By: Urmimala Basu This post is first seen on the Atlanta BEST Magazine Summer 2016 The common notion of “Industry or Academia” echoed by millions of graduate students and post-docs when quizzed on their career aspirations might very soon turn into the apparent paradoxical concept of “Industry and Academia”. A recent article in SCIENCE magazine talks about this morphing concept!

By: Ina Nikolaeva One career that science PhD’s have only recently been made aware of is the Medical Writer. I myself only found out about this entire career path about a year before I graduated, even though I quickly realized it was word-for-word my dream job description. If you want a more in-depth summary of how I ended up deciding that MW was for me, please read the short paragraph at the end of this post, titled, “My Personal Decision-Making Process” Who should you be to be happy as an MW? First of all, and quite obviously, you should enjoy writing.

From Academic PhD to Clinical Research – How to Take the Leap By: Sarah Misenko   Clinical research is a huge industry that encompasses many different professional roles - including medical writers, clinical trial managers, and biostatisticians. In such a complex industry, the professionals come from a wide range of backgrounds. As doctoral students, we are primarily trained in an academic setting and don’t have experience in clinical work.

In late April, Rudy Bellani, founder and CEO of Oystir, came to Rutgers and gave career advice and information about his company. For more about Rudy, see Myka Ababon’s interview here. Rather than a “how-to” for becoming a science writer, this event was more of an informal all-around career advice session with a slight focus on science communications. Rudy was personable and had wisdom to offer from his own career transition.

By: Chris Lowe

The advice to keep unprofessional or embarrassing pictures from Facebook and Instagram has long been impressed on all of us. But why not take it one step further?

By: Yaa Haber

For better or for worse, in America, talking about how much money you make is taboo.  If you find the subject distasteful, look away now!

By Jennifer Casiano-Matos It is very common in the Ph.D. and post-doc community to call ourselves specialists. Moving beyond the “specialist” or “graduate student” label is something that we ought to do if we are interested in a job outside academia. We often commit the mistake of not realizing the qualifications and skills that can make us stand out from others.

Hello All! My name is Jennifer. I am a first year Ph.D. student in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics program at Rutgers University.  I am from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico: a town on the west coast with beautiful beaches and sun every day. I have a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Microbiology and a master’s degree in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM).

  By: Yang Chen On April 12^th, I, the “one day intern”, was rotated to a medical marketing team at Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide. After the morning’s team meeting, everyone gathered again to discuss an ongoing project involving the launch of a new drug to market. As I looked around the table, it seemed everyone was still waiting for someone to join this meeting. After a few minutes, a man carrying a small piece of luggage entered the conference room.