BGS Career Development

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Articles

OITE: “Core Competencies & Blog Resources”

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The NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE) Careers blog emphasizes four core competencies for trainees:

  1. Communication
  2. Career Readiness & Exploration
  3. Leadership & Management
  4. Teaching & Mentoring

They include useful descriptions of these skills sets, as well as a listing of blog posts relevant to each. These include topics such as difficult work conversations (communication), overcoming a fear of informational interviews (career readiness), good mentoring guidelines (leadership), and more.

See the full list of resources here.

SfN: “The World of Science Publishing”

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Though many people typically associate science editing and publishing with peer-reviewed journals, a wide variety of editorial positions exist worldwide, explains the Society for Neuroscience. The article describes a number of these positions, including acquisitions, developmental, and substantive editing, and more.

SfN also provides a Science Publishing Career Path Guide with information on salaries, the employment outlook for the field, and a typical career trajectory.

Read more here.

“Acing the Reverse Interview”

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Dr. Joseph Barber, Senior Associate Director at Penn Career Services, published a helpful article on a job search challenge that is increasing in frequency – the reverse interview. Joseph explains that in a typical interview, most hiring managers tend to end the conversation with, “Do you have any questions for me?” In a reverse interview, this is the first and only question asked. Though Joseph has heard of this happening in all types of career fields and industries, it seems to be a trend with small start-ups with a less structured HR department, as well as during campus interviews for faculty jobs.

Preparing for this possibility with an extensive list of questions will lead to a one-sided conversation with you listening to the interviewer’s response. As Joseph describes, it is better to prepare a few strategic questions that will allow you to follow the interviewer’s answers with examples of your own. For instance, you might ask about cross-disciplinary work at their organization so that you can share stories about your own cross-disciplinary successes. Joseph provides dialogue examples and other suggestions to make a great impression.

Read more here.

SfN: How to Prepare for a Science Policy Career

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The Society for Neuroscience has published a number of insights for students interested in a career in science policy. These include:

  • Learn about different science policy careers.
  • Track the issues.
  • Participate or plan advocacy activities.

The author provides fuller detail on these and other recommendations. For even more information, they recommend reading the government program management and policy and advocacy career path guides.

Read more here.

“A Day in the Life of PUI Teaching Professor”

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NIH’s Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) maintains a PhD/Postdoc Blog that discusses work-life balance, career options, and job application process. The most recent post was written by a doctorate student interested in teaching at a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI). She conducted informational interviews with three professors at PUIs and summarized their responses.

Read more here.