My First Months in Government Research

My First Months on the Job As a newly minted Ph.D., my transition from an academic setting at Vanderbilt to a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was filled with an anticipation of pursuing a different research interest in a new environment.  Though there was a learning curve involved in grasping the new experimental methodologies and getting acclimated to the interpersonal dynamics of a new research group, my overall experience was similar to that at Vanderbilt.  For example, I was conducting basic research in a training-oriented environment surrounded by many postdoctoral fellows.  I also had access to a career development office as well as an organization that was devoted to the interests of the fellows.