Informational interviews: The right push for your career?

Confused about your next career move? Informational interviews can help you get started.

Guest contributor Meenakshi Prabhune

The job search is difficult and intimidating, especially during a career transition. While there are tons of articles and advice on dealing with the much dreaded job interview, they rely on a major assumption: you’ve been called for an interview in the first place! What if you’re still figuring out what jobs you should start applying for? This is where informational interviews come in.

 

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Teaching as an academic

We asked Elizabeth Joyce’s opinion on teaching as an academic at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco.

https://youtu.be/PwXGjUBtSrY

How to start a startup

We ask Ambika Bumb, at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco, how to start a start up.

https://youtu.be/qZAHrjQmujU

What’s something you wished you had learnt earlier?

We ask speakers at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco, what they wish they had known earlier in their careers.

https://youtu.be/SvNX335-4dg

One project you’re working on

We ask for an example of a recent project, from speakers at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco.

https://youtu.be/OQSjXqnLtkE

What personal qualities do you need to stand out in academia?

We ask Richmond Sarpong what qualities he thinks scientists need, at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco.

https://youtu.be/c1JiEkHHuVE

Have you ever had to compromise your personal life?

We ask speakers at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco, if they’ve had to compromise on their personal life to make it in academia.

https://youtu.be/3oRQWv30XN0

Study system envy

Graduate students must often weigh the pros and cons of straying from an advisor’s research program

Guest contributor Carolyn Beans

Early in graduate school, I had total study system envy. In many biological fields, including my own field of evolutionary ecology, a study system is a specific species that a scientist uses to run tests. Some of these species like mice, zebrafish, and the plant Arabidopsis are model organisms, and have been well-studied for decades or more. Whether scientists choose a model organism or a relatively unknown species as a study system can have drastic consequences for their research.

Zebrafish

Zebrafish{credit}Uri Manor, NICHD{/credit}

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