https://youtu.be/LRzT6Z5L3uE
You can check out our upcoming expos, in San Francisco, Boston, London and Düsseldorf, here.
It’s often said that being a science graduate is a great thing: it opens so many doors and gives you the chance to take on any career. Although this might be true, it also makes deciding what career to focus on, and train for, very difficult.
This month, Nature Careers published a great piece based on the 2015 Nature Graduate Student Survey, where Nature tried to uncover what careers early career researchers were hoping to get, and how they were preparing themselves. In this podcast I was joined by Monya Baker, one of the Nature Careers editors, to give us some further insight into the survey.
The second part of the podcast is an interview I did with Eric Betzig, one of the three chemistry Nobel prize winners in 2014. In our chat we talk about his work in breaking the diffraction limit, what it’s like to see living cells move and his transitions from academia to industry and back again.
This is the wrong question, says Steve Palmer. Instead, scientists should be asking themselves: Am I the right person for the job?
The career paths in science communication panel at the 2014 London Naturejobs Career Expo was chaired by the Naturejobs editor, Julie Gould, who was joined by Greg Foot (Freelance), Jonathan Sanderson (StoryCog), Steven Palmer (Cancer Research UK) and Celeste Biever (Chief editor for online Nature news & comment).
Palmer answers the first part of this question with his belief that there has never been a better time to get into science communication. When Palmer “stumbled into the field 12 years ago, there were no organisations, or little groups of networking at that point. It was just beginning.” This is completely different to the scenario today: every funder, charity, hospital and university is investing in science communication. “It’s really blossomed over the last decade…. where it goes next? I don’t really see it stopping.”
Jonathan Sanderson attempts to answer the second part. “Different universities have a different view of science communication, and that can vary from department to department, from professor to professor.” He knows a few scientists who spend a lot of time on science communication that have moved universities recently because their outreach activities weren’t welcomed in their institutions. Instead, they’ve moved to places where the work they do is celebrated. “It is possible, but you don’t see it happen all that often. There’s more flow of researchers to communication than back the other way.” But whatever field you come from, going back into research can be challenging.
Celeste Biever thinks that “having a background in science and having some kind of experience in communication is a killer combination. You might not be able to go back to the lab… but you will find yourself with a set of analytical and communication skills which is quite transferable.”
Read more about the panel in our post: What isn’t science communication? and find about all the other conference sessions and workshops at the Naturejobs Career Expo in London.
Other Q&A videos from the Naturejobs Career Expo, London 2014:
How to communicate your science in the best way
What attracted you to science communication?
How important is having a mentor in your academic career?
How do you achieve work/life balance in academia?
Should I apply for a fellowship or a postdoc after my PhD?
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in science?
How important is it to move between academic institutions?
How do you cope when things go wrong in academia?
How important is teaching experience in academia?
Like others that have excelled in their field, Smith’s career has the illusion of being planned from the start. He thinks otherwise. In his keynote speech Smith uses case studies from his own career to show that careers in science can be windy, unexpected and difficult to plan for.
He had six key take away points for everyone in the audience. Here’s a short summary, by Simon Hazelwood-Smith:
Learn how to write. Good communication skills are vital in science, particularly when trying to publish. Smith’s advice is to practice and read promiscuously to improve.
Take good notes. “You should record everything in your lab notes, I don’t think it is possible to record too much information,” says Smith. A good lab book will allow you to defend your work from scrutiny, and may highlight correlations in your data that would be otherwise lost.
Be your own biggest critic. “Never fool yourself,” says Smith, make sure you are completely confident that your data supports your conclusions.
Say yes. Smith says that his “Constitutive response to when something turns up is yes,” you never know when a good opportunity might present itself.
Create and use networks. Astute networking can also help young scientists find their passion. “You never know when a connection, however small, may have an influence later in your career.” Collaboration in science is important for building relationships with other scientists and networking will make this much easier.
Take control of your early career. Smith says successful scientists need three key attributes, FBI: Flexibility, Bravery and Imagination. They are often tied together earlier in one’s career and young scientists shouldn’t hesitate to take risks. “It is the easiest time in your life to move, and you will extend and diversify your knowledge and techniques,” Smith says.
Read more of Hazelwood-Smith’s summary of the keynote speech: How to build a career in the biomedical sciences.
Watch the other videos from the London 2014 Naturejobs Career Expo:
How to communicate your science in the best way
What attracted you to science communication?
How important is having a mentor in your academic career?
How do you achieve work/life balance in academia?
Should I apply for a fellowship or a postdoc after my PhD?
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in science?
How important is it to move between academic institutions?
In January 2014 I started running the Naturejobs blog; it’s been an interesting journey and I’ve enjoyed working with some great writers (see full list below!) to make the blog what it is today. My vision was to turn the Naturejobs blog into a place where scientists could come for career advice and personal stories: to read (or hear) about the experiences that other scientists have had in their careers and learn from their experiences. Using a combination of blog posts, podcasts and videos, I hope that I have achieved this and that you, our readers, have benefited from these stories.
I’ve been through the numbers and have picked out the top ten most popular blog posts from 2014. Here they are in order:
1) When a PhD isn’t enough, highlights Bianca Marcolino’s experience of finding a job after finishing her PhD. “The best advice I can give a graduate student is to start asking yourself the hard questions regarding your career aspirations as early as possible.”
{credit}Image credit: Daisy Hessenberger{/credit}
2) Thesis writing tips for the I-left-it-to-the-last-minute PhD student, is what it says on the tin: tips for writing up your PhD if you’re running out of time. Daisy Hessenberger shares her story of joining a writing group and dividing her time into tomatoes. Yes, you read that correctly. Tomatoes.
3) Make your cover letter and CV stand out gives advice on how to make sure that your CV or cover letters aren’t overlooked when you apply for a job. By using techniques similar to those in web design, you can make the important parts of your CV and cover letter jump off the page and keep the attention of future employers. By Julie Gould. Continue reading
Many roles in academia require you to teach future researchers. But how important is it to have experience for this? And where should you go to get some?
At the Naturejobs Career Expo in London this September, a panel of four academics got together to discuss their wildly different careers. Jim Usherwood from the Royal Veterinary College only spends his time doing research. Anita Hall from Imperial College London only does teaching. Lorraine Kerr and Louise Horsfall from the University of Edinburgh split their time (with different percentages) between research, teaching, business and management.
In this short film, Hall and Horsfall give some great advice on the importance of teaching experience and where to get some.
Read more about How to navigate an academic career and about all the other conference sessions and workshops at the Naturejobs Career Expo in London.
Other Q&A videos from the Naturejobs Career Expo, London 2014
How important is having a mentor in your academic career?
How do you achieve work/life balance in academia?
Should I apply for a fellowship or a postdoc after my PhD?
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in science?
Sometimes, things go wrong in academia. The experiment isn’t working; you can’t find your results; the money is running out and you haven’t got any more. What can you do about it?
At the Naturejobs Career Expo in London this September, a panel of four academics got together to discuss their wildly different careers. Jim Usherwood from the Royal Veterinary College only spends his time doing research. Anita Hall from Imperial College London only does teaching. Lorraine Kerr and Louise Horsfall from the University of Edinburgh split their time (with different percentages) between research, teaching, business and management.
In this short film, Usherwood and Horsfall give some great advice on how to deal with things when they go wrong.
Usherwood recommends building a support network around you that can serve two purposes. One will be a group of friends that will come to the pub with you and commiserate with you. The other will be someone (your partner, perhaps) who can help you see the bigger picture in life.
Horsfall has been forunate and has not had anything go wrong…. yet! Come the end of 2014/beginning of 2015, she will be coming to the end of two grants. At the moment, she’s got two “irons in the fire” but they aren’t confirmed. “Make sure that you’ve always got something,” she advises.
Read more about How to navigate an academic career and about all the other conference sessions and workshops at the Naturejobs Career Expo in London.
Other Q&A videos from the Naturejobs Career Expo, London 2014
How important is having a mentor in your academic career?
How do you achieve work/life balance in academia?
Should I apply for a fellowship or a postdoc after my PhD?
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in science?
At the Naturejobs Career Expo in London this September, a panel of four academics got together to discuss their wildly different careers. Jim Usherwood from the Royal Veterinary College only spends his time doing research. Anita Hall from Imperial College London only does teaching. Lorraine Kerr and Louise Horsfall from the University of Edinburgh split their time (with different percentages) between research, teaching, business and management.
In this short Q&A film three of the panellists give their opinions (based on their experiences) about the challenges they’ve faced as women in academia.
Kerr has been at Edinburgh for a long time, due to personal constraints. She worked in different labs, with different colleagues and funders and never felt that she had to leave to gain more experience.
Hall went to the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, but regrets not keeping up with the research discussions back home. “So they had forgotten about me.” If you go abroad, she suggests that you don’t lose the network you leave behind.
Usherwood suggests you go. “There will be a dip in productivity… but you’ll be doing something you didn’t do before and it makes you distinctive.” It’s an opportunity to meet new people and make new connections within your field, which can ultimately be beneficial in your future career.
Read more about How to navigate an academic career and about all the other conference sessions and workshops at the Naturejobs Career Expo in London.
Other Q&A videos from the Naturejobs Career Expo, London 2014
How important is having a mentor in your academic career?
How do you achieve work/life balance in academia?
Should I apply for a fellowship or a postdoc after my PhD?
what’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in science?
Contributors Samuel Brod and Simon Hazelwood-Smith
Getting your research into an influential journal is certain to give a healthy boost to both academic standing and future career prospects (scientific or otherwise). Accordingly, it is a competitive business: many articles are put forward but few accepted. In fact, of the almost 11,000 articles submitted to Nature last year only 856 (7.8%) were published. What does it take?
“Data should be at the heart of everything you do,” says Peter Gorsuch, an editor at Macmillan Publishers Ltd., Nature’s parent company. Indeed, without excellent data, it is virtually impossible to publish in high-impact journals — if at all. Still, even with high-quality data, you can jeopardise your chances of publication if you don’t have a high-quality paper.
At the Naturejobs Expo on 19 September in London, Macmillan publishers hosted two workshops on how to publish in high impact journals. Gorsuch was joined by Sadaf Shadan, an editor at Nature and they offered insights on the dos and don’ts of scientific publishing. The second workshop was run by Nicky Dean, a senior editor and team manager at Nature Communications. He gave some insights into what makes research worthy of a high impact journal. Continue reading
At this summer’s 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, 37 laureates spent a week with 600 young scientists from almost 80 countries to share their ideas, experiences and knowledge. Discussions revolved around global health, the latest findings in cancer and Aids research, challenges in immunology, and future approaches to medical research. All of the lectures can be viewed on Lindau’s Mediatheque website.
We’ve already heard about the future directions of HIV, ageing research and the side-effects of pharmaceuticals. This week Lorna explores the war on cancer.
Winning the war
In 1971, the then president of the United States, Richard Nixon, declared ‘war’ on cancer. Since then, billions of dollars have been poured into cancer research worldwide, but a cure for the disease is still a long way off. In this Nature Video, reporter Lorna Stewart marks the scientific milestones of the past four decades. She explores cancer genetics with Nobel laureate Michael Bishop, vaccines with fellow laureate Harald zur Hausen, and two young researchers tell Lorna about some of cancer research’s greatest success stories.
Nature Outlook also produced a supplement based on the Lindau meetings.