When I started out in my PhD I was excited about the challenges I would face. Two and a half years later I’m still excited about my research, but, like most PhD projects, it‘s not all been smooth sailing. Rather than let how I was feeling derail my progress, I decided to use my training as a psychologist to develop ways to be proactive about managing mental health during the course of a PhD.
Guest contributor Andy Tay
As science becomes more inter-disciplinary, scientists increasingly need to travel to promote their work and build collaborations. Whilst it’s common for professors to travel frequently, graduate students or post-docs may not be aware of the importance of travelling in building a career. Here’s how travelling has helped me — and how it might help you.
{credit}Flickr/British Library{/credit}
Contributor Melissa Greven
Future of Research workshop at the 2015 Naturejobs Career Expo in Boston.
Academia is the alternative career today for most young scientists. That message became clear during a discussion among graduate students and postdocs during the Future of Research’s (FOR) workshop on career awareness at Naturejobs Career Expo on 20 May in Boston, Massachusetts. The Expo was a day-long careers conference organized and presented by the Naturejobs department of Nature Publishing Group.
The workshop’s ambience was similar to that of a bar on a Friday night—it was noisy and standing-room only. Attendees were eager to address the problem that most early-career researchers face: what are the alternative career paths beyond academia, and how can they be reached?
It is not that early-career scientists consider academic research to be an undesirable profession. Instead, they are coming to understand how difficult it is to obtain an academic post. Graduate students are surrounded by academics who believe their students are guaranteed successes if they just stick to it and keep applying to positions, yet many faculty members, academic advisers and mentors still do not realize that the landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade or so. Data exist on the fact that the vast majority of graduate students who do an academic postdoc end up leaving academia entirely. What is not known is where they end up. Continue reading