This November, Rutgers’ iJOBS program hosted three representatives hailing from Celgene, Merck and Enzo Life Sciences, to speak at a career panel on research positions in pharma and industry. Since R&D is one of the largest sectors outside of academia that will take PhD-trained scientists, this panel was both informative and encouraging to all of us who will be starting a job hunt soon.

By: Maria Qadri

[caption id="attachment_626" align="alignright" width="300"] Can there be effective communication between Science and Politics?[/caption]

Image: David Whittaker

The importance of networking has been emphasized at almost every iJOBS event thus far. While some people find themselves at ease in a room full of strangers, others feel so far out of their comfort zone that they need a map to find their way back. Luckily, it turns out networking is more learned skill than natural talent, and with enough practice most of us can become competent at it. Here is an overview of what a BioHUB networking event looks like and some of the things I learned from attending.

By Fatu Badiane Markey

On October 24^th I attended a Career Satisfaction workshop at the “What Can You Be With a PhD?” symposium, presented by Matthias Birk. The room was fully packed, I had to squeeze together with several people and sit on the floor.

Mattias Birk was a passionate and inspiring speaker. I got good laughs from his humor, but I was also enlightened by his view of career satisfaction. The experience allowed me to realize it is critical to find the balancing point among strength, joy, and value for career satisfaction.

We all started out in the PhD program for similar reasons – we thought it would be best for our careers, we enjoyed doing scientific research, and probably believed that science was our vocation. But what about those of us that end up in labs that don’t suit our needs, or research just doesn’t make us happy anymore? While everyone hits a rough patch in the PhD journey, it is inevitable that some of us will find ourselves downright miserable for months or years in a row.

by: Dharm Patel