Career Paths

Wenny
Lin

Some practical reasons why NIH postdocs are having babies

Despite the progressively louder tick of the biological clock, many scientists are unwilling to allow a pregnancy or a newborn slow them down during the high-stakes years of a postdoctoral fellowship. Besides, the meager stipends and sometimes limited health benefits combined with the wrath of lab m...


Jason
Sherwin

Education and Hard Work - Necessary, Though Not Sufficient

The theme of this posting is ‘Educated, Unemployed and Frustrated’ and it is a commentary/response on the article by the same name from the March 20 edition of The New York Times. The original article was written by Matthew Klein. The main thesis of Mr. Klein’s article is that recent graduates...


Ray
Wang

Hit the gym, you are gonna need it.

Time and time again, when the Nobel Prizes were announced, one of my friends repeated his theory: you’ve got to stay alive long enough to wait for the prize coming to you. That was just his joke after seeing so many winners are actually over 70 years old. However, it is practical. If you messed up...


Andrea
H.

Overspecialization of PhDs?

This article prompted my post: https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472261a.html There has been an ongoing (and very heated) debate in many of our trade journals about whether PhDs are overspecialized.  Yes, I think overspecialization in our particular fields of study may be an issue, in...


Sarah
Pick

Attending BIO International Convention

I recently attended BIO’s International Convention in Washington, DC and it was quite an exciting week. Over 15,000 people attended from 48 states and 65 countries.  I’ve written about maximizing your networking at scientific conferences, and I took a colleague’s advice by volunteering at...


Andrea
H.

Working with Recruiters

When I was looking for a job last year, I applied endlessly (online) to positions that seemed to fit perfectly with my skill set.  Even with inside referrals, I found it very difficult to get a response from hiring managers, especially with large companies. They were most likely overwhelmed wit...


Mandy
Kendrick

Out of grad school and into the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

As I finished typing up my Ph.D. dissertation in the spring of 2009, I began exploring non-academic job prospects.  My boyfriend and I had been dating for a couple of years and were looking forward to getting married and starting a life together—a life that included balance.  From my obs...


Ping
Xiao

QUALITY

Quality is the life of industry, especially for healthcare related enterprises. We need to satisfy not only the customer, but also the government. If you want to work for industry, no matter what kind of work you do, you have to put quality in your mind first. Furthermore, if you work for an interna...


Stephanie
Yeung

How to Present Stylishly

No, this is not a VOGUE article that advises you on your work wardrobe. One of the things that graduate school can do better is prepare students to be effective presenters. In my early phase of transiting into marketing functions, one of the biggest adjustments was my presentation style. Looking bac...


Siva
Muthukrishnan

“Aah” moments in research: in academia & industry

Hope you have been having a fabulous July so far. As I signed off last month, I left you with a thought on the research process and how that can impact your career. Let’s continue from there.