This past spring, my advisor informed me that I would be graduating in the coming year. Most graduate students would be ecstatic to hear this news, but I was nervous. After the conversation, I was left wondering whether I have enough data to graduate, if my committee would agree that I am ready, and what on earth I am going to do next. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about the steps I should be taking during and after graduate school nearly as much as I should have to advance my career. Thankfully, the iJOBS program now exists to help students avoid this situation. I have a passion for infectious diseases, but questions remained about where I could apply this passion. Would I fit into the industry culture? Could I make it in academia? Maybe another path I’d never even considered would be the best fit. In May, I attended the 8th Annual NIH Career Symposium in Bethesda, Maryland to get a taste of my future. The symposium is organized by the Office of Intramural Training & Education for graduate students and postdocs every year and features career panels and so-called ‘skill blitz’ workshops. Career panels ranged from bench careers to consulting, communication, and administration. The entire program for the event can be found here with very useful synopses for what was discussed at each panel here. Unfortunately I did not have time to attend the skill blitzes, as I had a long drive back to Rutgers ahead of me, but they highlighted skills necessary for job searching such as how to use USAjobs.gov, creating an effective resume, interviewing skills, and stress management. Presentation slides for these blitz sessions can be found here. I attended four career panels: Careers in Industry R&D, How to Successfully Transition to Industry, Careers in Science Communication, and Bench Careers in Unexpected Places. The industry panelists were representatives from several companies such as Novartis, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Illumina. Panelists of the first two sessions emphasized that industry is very fast paced, and you must be extremely versatile and flexible about a project at any given time. You may walk into the office one day and find your project has been scrapped and you’ve been assigned a new one. To me, this was almost the opposite of academia, where you can spend your entire life researching one protein, for example. Almost certainly this career path would appeal to many people who enjoy the inherent excitement of this fast paced environment. The third panel, to my surprise, was absolutely packed. With this many interested in hearing about scientific writing and communications, it almost certainly will not be called an “alternative” career path for much longer. Barbara Cheifet, assistant editor of the open access journal Genome Biology, opened my eyes to editing. I’ve always enjoyed editing the work of my peers, but it never occurred to me that I could spend a career doing it. According to Barbara, the perks of editing often include somewhat flexible hours, remote positions that allow you to work from home, and the opportunity to read about current science advances. Additionally, many positions do not require a postdoc. The field itself is constantly growing due to the creation of new journals. The panelists agreed that one of the easiest ways to get into this field is to get writing any way you can right away, and do freelance editing for companies such as Enago, which is dedicated to editing manuscripts for ESL authors. I am certainly glad I took a chance on this career panel. Lastly was the very intriguing ‘Bench Careers in Unexpected Places’ panel. In the life of a graduate student, one always hears the ‘industry vs. academia’ argument, and people often fail to mention the research careers that are neither industry nor academia. This panel represented research in nonprofit organizations such as Aeras and the J. Craig Venter Institute, and government organizations like the NIH, FDA, and US Army. Overall, the panelists agreed that they were most happy about their freedom to do desired research within their organizations. Nonprofit organizations often have a specific goal. Aeras, for example, is a privately funded biotech company whose goal is to develop an affordable tuberculosis vaccine. How the scientists at Aeras go about achieving this goal is up to them. Investigators at the NIH also enjoyed their freedom in research and increased job security over nonprofits. The NIH hires over 30 tenure-track positions every year. A future blog post will feature an interview with NIH senior investigator Kent Hunter for more information on the ins and outs of working at the NIH. Interestingly, many of the speakers throughout the symposium were once postdocs at the NIH, showing that these postdocs received a well-rounded training which prepared them to take on many different positions from policy writing to research scientist. For more information, I highly recommend reading the online material from the symposium. If you’re still on the fence about how to apply your passion for science, I hope you will consider attending the 9th Annual NIH Career Symposium in 2016. There are always new avenues out there to explore!
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