Performing an academic job search for the first time (unlike the industry ones), the more I dive in, the more I see how such search for a junior faculty position is very dependent on timing, time frames, natural seasons and academic calendar (and I totally understand the reasons for that). However, that creates significant challenges in my particular situation, to a degree that I almost decided to abandon my junior faculty position search and focus exclusively on postdoctoral positions along with some IT research-related and general research-focused industrial ones.
In addition to timing issues, there is also a reason that many, if not most, junior faculty positions require or prefer a candidate to have a portfolio of peer-reviewed publications (or, at least, working papers) as well as teaching experience and, often, teaching evaluations. Unfortunately, at the present time I cannot offer any of these (beyond my dissertation and citable research software).
Having said all that, for my job search planning and plan adjustment purposes, I am curious about time frames for decision making and hiring for postdoctoral positions. I realize that this aspect might significantly vary, between geographical locations and, even, institutions. However, if there are some average numbers for US universities, I would appreciate you sharing them (my discipline is information systems, if it matters). So, my question is as follows:
For US postdoctoral positions, what are approximate time frames between applying and making hiring decisions as well as between communicating such decisions and desired actual start dates?