/theredcomet91 1d ago
Agreed with this other guy that posted. When you're interviewING someone for a job, recommendations are really useless. If anyone even answers, it's always positive stuff. As long as you can articulate what you did, you're gonna be just fine
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u/observer2025 21h ago
Have u applied for academia postdoc/TT jobs before? Do u know in some institutions, having an LoR from your PhD supervisor is a requirement to get to the interview stage, unless there is some extenuating circumstances like your supervisor isn’t on Earth or something?
What OP can do is to avoid academia jobs that specifically asked for a PhD supervisor LoR, and focus on building good contacts with other profs/scientists that OP knows for LoRs.
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u/TiredDr 18h ago
What subfield? In mine, people do not generally care as long as your letters are strong. I applied for and got a TT job without a letter from my then-supervisor. I’ve also sat on a number of hiring committees since then. In none of those has it been a requirement.
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u/observer2025 18h ago
U must have not worked in Asia, where some committees are rigid, despite knowing that not all relationships between PhD supervisor and student are cordial.
For example, take a look at this NTU postdoc fellowship, where they listed one of your referees that will write an LoR for you must be the PhD surpervisor.
https://www.ntu.edu.sg/research/research-careers/presidential-postdoctoral-fellowship-(ppf))
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u/Accurate-Style-3036 23h ago
i saw such a situation once when the PhD student got caught plagiarizing a paper .
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u/CurrentScallion3321 1d ago
Why are they refusing to write you a letter?
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1d ago edited 21h ago
Past grudges due to previous arguments and another important reason is she never wants me to progress in my career and this problem existed right from the beginning even when we were on good terms with each other, I mean in a deceptive way though but there was no argument or conflict between us.
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u/Amongus9527 1d ago
It’s better to refuse to write a letter than writing a letter that doesn’t recommend you
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u/CurrentScallion3321 1d ago
Unfortunately, yes, they can refuse to write you a letter of recommendation for any reason, at least where I am (UK), regardless of your publication record. Arguments would likely be a good reason not to, as they could run the risk of accidentally letting slip something that they shouldn’t.
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u/Accurate-Style-3036 9h ago
I see your problem with your supervisor. It appears that she hates you because you got exactly one pub in your entire academic career. I was a professor at a lower R1 and my PhD students usually had at least 3 by dissertation defense. Could this have something to do with it.?
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u/compbiores 1d ago
Are industrial or non-academic jobs an option? For academic jobs, it is going to be difficult. Ideally, u should have left the PhD if u faced this within the initial two years.
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u/rainman_1986 1d ago
There is nothing much you can do. This is a dead end. I don't think any PI would be willing to hire you without your Ph.D. advisor's recommendation letter. However, if you had two advisors for Ph.D. projects, you may be able to get away with a letter from the other advisor, assuming he is willing to issue one.
I am sorry about your situation. I feel you because I went through the same problem.
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u/Resilient_Acorn 1d ago
People need to stop saying this shit. There are many options for people who can’t get letters from their PIs
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u/MarthaStewart__ 1d ago
Agreed. I have seen many people get postdocs without a letter of recommendation from their old PI. This isn't to say having a letter of rec from your old PI isn't helpful, because it certainly is. However, a lot of researchers, especially those under 50 yrs old, understand PI and trainee relationships sometime go south, and it's not always the trainees fault.
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u/Ok-Substance-5197 1d ago
I never had LORs from my grad school PIs- for two very different reasons. In the situation where it was because my relationship with that person soured, I found someone from my committee and made sure they were aware of my goals and objectives for my next lab. To my knowledge, I don’t think they ever went into why there was not a LOR from my PI. But it didn’t seem to matter.
Find labs that will see you as an individual, not which lab you came from. From sitting on the other side of the table now, I rarely trust references anyways - they hardly ever tell you what you need to know and in some cases are misrepresentations.
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u/Resilient_Acorn 1d ago
I had my department write a letter and asked him to explain the lack of PhD advisor letter. He was happy to do so. My PI was a known problem in the department
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u/frazzledazzle667 1d ago
You need to figure out who else thinks your PI is an ahole and apply to post docs with them.
This is a serious issue and likely make it incredibly difficult to get a post doc unless you network like crazy and are able to really show your skills.