By Helena Mello Regardless of the career path stage, networking is an essential aspect of any professional life. As scientists, we have opportunities to connect in conferences, seminars and career events. We can strengthen these connections and expand our network with informational interviews; however, not everyone is familiar with this resource. With that in mind, the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE) held the webinar “Informational Interviews – What? How?

By Janaina Pereira and Tomas Kasza

“There is a sea of data and it might be useful to learn how to sail on it.”

By Tomas Kasza Dr. Mai Soliman graduated from Montclair State University with a master’s degree in Molecular Biology in 2009 and from Rutgers School of Graduate Studies with a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology in 2017. While completing her master’s and PhD degrees she sought out opportunities to teach high school and college students. After completion of her PhD degree she accepted a position at Northern Valley regional high school in Demarest, NJ, one of the top school districts in New Jersey.

By Vinam Puri

Adding to the series of interviews with leaders on the iJOBS blog, I decided to contribute by interviewing Piotr Rudzki, PhD, the Head of Pharmacokinetics at Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland. He has a wealth of experience after 14 years in the area of Pharmaceutics, including 8 years as the research team manager.

Maria Qadri graduated from Rutgers University in January 2018 with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and Quantitative Biomedicine. Prior to that, she received her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Hartford. At Rutgers, she was highly involved in the formation of the Science Policy and Advocacy at Rutgers group and was also one of the founding members of the iJOBS blog.

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.

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.

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.

By: Tomas Kasza On March 16^th iJOBS hosted a career panel of four Rutgers PhD alumni, all of whom have secured impressive positions following completion of their graduate school education. If you have not had a chance to attend one of these Alumni career panels I would highly recommend it because these alumni may be able to direct you toward opportunities available at Rutgers for your desired post-graduate career. One of the panel members was Dr. Abigail Harris, an Assistant Professor at Bloomsburg University located in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 2013.

Interview 3: Science Education at High School