Last year of PhD: only one paper in peer review and other in arxiv. Problem with postdoc? I am starting to look for postdoc (I am at the end of my 3rd year of PhD, my PhD is a 3 year long and I will finish in october) and I currently only have 1 co-author publication (on a good journal), and 1 still on arxiv on which I am first author.
In the meantime we are writing 2 papers on which I am first author.
However I am worried that as &quot;in practice&quot; I only have one paper in a peer reviewed journal the post-doc advisor might not be super interested in my profile. Indeed it is &quot;easy&quot; to say &quot;look there is another on arxiv and other in preparations&quot;. Because as long as it is not peer reviewed it could be something of poor quality in people mind.
My question is then: on my CV I wrote &quot;in preparation&quot; for those two other papers. But isn't it a bad thing to only have one co authored paper in a peer review at this stage? How usually post-doc recruiter (for a first post-doc) look at the publications? Are they putting weight in the &quot;in prep&quot; section of the curriculum? How to &quot;defend&quot; my profile?
You should work to improve your record, however you can, but it is what it is, so you have to deal with that. I think, however, that choosing a postdoc purely by counting papers would be pretty foolish. The question should be, and, I hope, usually is, how good a fit is this candidate for this position.
I can't guarantee that everyone is rational, of course, but the nature and significance of your work should weigh heavily. And, a rational system would look at more than what you have already finished. Work in progress is a good thing. A reasonable personality is a good thing. Compatible interests, a circle of contacts (especially collaborators)... All good things.
My suggestion is that in any application, that you don't apologize for how bad you are, as you seem to be doing here. Instead, indicate how your skills match the requirements of the position and your goals looking forward.
It is easy to get a lot of work done, and maybe publications, if you only work on the easier-to-resolve problems. If you work on hard problems (harder than average), then having fewer than average publications is natural. Some questions take a long time to answer. If you are confident in your work, then project that confidence, as well as your compatibility with any position you apply for.