Advice for Scientists

Dr. Olga
Gurkovskaya

Navigating Career Choices in a Changing World: Challenges and Considerations

In our younger years, many of us strive to make the best out of our lives. I am sure that most people start hearing their first career advice early in childhood, sometimes even before they go to school. Do you not believe me? How about “To achieve something, you have to work hard.” Or “You hav...


Amy
Loriaux

Best-Laid Plans: Transitioning to Industry From Academia By: Amy Loriaux, Ph.D.

I had it all planned out, starting from graduate school going all the way to professor emeritus. A career as a tenured professor, a post at a distinguished institution, maybe a chair of a reputable foundation. A lab full of graduate students and postdocs eager to learn. And, most importantly, answer...


Marielena
Mata

The wait is over. I got a job!

Job searching is humbling to say the least but the worst part is the wait.  You have developed the skills; you have crafted your CV and cover letters; you have applied to the jobs; you interviewed and now you wait.  It has been six months since I lost my job and the wait for that call to confirm I...


Holly Brevig

Unique Career Opportunities

In one of my blogs, I briefly wrote about career options and provided a table with various career types and organizations to find these careers.  I wanted to focus on what I thought were unique opportunities that I did not know about when I was in graduate school.  Just as a quick background, I wa...


Alice
Gruber

Applying for Legal Permanent Residence in the Us and Understanding the Visa Bulletin

The US Visa Bulletin comes out monthly and you can sign up for it to be emailed to you (see the very bottom of the bulletin for how to do that).  It is also available at this link - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html It can be very confusing to understa...


Caroline
Ceniza-Levine

Networking From Scratch

A reader of my recent networking post gave me a follow-up challenge: I’ve been to so many lectures or read articles and they all say the same thing. Rely on your network or use your network to accomplish this or that. What they all overlook is explaining how you obtain that network in the first...


Suzane
Ramos da Silva

The importance of lab meetings

Since I was an undergrad, lab meetings have been part of my scientific development. Although some people don’t like lab meetings, I think it is a great opportunity to brainstorm, keep up with your experiments and most importantly, it is a great way to organize your data. Different labs have ...


Fabian
Zanella

Time Management in the Lab

When you are working at the bench and taking on other tasks, time management becomes crucial. As a postdoc or graduate student, time is an invaluable resource. For me, there are basically three aspects that make time spent in the lab more efficient. I will try to outline them below. 1) Avoid t...


Christine
Zafra

Life after grad school?

Before you start reading, please take the time to note that it ends with a question mark. That’s not to imply that “life” ends after grad school. It’s meant to imply that there are lots of things that a PhD can do. After spending at least 25 years preparing for something, everyone hope...


Ron
Hunter

The Art of Asking

Repeatedly, we have heard the maxims, “ask and you shall receive”, “close mouths don’t get fed”, or “knock and the door will be opened” said in one way or another. I proffer the general point in the form of another adage - if you do not ask, the answer will always be no. On more tha...