Choosing a Career: Online Resources for Every Scientist

Abstract

Looking for a job? Not even sure what kind of job you are looking for? Don’t wait until all your experiments are wrapped up and your manuscript is in press. While slaving away doing research, it is easy to lose sight of what comes next. But graduate students and postdoctoral researchers should start planning the next chapter of their careers before the end is in sight. This article highlights different online resources for choosing a career and finding a job.

As the traditional career path from graduate school to postdoctoral position to faculty becomes more competitive, it is necessary have a career plan in place. Ideally, one should have a rough idea of career interests before embarking on graduate or postdoctoral studies. Fortunately, there are many diverse paths to choose from, and many people alter their plans during their training. Oftentimes, colleagues and administrators have little knowledge of careers outside the ivory tower. However, there are many online resources to help you plan your next steps — whether it be inside or outside academia.

A successful job search should begin about a year in advance. First, you should carefully consider personal strengths and goals, your work style, and external factors such as salary and location [1]. Depending on whether you are seeking an academic or nonacademic job, the timelines for applying are different. Academic jobs sometimes require applications up to a year in advance, while industry jobs, for instance, could want new hires to start within a month. It may be helpful to seek advice specific to your situation from your institution’s career center.

There are many general job-hunting websites out there; you may have heard of some of them from your non-scientist friends and relatives. Examples include Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, and Indeed.com [2-4]. These have extensive job listings, especially for non-traditional career paths. Additionally, if you have a company or institution in mind that you would like to work for, check its website directly for job postings. But if you need a little more guidance about what you can do with your science training, there are several different types of online resources worth checking out.

Science Careers

The most comprehensive resource for both career advice and job listings is Science Careers, an offshoot of the journal Science [5]. Users can create a “My Science Career” account, which allows them to upload cover letters and resumes. In addition, you can select whether your resume can be publicly viewed by employers. You can search job postings, get e-mail notifications when new jobs are posted, and keep track of your job applications, all in one location. The site contains more than 1,000 listings for science-specific jobs, and it is easily searchable by employer and job type (i.e., faculty, postdoctoral, biotechnology).

In addition to the “My Science Career” feature, Science Careers has one of the largest collections of career advice for all stages of one’s career. If you are trying to find specific information on one topic, however, be patient. Information is not well-organized, and sometimes information on the same topic can be found in several different locations. Take time to fully explore the website, and you’ll glean information on a lot of useful tangential topics, including slides on mentoring or webinars on academic vs. industry jobs. Science Career Magazin has articles on career profiles, the job market, balancing life and your career, and diversity in the workplace. Under the “Tools and Tips” section, there is a how-to series on topics ranging from making the most of career fairs to lab management and networking. There are also plenty of multimedia resources, including downloadable PDF files, slides, and webinars. Additionally, the “Community” section can point you to online networking sites in your field of interest.

Naturejobs.com

The journal Nature sponsors a similar career site with job listings, although it lacks the ability create a user profile to upload resumes [6]. The amount of career-related information is less than Science Careers, but the content is well-organized in a “Career Toolkit” section, with articles on interview skills, networking, and salaries, as well as podcasts and interviews with people in different careers. Finally, Naturejobs has a unique “Trends” section (under the “News & Comment” heading), which explores different career and market trends by discipline and geographic region.

Professional Societies

There are many professional societies, ranging from geographically minded to field-specific societies. Professional societies are good for networking with fellow members, and they often have job postings or career-related content. The New York Academy of Sciences, for instance, not only sponsors scientific seminars but also business-related seminars and an online video series on career paths [7].

If you already have a specific career in mind, try searching for professional societies in that field. For example, if you are interested in science writing, check out the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing [8]. It has resources for students interested in a career in science writing and science writing fellowships.

Your Institution's Career Services

Don’t overlook your own university’s career services website. Yale has a particularly good graduate career center with many online resources and weekly e-mail newsletters [9]. Career centers also may maintain a database of alumni, which can be invaluable for determining where other graduates from your program are working. Use this resource to make contacts. If you don’t have access to a career center, there are plenty of resources available from other universities [10]. MIT’s Career Development Center website is chock-full of links to career-related reading [11].

Other Resources

For academia-related careers, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund has a collection of articles on career development, lab management, and other guides [12]. The Chronicle of Higher Education, a news source highlighting current affairs in the academic world, has a special section devoted to managing your career. It features regular advice columns, the CV Doctor, and, for long-term planning, retirement guides [13].

For people on the fence regarding an academic or non-academic career, iBioMagazine features short (<15 minute) video interviews with prominent people in science and science-related careers, including Bruce Alberts, the editor of Science; Jorge Cham, the founder of PhDComics; and Harold Varmus, the director of NCI [14]. Also useful is a blog sponsored by the journal Development called the Node, which features blog posts from different members about their varied, and often unique, personal career paths [15].

Networking and Online Forums

LinkedIn, the largest professional online network, is worth joining whether or not you are immediately looking for a job [16]. It allows you to build a large group of contacts from people you directly know and their contacts. It also has company profiles, job listings, and can send e-mail notifications about any new postings. Additionally, there are many online communities specifically for scientists. The D.O.C. (Drop Out Club) is a community of clinicians and scientists with a shared interest in business and business-related job postings [17]. It contains blogs, job listings, and upcoming networking events.

One last piece of advice is to sign up for the weekly or monthly e-mail alerts from any of the above websites. While you are hard at work doing experiments, your job search continues without any work on your part. No matter where you are in your career, it is helpful to keep an eye on your future job — and exploring possible career paths now will make the transition easier in the future.