How do you draw the line between volunteer work and unpaid labour?
But questions remain about the plan’s actual intent and its potential impact on US universities’ current and future policies around existing faculty members. Read more
Know the odds
Both supply and demand have contributed to an research-and-development (R&D) career bottleneck, according to a 15 December Science article signed by the 10 research leaders, who call themselves the Coalition for Next Generation Life Science. US federal research funding, when adjusted for inflation, declined by nearly 20% from 2003 to 2016, according to the article. Meanwhile, PhD candidates continue to enroll in doctoral programmes. The result is that only one in 10 trainees will gain a tenure-track position within five years of receiving their PhD. Many PhD holders then spend longer than they had anticipated in postdoc training positions, sometimes taking multiple fellowships while waiting for academic job openings to materialize. And the ones who do land such positions are taking longer to secure their first independent grant. Read more
Tackling the #manel problem
The study, the latest in a lengthy string of gender-disparity findings in academia, quantifies a type of discrimination to which female scientists have long objected—the low number of speaker invitations that they receive compared with male scientists. One of the most egregious examples—speaker panels comprised solely of Caucasian males—has spawned the hashtag #manel (for ‘male panel’) on Twitter. Read more
Adios to academia
US science and engineering PhD students are losing interest in academic careers because their career preferences change throughout their training, finds a study – not because of limited faculty-job availability. Read more
Broken dreams
The survey, published this month in F1000Research, an open-publishing platform, reflects a deep disenchantment with the US postdoctoral programme, perhaps because so many postdocs initially hope that their training will result in tenure-track positions that don’t materialise. While the number of postdoc positions has tripled since 1979, the number of available tenure-track positions has not increased to accommodate them. In the United States, 65% of all PhD holders pursue postdocs, but only 15-20% of those attain a tenure-track position (Nature, 2015; 528 (7580): 22–25). Read more
Tracking down the holy grail of academia
Having been awarded a faculty position at the University of Colorado, newly minted assistant professor Kate Smith is preparing to move from to the US from the UK. Here, she describes her experience of tenure interviews, how to maintain a passion for research and, crucially, how to find the elusive off-switch from science. Read more
Back to basics: Cracking an academic interview
Staying and working in academia is a good career choice but finding the right position in academia is still a tricky thing. Blanket-applying to as many positions as you can find and crossing your fingers isn’t going to cut it. Recently, I managed to crack some of my own postdoc interviews. Here’s what I learnt. Read more
What almost derailed you?
We ask academics at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco, to name one moment that almost derailed their career. Read more
How to combat implicit bias
Guest contributor Viviane Callier … Read more
The great outdoors
…but journeying afar for days or weeks, though crucial for your research programme, can also mean a lot of prep work, hassle and unforeseen glitches. Read more
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