Should I do a post doc? Good thesis but no papers (yet) I am finishing writing my thesis in physics, where I present a new kind of microscope. I think it's a good work but I have no papers out yet, also because of a perfectionist supervisor. I have been told two papers should be ready within a few months, but I don't really believe this and I don't know I will have the energy to work hard for them... I feel a bit worn out, and I know I need a break. 

On the postdoc side, I got a few rejections, submitted a good application for a fellowship and I guess I could do a postdoc with a professor at my department, but I would prefer to move somewhere else. To put things in contest, I'm 30 and European.

With these premises (good work and no publications, while the other students I know have 3 papers out at least), do you think it would be a good idea to do a postdoc?
First of all, I know you are tired (been there, done that), but those papers must be published. This might be different on your specific field, but usually the thesis itself doesn't have much use, apart from being a requisite for the defence. If you don't publish your results, properly, it would be almost like you never did it at all. Like I usually say to my students, "if you did the research/wrote the paper all alone in the forest and nobody saw it, did you actually do it?"...

Second, postdocs are pretty much mandatory. Again, this might be different for your field, but, in general, you are expected to do a few years as a postdoc, specially if you want to be a professor in a reasonable research university... It similar to the internship part of engineering degrees/accreditation, IMHO. This is even more true in Europe, with shorter phd durations (3-4 years X 5-6 years in the US)..