Career Paths

Sarah
Pick

The Fine Art of Being Mentored (Part 1)

No doubt about it, there’s an art to building an effective mentor-mentee relationship.  Seeking out a good mentor for your career growth and actively engaging as a “mentee” are integral to initiating a connection.Since this process is so important to the development of life scientists’ ...


Marielena
Mata

On Father’s Day– the personal wars that shape our careers

I was 8 years old the first time I saw my father cry at my brother’s college graduation.  In an instant, I learned what pride looked like and vowed to make my father proud.  When I was 13, I saw my father cry for the second time as, with a broken voice, he shared the news of my grandmoth...


Wenny
Lin

Career and professional development at the NIH

As a graduate student, I thought being a postdoc was a rather bad deal. On top of the bad pay, no retirement benefits, and the countless hours in the lab, postdocs must sometimes rely on their antiquated, anchored-in-academia mentors for career advice. When I arrived at the NIH, I learned that the p...


Clement
Weinberger

Flying By The Seat of Your Pants

What’s that? It means deciding on a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan. From what I’ve been told, the description “fly by the seat of your pants” fell into popular use after Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan flew from ...


Marielena
Mata

Teamwork: Lessons from Baseball

After 28 years, in 2008 the Phillies finally clinched the World Series and with it, my attention for the sport.  Mind you, I have been watching baseball since I can remember.  Having grown up in Venezuela (the second highest source of players for Major League Baseball, thank you very much!...


Stephanie
Yeung

A 500-Mile-Higher Career

Hello readers! My name is Stephanie Yeung, a new addition to the Bio Careers blogger fleet. I am a scientist turned marketing professional. Thanks to Bio Careers, now I have a place to share with you my journey jumping from academic research into business functions after getting my Bioengineering Ph...


Mandy
Kendrick

Small-town Girl in a Big World

Hey everyone!  I’m Mandy, a Missouri farm girl transplanted to the Washington D.C. metro area and a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Research Service.  I am excited and thankful for the opportunity to blog for Bio Careers about my work in agriculture.


Ping
Xiao

Believe in Yourself is the Way to Success- My Story of Transition From Academia

Once upon a time, there was an eagle that grew up with a group of chickens. He thought of himself as a chicken too, enjoying a routine life the same as everybody else. His master was very angry when trying various methods to get him to fly, but he couldn’t.


Clement
Weinberger

Publish or Perish?

You know what it means. In academia, achieving tenure, promotions, and obtaining research funding puts a lot of pressure on faculty to publish frequently. Numerous publications are seen as a demonstration that one has made a significant impact on the field.


Wenny
Lin

Salary expectations in the federal government

I was recently contacted by a recruiter about a job opening.  He caught me off-guard (mistake on my part) with the question, “What are your salary expectations?”Like any excellent scientist would do, rather than giving him an answer, I turned his question into another question, “Well, wha...