The iJOBS Networking Event for Students, Postdocs and Alumni was held on September 15th in the Research Towers on the Rutgers Piscataway campus. This casual event, held after hours, provided a fun (and food!) filled informal, stress-free environment where several Rutgers alumni shared their job hunting and career experiences with current students. Attendees had the opportunity to directly interact with alumni to gain insight into what they have been up to since graduation. Science communication and writing, pharmaceutical career paths, and working at the scientific interface were just some of the various career paths that were on the discussion table. Students had the opportunity to gain valuable insights into tactics regarding transitioning into the current job market.
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iJOBS blogger Maria Qadri live tweeting the networking event[/caption]
I first spoke with Dr. Jillian Whidby, a manager of medical writing at Integrium. Integrium is a clinical research firm invested in areas like cardiovascular, dermatology, and metabolic diseases. The medical writing department at Integrium is aimed at putting together regulatory documents, publications and marketing materials. It chiefly works at preparing clinical study reports, integrated summaries, study manuals and protocols, drug monographs, literature reviews, manuscripts, abstracts, symposia materials, and visual aids. As manager, Dr. Whidby oversees the department which aims to clearly deliver research and other technical information to a non-specialized audience while complying with regulatory and ethical standards. Biggest perk of her job? Being able to work from home; she is required to report to headquarters in California only twice each year. Though she misses the hustle and bustle that is typical of life in a research lab, good pay and a flexible work schedule are more than enough to make up for it! You can read more about Jillian and her work with Integrium in a previous iJOBS informational interview.
Next I spoke with Dr. Alexander Izabuirre who founded Aprenda Systems in 2013. Dr. Izaguirre previously worked as the executive director of strategic initiatives at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and then as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Baylor College of Medicine before founding his own company in the Healthcare IT field. The company aims to provide simple, user-friendly, cloud-based master provider platforms that aspire to facilitate the ease of collecting, managing and maintaining accurate healthcare provider information by healthcare providers. A slowly burgeoning field, healthcare IT is steadily becoming a feasible and lucrative option for scientists trained biomedical and allied healthcare sciences.
Undeniably, the overarching theme of the conversations was the alumni’s take on how to make one’s self more marketable in the biomedical job market. It is absolutely crucial to be at the right place at the right time. The alumni strongly encouraged students to go out of their comfort zone while exploring career options since many job opportunities pop-up unexpectedly. Emphasis was also placed on reinventing oneself every five years to keep challenged, focused, and innovative. The candid conversations were refreshing because the alumni in respective fields did not shy away from being honest about what they hated about their current jobs. This helped to “keep it real” as far as expectations from various career paths were concerned.
My advice for people new to networking events would echo the alumni’s advice: put yourself out there. Don’t shy away from asking about the various options available to you; specifically, don’t be afraid to ask what exactly a particular field of work is all about. For instance, when choosing a particular career path, be sure to cover your basics: What are your own expectations from your job? Do you hate a fixed work schedule and would love to work from home? What exactly will be your responsibilities at that job? What are employers looking for in potential candidates? How can you hone your skills in specific areas that you think are deficient?
I was amazed at how miniscule details came up in the networking event that helped dispel many misconceptions I have had. For instance, why would companies hire biomedical science Ph.D.s for science writing? I thought a Master’s degree should be sufficient. But as Dr. Whidby explained, the critical thinking and analytical skills that we acquire throughout the course of our graduate school training are invaluable tools that can make us very productive employees in the science communication arena. Other skills like aptitude for problem solving, organization and team-work that are integral parts of our graduate school years are also extremely marketable skills. This opened my eyes to the underlying skills I already have and which areas I need to work on after attending this networking event. So look out for the next networking event on campus: you might find your first break around an unexpected corner!