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[samuel1977]

I am about to graduate from a university in Germany with a doctoral degree in the social sciences in a new and emerging field. I am searching for post docs, and I have seen many faculty members who are working in areas similar to mine. I would like to apply for a post doc in North America. Is it OK to write to professors giving an outline of my research interests and asking them if they would be interested in a post doc application?

[fayefaye]

This is pretty common in my area (sciences).

[totoro]

In most social sciences there aren't many post-docs and these are usually advertised. This may be different in psychology, though for example, I don't know. I'm in economics.

[cranefly]

This is going to depend on field. I get an awful lot of these coming from India and China, and so I generally delete them without even reading them.
Do NOT send a CV at this stage--get one online, and then you can just provide a link.
DO look up what they actually do and tailor the email accordingly. Nothing like reading a generic "I am interested in <<your subfield>>" email, opening up the CV and seeing nothing about my entire field, never mind subfield.
DO indicate if you are self-funded. Sometimes foreign countries will fund PDFs to research abroad, so indicate whether or not you would be coming with funding behind you. You'd be amazed how many emails I get that don't tell me this information.

Really, though, it's kind of spammy to do this, I think. Far better to pick a few people you really want to work with and have someone else introduce you. If you can't do that, make a trip to the places you want to go or check which conferences the profs are going to and ask if you can talk to them about opportunities. Or, talk to your professional organization(s) and see if they are aware of anyone who is looking. In my experience, I've only  hired people who came recommended through other profs, never cold-call emails.

[bwwm1]

I did get two postdoc offers in the humanities by emailing profs whom I'd never met and asking if they were willing to sponsor me for a couple of postdoc competitions. So it's certainly possible.

[totoro]

I did get two postdoc offers in the humanities by emailing profs whom I'd never met and asking if they were willing to sponsor me for a couple of postdoc competitions. So it's certainly possible.

That's different to asking to be someone's post-doc with no reference to applying for a post-doc fellowship to be carried out in the location of the person you are e-mailing.

Or maybe that's what the OP means?

[bwwm1]

I did get two postdoc offers in the humanities by emailing profs whom I'd never met and asking if they were willing to sponsor me for a couple of postdoc competitions. So it's certainly possible.

That's different to asking to be someone's post-doc with no reference to applying for a post-doc fellowship to be carried out in the location of the person you are e-mailing.

Or maybe that's what the OP means?

In both cases the prof in question is still the supervisor, although supervision in the humanities for postdocs seems to be almost notional. But you're correct as the funding model in the humanities is that everyone has to find their own money, whereas there's more of a commitment from postdoc supervisors if the funding come their own research pot.

[totoro]

I actually have a grant and am looking to hire a post-doc. This is for the first time in my career - I just got to full prof. It's unusual for economists though to have grants and be looking to hire someone. And I'll do some searching through my contacts and advertising on mailing lists etc. when I am ready to hire which isn't quite yet. I need some very specific skills which wouldn't be apparent from my past research - I want to hire someone to complement me technique-wise. And yes there are fellowships you could apply for to be a post-doc here and I am certainly interested in discussing that with people. But not "can I be your post-doc, I'm interested in (vaguely) your field." Or even if you said you wanted to do very specifically the stuff I do in collaboration with me, I don't have the money for that.