Career Paths

Kate
Sleeth

Philanthropy: your next source of funding?

How many of us have heard that getting grants is much harder now than it was in the “good old days?”  Well, I have only been researching full time since I began my postgraduate research, which was 11 years ago, and I don’t think I see a change.  Maybe I am not old enough to really se...


Kate
Sleeth

Marketing for Scientists

I often hear people in different jobs and career levels comment that in this economy there are no jobs or funding to apply for.  With all the advice from the various Bio Careers bloggers, and from receiving career opportunity updates, I know that is wrong.  Therefore, how do you make yours...


Kate
Sleeth

Empowerment Towards Real Success

In January, my local AWIS chapter event was a seminar given by Joan Moran on Empowering Women Towards Real Success.  Joan has had an exceedingly interesting life with a variety of career changes: a background in theatre, an entrepreneur, artistic director, actress, producer, a teacher of acting...


Clement
Weinberger

What was it that you said?

…or wanted to say? …or wrote? How many times have you seen the phrase “... must have excellent written and oral communication skills” listed among the qualifications needed to get a job? The phrase reminds me of many grad school Friday afternoons. That was when we had “Bioseminar.” A ...


Kate
Sleeth

The Importance of Transparency

Recently there have been a number of articles in high impact journals discussing the ethics of researching and publishing on deadly viruses (for a synopsis https://www.nature.com/news/specials/mutantflu/index.html?WT.ec_id=NEWS-20120124).  I am talking about the two independent research groups ...


Clement
Weinberger

Just where do you think you’re going?

We’ve all heard that question before. Even if one just answers “out,” not wanting to get into the details, it’s good to have a destination in mind. Some of you will have guessed that this is really a metaphor for life after grad school. Want another one? I saw a cartoon in the New Yorker mag...


Ray
Wang

The Great Wall

The Chinese people began to build the Great Wall of China in the 5th century BC. The great wall is for protecting the country from invasion, theft and plunder. Today, as we enter the globalized technical-oriented industrial/business world, protection like the Great Wall is still needed, even more es...


Christine
Crumbley

Questions for the Interview

In my last post, I shared the advice that I had received as I prepared to head to my first batch of postdoctoral position interviews. I did practice my interview seminar. I packed 4 sets of nearly identical outfits to ensure a professional look – all black for the shirt, pants, and shoes with a co...


Wenny
Lin

Emergency child/dependent care – benefits for everyone

Recently, I consoled a fellow postdoc during her latest crisis. Her problem was not that her PCR primers didn’t work or that her paper just got rejected for the 5th time. No, her problem was that she was a single mother of two adorable girls, and one of them was sick with a fever. Therefore, baby ...


Nathan
Fisher

Creativity versus Stability

That choice wasn't anything that I thought about when leaving academia for government research.  Perhaps because my first government post, with the US Army, actually involved a whole lot of creativity.  Probably even more than I got to use during my dissertation work.