BGS Career Development

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Articles

IHE: “Join Your Grad Student or Postdoc Association”

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In this article for Inside Higher Ed, Dr. Robert Pearson, director of professional development at the University of Texas at Dallas, encourages graduate students to become involved with their student associations. Dr. Pearson recalls his own feelings that becoming involved with a student association would distract from his research. Now, as director of professional development, he advises the Graduate Student Assembly at the University of Texas at Dallas. He shares the personal and professional benefits he has witnessed students gain and the relevant skills they have built. Read more here.

Interested students can learn how to get involved with the Biomedical Graduate Student Association (BGSA) or learn about the university-wide Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA).

Science: “You’ve accomplished more than you think”

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Image via Science

In this “Career Fable,” a fictional story meant to provide guidance to scientists on their real-life career journey, a postdoctoral researcher seeking a medical science liaison position worries that her four years of Ph.D. and two years of postdoctoral research make for an unimpressive resume. The story describes her thought-process as she studies the job description to identify key skills the company is looking for and creates a “mind map” of experiences she wouldn’t have thought were relevant, like teaching and science outreach.

The author summarizes:

The moral of the story is:

You are probably stronger than you think.

It is very common for Ph.D. students and postdocs to feel insecure about their achievements and their employability outside of academia. But in many cases, it’s just understatement or a lack of looking at things the way industry does that makes early-career researchers feel like they’re just one of many and have nothing to show for the years they put in—at least nothing that others don’t have.

But you are likely to have many skills that have significant value. To find these skills, dig deeper.

Read more here.

IHE: Harnessing the Power of Systematic Career Exploration

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In this article for Inside Higher Ed, Dr. Rebekah Layton, director of professional development programs in the Office of Graduate Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gives tips on how to begin exploring career pathways early on in graduate training.

She describes her own feelings of panic when she realized the faculty track wasn’t the right fit, as well as the competing priorities that came to light in her search for a new path (financial and family needs, anxiety, and more.) Speaking from her experience, she encourages a, “systematic personalized career exploration plan ” and lays out detailed instructions to create such a plan.

Read more here.

“Application Process For A Policy Fellow” by Mara Olenick

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In a recent piece for the Penn Science Policy and Diplomacy (PSPDG) blog, Mara Olenick, PhD (BMB) writes about her experiences applying for science policy fellowships. Anyone interested in pursuing science policy as a career will be interested to read Mara’s insights on using informational interviews to explore whether a fellowship is a good fit. Mara also shares strategies to manage the application timeline.

Read the full post here.

ASCB: How to ignore good advice and postdoc in a newly opened lab

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Image result for ASCB

The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) features one scientist’s reflections on the process of searching for a postdoc position as he neared the end of his PhD. The author ultimately decided to join a newly opened lab despite initial misgivings, and he shares honest insights on what he sacrificed and gained in the process (i.e. loss of built-in networks versus gaining an immediate impact on the lab’s research and culture.)

Read more here.