It is the dream of every young scientist; after many agonizing years filled with hard work and perseverance, you are at the finish line. Everything falls into place and you receive the most satisfying email you may ever receive: “We are pleased to announce that your manuscript has been accepted for publication in Nature”. This is the ultimate reward for all the long hours spent in the lab and undoubtedly a sign that your work matters.

Stephanie Veerasammy, Ph.D., is a Rutgers alumnus and currently a Scientific Writer at Regeneron.  As a scientific writer she writes about ‘nonclinical pharmacological studies performed to characterize the pharmacodynamics of a drug’. She credits the SciPhD program in preparing her for her career. It gave her the skills necessary to make the transition from academia to her current job.

Edited by: Aminat Saliu Musah You approach the office of your program director with sweaty palms and little scientific progress. You have been dreading this progress meeting since your graduate program assistant asked you to fill out a doodle poll a month ago. As you enter their cluttered office you wonder about how you compare your progress to other graduate students and your own personal career and skills development. When will I graduate? What, if anything in science, am I good at? When will I be ready for the next step in my career progression?

By: Huri Mücahit Edited by: Manjula Mummadisetti and Aminat Saliu Musah   The following blog post is a summary of “Biology needs more staff scientists” by Steven Hyman, “Staff scientists find satisfaction in playing the support role” by Maggie Kuo, and “Wanted: staff-scientist positions for postdocs” by Ke

By Jennifer Casiano As a member of the organizing committee for the 11^th Annual NIH Career Symposium, I had the opportunity of selecting the topics and looking for speakers that were part of the industry career panels. In addition, the day of the symposium I was able to moderate two of the career panels: “Finding the Right Size Company” and “Breakaway Careers” in industry.

Mercedes Gyuricza, Ph.D., is a Rutgers iJOBs alumnus and currently works as the Post-Doc Engagement Manager at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Her role at Janssen is to create, implement, and manage a Post-Doc program for the more than 75 Post-Docs at Janssen. During her time at Rutgers, Mercedes participated in the iJOBs program, which gave her the skills to make the transition from academia to industry. While no transition is without flaws, Mercedes shares what helped make hers a smooth one.

When it’s time to start thinking about a future career, one of the first questions that might come to mind is, “What am I good at?” This can often be a difficult question to address, and unfortunately, it may be easier to think of things we are not good at. Laura N. Schram, an academic program officer at the University of Michigan, along with humanities students learned five useful lessons for Ph.D. students interested in identifying their skill set, in an eight-week career exploration program. These five lessons are broad enough to be applied to almost any field, including STEM.

  The following is an article review of “The Core Traits of Success” by David G. Jensen. Dr. David G. Jensen is a writer, a world-wide speaker on career issues, and the founder of CareerTax Inc. He has written about the issues that scientists and engineers face when transitioning from an academic environment to the industrial employment. In his article, The Core Traits of Success, Dr.

By: Paulina Krzyszczyk Edited by: Eileen Oni Having spent several years within Rutgers’ campuses, I have had some time to learn about the university and reflect on my experiences here. Although there have been ups and downs throughout the progression of my Ph.D. (as expected!), I have identified a few things about Rutgers that have enhanced my graduate experience. First up: Diversity.

I cannot stress how important informational interviews are in helping you decide your career track. I first learned about regulatory medical writing at an informational interview session. I became so interested that now I am trying to learn more about the career track as a phase 2 iJOBS trainee. Informational interviews give you an opportunity to ask detailed and essential questions about a career and help you learn how to prepare for it.