Guide

How to write a “Join the lab” page that attracts PhD students and postdocs

Recruiting is the main job of a lab website. How to write the Join us page: what to say about open positions, the lab’s culture and mentoring, how applications should work, and example wording you can adapt.

By the Labsite team · 31 October 2026 · 3 min read

University communications offices agree on one thing: the main purpose of a lab website is recruiting — students, postdocs and staff, and through them, funding. Yet the "Join us" page is often a single line: "Interested candidates should contact the PI."

Strong applicants read that line and move on to a lab that told them more. Here is how to write a page that does the recruiting for you.

1. Say what you are looking for, by role

Make a short section for each kind of position, even if it isn't open right now:

PhD students — which graduate programmes you take students from, when admissions happen, and whether you take rotation students.
Postdocs — open positions with start dates, and whether you support fellowship applications (many good postdocs arrive with their own funding).
Staff — technicians, lab managers, research engineers.
Undergraduates and interns — summer projects, credit-bearing research, how many you take.

For each open position give a title, a two-line description of the project, a start date, a closing date and what to send. Mark closed positions as closed rather than leaving them up.

2. Describe the lab as a place to work

Applicants want to know what it's like day to day. A short paragraph on each of these goes a long way:

Mentoring — how often you meet one-to-one, how you support careers beyond academia.
Culture — lab meetings, journal clubs, how people collaborate, expectations on hours.
Training — techniques people learn, conferences they attend.
Where alumni went — the strongest signal of all. A people page with alumni and their current positions does this for you; see lab member bios.

3. Make applying easy — and say what happens next

List exactly what to send: a CV, a short statement of interest, names of referees, perhaps a writing sample. Say how long you usually take to reply. If you can, use an application form rather than email: it keeps applications in one place, makes sure nothing is missing, and saves you from inbox archaeology.

4. Example wording

PhD positions. We take students through the Biology and Biophysics graduate programmes; applications open in October for September start. Rotation students are welcome — write to Ananya with your interests and the term you'd like to rotate.

Postdoc in cryo-EM of membrane transporters (start spring 2027, two years, extendable). You'll build on our recent structures of sodium-coupled transporters. We're looking for experience in structural biology or membrane protein biochemistry. Apply with your CV, a one-page research statement and two referees by 15 January.

How we work. We meet one-to-one every week and as a lab on Mondays. Everyone presents at a conference each year. Our alumni are faculty, industry scientists and science writers — see where on our People page.

5. Link it from everywhere

Put "Join us" in the main menu and a short "We're hiring" note on the home page whenever a position is open. Mention it in news posts about grants. Our new PI checklist treats this page as the first one to write.

On Labsite

Labsite's Join us page lists open positions — each marked open or closed in one click — and comes with an application form and inbox: candidates apply on your site, and you see every application with its files in the dashboard. Home pages show a "Now hiring" note while positions are open. See it on the example lab or start your site.