Should you stay or should you go, asks DrugMonkey. When a doctoral student successfully defends his or her dissertation, does it reflect badly on them to remain in the same lab as a postdoc for six months to a year? There are several reasons this could happen, DrugMonkey says. A paper could be in process which requires more work from said postdoc, or maybe the person hasn't found a great job yet. But reasons aside, DrugMonkey says, the question is one of perception.