Why bother,' I sometimes thought. If I didn't have this, I would be a sessional lecturer somewhere, in much the same position regarding jobs. Indeed, in the humanities, where fellowships are relatively rare, a post-doc gives one a chance to build a publication record and thus make oneself more employable. As a result, these post-docs are in a more vulnerable position. They have made it successfully to another plateau, but with no guarantee they will be able to find a job vindicating the years of effort.
Constant mobility is another stress point.
Post-docs are peripatetic folks, whether they like it or not. The standard trajectory sees one take a PhD at one university, a post-doc at another and, if fortune smiles, a job at a third. I had more contacts in Quebec than I was able to establish in Vancouver. Recently, McGill has begun to pay more attention to post-docs. For instance, post-docs were credited with making vital contributions to two of McGill's most lauded research discoveries of the past year.