Tips to identify the perfect employer

Knowing yourself, what you want and what motivates you should be the foundation of your job hunt, says Ulrike Träger.

Finding the right job and organization to work in after your PhD can be a daunting task. Coming from an academic setting, researchers tend to struggle to identify skill sets needed for a change in their career paths, asking questions like ‘what skills should a medical writer have?’ Job titles sometimes explain little about the actual work responsibilities—did you know, for example, that an ‘Innovation Facilitator’ communicates science and sets up links between academia and industry, to help speed up drug development or begin business opportunities?

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How is the rise of data-intensive research changing what it means to be a scientist?

Research involving vast quantities of data may be changing the image of scientific research, but is it changing the image of scientists too?

Scidata publishing better science through better data competition winner Jonathan Page.

An intrepid, khaki-clad explorer, machete in hand, cutting their way through some undiscovered wilderness. A bespectacled, grey-haired academic in a white coat, supervising some elaborate experiment in a lab, illuminated by glowing lights and flashing buttons. These are the classical images sometimes conjured when the word ‘scientist’ is mentioned.

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Horace B. Carpenter as Dr. Meirschultz, a scientist attempting to bring the dead back to life in the 1934 film Maniac

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Science doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Most researchers pursue their career because they not only love science but because they want to have an impact on the world – to help cure cancer, build a better dam, discover new planets, ease hunger. But those findings have to get from the lab to the market before they can become useful.

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Finding job satisfaction at a biomedical device company

Perseverance can help land a position, but relevant experience is a big help.

As she was finishing a postdoc at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Stefanie Marquez-Vilendrer found herself in the midst of a long, broad job search. She describes how she landed a position at Axogen, a biomedical company that develops and sells products for nerve surgeries.

If you’ve moved from a trainee position to a permanent job within the last five years and would like to participate in this series, please email naturejobseditor@nature.com.

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{credit}Joseph E. Vilendrer{/credit}

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Away from home: Modeling biology

We’re bringing you the best stories in lab mobility from Nature India

Every Tuesday, our ‘Away from home’ blog series features one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab recounting his/her experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the culture factor, tips for Indian postdocs headed abroad and what he/she misses most about India.

This week we feature synthetic and systems biologist Kayzad Nilgiriwala working as a postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. Kayzad completed his Ph.D. (Microbiology) at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India and wants to import some strong points from the US research scene when he comes back home.

Kayzad Nilgiriwala with his new lab

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How can better data sharing and management improve a career in science?

Taking the time to plan how raw data will be recorded and shared can make all the difference when new research directions appear, says Matthew Edmonds.

In many research projects, there tends to be three major interested parties. The first is the researcher who actually performs the experiment and collects the data. The second is the scientist overseeing the research project, who may be collating related data from several researchers. Finally, there is the institution, which supports the research financially and provides a space in which to do it.

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{credit}Roche DG, Lanfear R, Binning SA, Haff TM, Schwanz LE, et al. (2014) Troubleshooting Public Data Archiving: Suggestions to Increase Participation. PLoS Biol 12(1): e1001779. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001779, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30978545{/credit}

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Back to basics: Cracking an academic interview

Mit Bhavsar runs through some simple tips he learnt in his quest for an academic position.

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.

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Image source: Grant Snider https://www.incidentalcomics.com/2013/05/message-to-graduate.html

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Bonding in Boston: The importance of networking in science

Naturejobs journalism competition winner Ashish Nair finds new hope at our Boston career expo.

A long time ago in a land galaxy far far away, there was a great gathering where those weary of the well-trodden trail of tenureships and grants repaired themselves. The gathering in question was the Naturejobs career expo, a free one-day event organized for students and scientists alike. Featuring some truly inspiring speakers, it gave a much-needed boost to my hope for a career in science that can be both emotionally and financially (yes, $$$) satisfying.

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Away from home: Proteins in Germany

We’re bringing you the best stories on lab mobility from Nature India

Beginning this week, we will take a peek into the lives of Indian postdocs working in foreign labs. Our blog series ‘Away from home’ will feature one postdoc every Tuesday recounting his/her experience of working in a foreign lab, the triumphs and challenges, the culture factor, tips for Indian postdocs headed abroad and what he/she misses most about India.

Kangkan Halder

Teeing off the series for us is Kangkan Halder, who completed his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi and is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Applied Synthetic Biology Group at the University of Göttingen, Germany.

Science and I

I am not sure what really got me interested in science, but I guess I was plain curious about things. I also liked the idea that in science there is a specific answer/reason for a specific question/observation. On the other hand, for any generalization there is always an exception too! And I was really curious to know these exceptions.
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A look out to a dark Universe: Three young scientists share their thoughts

Young scientists from Nature’s Outlook on the dark Universe share their views on dark matter, gravitational waves, and dark energy.

You can find the full Outlook, covering the Lindau conference, Nobel prize winners, and Q&As with George Smoot and Brian Schmidt, here.

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