The Naturejobs blog has flourished this year – we hope you have too.
2015 was a great year for science, and it’s been a wonderful year for Naturejobs as well. We’ve hosted three career expos – in London, Boston and Düsseldorf – have published more free content than ever before, be it blog post, podcast or video. We’ve met interesting scientists, visited all manner of fascinating labs, and covered a wide remit of news, views, and everything in between.
We hope you’ve all been entertained by, and have benefited from, the advice and stories we publish here, and we’re hoping to see you all in the 2016 for more careers content that will help you find – and succeed at – that dream job. Here’s a quick rundown of the stories you most enjoyed from 2015. Continue reading →
The latest Naturejobs careers expo, hosted in Düsseldorf in association with Jobvector, was a huge success, with over 1300 jobseekers in attendance to hear from the experts in both industry and academia. Set in the Classic Remise car exhibition, the expo was a great opportunity for jobseekers, employers and speakers to rub shoulders, shake hands, and network professionally whilst enjoying the machinery on show right next to them.
Delegates could choose to wander around the car exhibition, listen to talks hosted by Jobvector and Naturejobs, get a professional photo taken for their CVs (and then bring it to the CV checking workshop), get their photo taken again at the #ScientistAtWork photo booth, and meet exhibitors from 35 separate businesses and organisations based in Germany and worldwide.
Over in the Naturejobs workshops the crowd first heard Professor Kiril Sotirovski, of the University of Skopje, explain how to use online networking tools to boost your career. He talked about the huge impact that networks have on a career, and the best ways to get ahead by using them.
The next speaker was Tim Maschuw of the Germany Academic Exchange Service. He brought his considerable experience into his talk, and explained to the audience (furiously scribbling notes) on the best ways to find funding for early career scientists. Elsewhere, Dr Vincent Mignotte explained why it’s important to build a career plan that suits you, and how to find the right balance between what you think, what you feel, and what, deep down, you want. Continue reading →
Start writing and presenting in your spare time whilst in academia, say panelists at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo.
Developing extra skills in your spare time will help demonstrate your passion for science communication in an interview.
Top tips:
Look for opportunities within departments/universities to present your work. this is a safe environment in which you can trial out different techniques, whether for academic conferences or a chat down the pub.
Look for, or start, other forums where you can explain your science to a lay audience. One of the most challenging things is explaining science to consumers. Speak to friends and family about your research and see if you can get them to understand what you do.
Reflect on how to improve your communication; ask for feedback from the people you speak to.
Joining writing groups to develop your writing skills. Having an external, objective input on your writing will help improve it.
Ask your supervisor if they have any writing projects that they need help with, whether it’s writing a book chapter or website copy.
Join a learned society and write for their blogs. They also have public engagement teams that are always looking for volunteers to help at events
Build a network of people from within the science communication field that you can turn to.
Although you might feel that you have no time to do any of the above, if you have a passion for it, you’ll make time. One way to manage your time is to use those brief moments of freedom in a productive way. When an experiment is running, read your favourite popular science books, write a blog, pursue an interview.
Panelists at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo share what they found the most surprising when transitioning to a career in science communication.
Simplicity of communication, the rush of the working environment, the lack of experience with the media and the ability to understand science without a scientific background were the biggest surprises for the careers in science communication panelists at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo.
Belinda Quick thought she was good at taking complex ideas and distilling them into simple, accessible messages. However, during every performance review she’s had whilst working in industry as a science communicator, she’s been told that her messages aren’t simple enough. Everyone’s view of what keeping it simple means can vary dramatically.
For Anke Sparmann, when transitioning from the lab to the magazine, is the difference in time management. In academia, when working at the bench, there are occasionally some down-times when you can relax/rest whilst waiting for an experiment to finish. In publishing, this down-time doesn’t exist. Sparmann constantly finds herself busy with no time to check emails or relax.
When Catherine Ball was working in science, she didn’t believe that those without a scientific background should, or could, make decisions based on scientific evidence. Now, working as a policy analyst, she has realised that they can grasp scientific concepts. “You can be a non-scientists and still be able to understand and use scientific knowledge appropriately.”
For Robert Dawson however, the surprise was the opposite: “The number of people that just don’t get it.” Here he is referring to scientists who don’t understand how the media works. They will come with their month-old research paper to a press office, and ask that it be put on the front pages of the national newspapers. What Dawson finds difficult to deal with is people constantly asking things that are unachievable, and it’s difficult to explain to them why that is the case.
A scientific PhD can be required for some science communication careers, but not for others, say panelists at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo.
In science PR there is an argument as to whether or not you need a science qualification, says Robert Dawson from Cancer Research UK. Some say that having a scientific qualification can hinder your ability to see the bigger picture, and translate it into something the lay public can understand. Proponents of a science background in science communication say it’s critical to understand the scientific process. He personally has had undergraduate training in biology, and he falls back on it time and time again.
In policy a PhD is very useful, says Catherine Ball, policy analyst at the House of Lords Science Select Committee. Haivng spent time in academic research and having completed extended pieces of research, you understand the scientific landscape and the policies that shape it, like open access or funding, for example. Plus the experience of writing a thesis, and the data management and everything that comes along with it, can be a great experience.
For a career as a scientific editor, a PhD is crucial, says Anke Sparmann, an editor at Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. You cannot do the job without a PhD because your link with academia is so close. Most editors actually have postdoctoral experience as well, as this will have given them time to build a wider network.
In industry the need for a PhD varies, depending on the sector and type of company you’re in, and also how quickly the landscape is changing, says Belinda Quick from Mondelez International. She works with a team of people, some of whom have a PhD (herself included) and others who don’t. For her, the biggest factor is being able to marry the skills from your PhD training to the skills of good communication. The PhD means you have a core resolve, an ability to persevere and an ability to analyse, all important skills when you have to apply it to a breadth of topics that you experience in science communication. But this doesn’t mean it is essential to have one.
Robert Dawson from Cancer Research UK explains how they deliver engaging but accurate content based on their research.
Robert Dawson, communications manager at Cancer Research UK, was one of four speakers on the careers in science communication panel at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo.
Media outlets are giving information in a variety of ways, whether in list formats like those on Buzzfeed, or long feature articles.
But often, with the shorter, and often faster production times of the content, the science can be misleading and incorrect. So, Cancer Research UK works with organisations to do myth-busting: where the media has misrepresented science and needs correcting. The NHS has a section on their website called Behind the Headlines, which does a similar thing.
His advice is to give the audience articles in the form that they want, whether in Facebook posts or Buzzfeed articles, but make sure that the content is accurate.
Modern and traditional networking techniques can help junior faculty attract top students and postdocs to their labs.
Guest contributor Viviane Callier
Recruiting a critical mass of good students and postdocs is one of the first challenges for a new investigator to establish their lab. “It is easy to order equipment, but much harder to staff the lab and create a lab culture,” says Courtney Babbitt, assistant professor of biology at UMass Amherst, MA since fall 2014.
Recruiting is especially challenging for those who do not have a big name or a history of steady funding to attract trainees, like new faculty. It can be difficult to draw talent to geographically undesirable locations and/or less prestigious institutions, because big cities may offer a variety of career and networking opportunities (in academia and elsewhere), as well as cultural activities that contribute to quality of life. But students and postdocs are needed to help collect data that and move the lab’s long-term research agenda forward; they also bring complementary skill sets, fresh ideas and new research directions. Continue reading →
Keeping an eye on the bigger picture in your field of research will enable you to see potential new avenues for research. If they line up with a company’s mission, then there’s nothing stopping you from pursuing them.
In the Careers in Industry panel at the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo, Steve Martin from GSK says that big pharma hires people with deep specialisms all the time, but after five or so years, many have moved into fields they haven’t experienced before. Simon Mosey from the University of Nottingham has made a living in moving between departments, and his advice is to keep an eye on the bigger picture.
In industry, as long as you keep the main vision of the company in mind, then there is a considerable amount of latitude to move fields within a company.
Top tips:
1) Express interest as soon as you come across an idea that is interesting.
2) Keep an eye on the bigger picture.
3) Network: You might meet someone who can be a great collaborator.
4) Find out if a company offers secondments to try a different area.
Don’t let having a family restrict your future career goals, says Emma Chapman.
Guest contributor Emma Chapman
In November 2015, I gave a talk at the Institute of Physics’ “How to Control your Career as a Female Physicist” event for PhD students. After the talk, an attendee said she welled up hearing me recount my choice to have a child during my PhD. For this attendee, I was the first person to tell her she didn’t have to choose between a career she loved and the family she wanted to have soon. I remember that feeling.
