Build Career Preparation Into Your Ph.D. Experience

News Article By Dr. Michael Baranello, Ph.D., Industry Postdoctoral Affiliate

After the dust from your successful defense settles, future becomes the present.  For those that have long decided to pursue a career in academia, postdoctoral positions await, along with the process of relocation, and perhaps a vacation that has been put off for the last 4+ years.  Because this is a URBEST blog, aimed at broadening scientific career opportunities beyond academia, you may not be one of these individuals.  Amidst the chaos of the final year of your Ph.D., you may have had the incredible foresight to connect with reputable industrial, government, regulatory, or clinical entities, and convinced their hiring representatives that your skills and early career aspirations are well matched with the goals of their team.  I wish I was speaking of my own foresight and professional acumen (unfortunately, I am not), but my hope is that readers will recognize their own graduation timeline and map out available resources to better approach post-graduate endeavors.  If you are 1-2 years away from completing your Ph.D., it is a good time to critically assess the individual search filters that will determine the types of positions, teams, and organizations you pursue.  Finding opportunities is somewhat straightforward (the internet is full of options), but building yourself into a strong candidate and fostering the best connections to successfully attain your first post-grad role can be more difficult.  All of this takes time, but if addressed early (and seriously) enough, the process can be built in to your Ph.D. experience.

Alchemy

Career Story Blog Post By Elizabeth Perry, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology

            Human beings share with some other really cool higher mammals, an intense and extended period of post-natal nervous system development. We have this amazing ability to learn across the lifespan. Almost my entire life has been a deep and highly meaningful immersion in teaching and learning. That probably helps to explain why I love Literature, Art, Music, and Sports as much as Science; these are all areas where we grow through exposure and challenge, watching and listening, trial and error. They are all also situations where something new and exciting and unexpected can rise to the surface.

Give Yourself Permission to Believe That You Can Accomplish Whatever You Put Your Mind to

Career Story Blog Post By Elaine Hill, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences and Health Economist at University of Rochester

I am not particularly inclined to follow “the rules”. What do I mean by that? Well, for one, I don’t think that conventional wisdom about what I can and can’t do applies to me. And, I believe that goes for you, too. I also believe that only I can define myself as a scientist. In order for any career that you choose to be your own and to be intrinsically self-satisfying, you must define your identity. This means taking a step back and having a vision to guide your path as a scientist.

Road to Technology Transfer

Career Story Blog Post By Weimin Kaufman, PhD, Licensing Manager at UR Ventures

When we were little kids, we seemed to know exactly what we wanted to do or to become when we grew up. Now that we have grown up, it turns out that it is so much easier to figure out what we don’t want to do or to be. As a graduate student or a postdoc in the life science space, the professional prospect now is not as straightforward as it had seemed. Professorship has become a rather rare event when compared to all the other career choices out there. Because of various reasons I will talk about later in this blog post, I decided to leave the bench in the lab after two short postdoc trainings. I hope the story of my career choice thus far can be an inspiration to you in exploring careers away from the bench. Every venture needs a plan, whether to guide its business operation or to present it to investors for raising capital. So do we as individuals! Our career is our own venture. I believe that every one of us needs a guiding plan -- not one engraved in stone -- but rather, a plan that evolves as we advance professionally. 

Life is Hard: Keep Your Eyes Fixed on the Prize

Career Story Blog Post By Andrew Tomaras, PhD, Vice President and Director of Microbiology at BacterioScan Inc.

I was 3.5 years old when my sister was born with Down Syndrome, and one of the earliest childhood memories I can recall was being at the hospital with all of my extended family members awaiting her arrival.  Needless to say, it was not the typical glee-filled event.  During her early life, my sister struggled with multiple medical issues common in Down’s – she had open heart surgery at 6 weeks old, got pneumonia constantly (which always seemed to happen while on family vacations), and had to undergo speech therapy starting at a very young age.  The constant exposure I had to emergency rooms, doctors’ offices, etc. really impacted me in a way that I wouldn’t fully comprehend until later in life.  My interest in science, particularly in medicine and human disease, was undoubtedly fueled by these early childhood experiences.

Naturally I entered college as a pre-med major, and college was…..well……college.  I did alright, but definitely had my fun.  One of the core requirements for my microbiology major was to do a semester of laboratory research, which I did in the department’s ecology lab.  It gave me an awesome research experience, even though it wasn’t directly related to human medicine.  Now up until this point, I had been gung-ho for medical school, then suddenly this fantastic research experience completely threw my world into a tailspin.