My name is Vicky Kanta, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center of Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers-Newark. I grew up in Athens, Greece, where I developed my passion for science and research. Ever since I was in my first biology class in middle school, I knew I wanted to study neuroscience. I was fascinated by how neurons work and was amazed at how much we don’t know about our brain. I could already envision myself working in the lab and attempting to answer great questions. When I reached college, however, I learned that majoring in neuroscience is not offered in Greece.

by Talia M. Planas-Fontánez The following is an opinion article about science communication, adapted from the “Communicating Science” class offered at Rutgers University. Have you ever tried to give your parents, or any family member, a clear explanation of what you do as a research scientist? How many unfamiliar technical format and jargon did you use? Science communication and public outreach is one of the biggest challenges in any field of research.

We all know what the journey of a graduate student is like, right? Well, not true for this one! Hello guys, my name is Vinam and I am a Ph.D. student in the Pharmaceutical Science program, however, my path in the program has been unconventional, to say the least. After completing my Bachelor of Pharmacy degree in India I transitioned into a Ph.D. program in America. I wasted no time and had my whole life planned for myself but life can, sometimes, throw you curve balls and I learned a few lessons along the way.

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.