Tag Archives: journalism

The Naturejobs career expo journalism competition, London, 2016!

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Enter for a chance to work as a Nature journalist for the day!

 

NJCE-2016-(London)

 

Here we go again!

Following the success of the Boston and San Francisco Naturejobs career expo journalism competitions this year, we’re launching the competition for our tenth career expo in London, to be held on September 16th.

The London Naturejobs career expo is our flagship event, so we are looking for five budding science writers to help us with our coverage of the conference sessions, workshops and general ambience of the event for those who cannot make it. The conference will explore career paths in industry, academia and science communication, finding funding, and much more.

The five winners will have the opportunity to attend the expo and write up at least two of the sessions or workshops for our readers, sharing the advice and expertise of the speakers with our worldwide audience. Winners will also have the opportunity to work closely with Nature editors, and their articles will be published on the Naturejobs blog. Continue reading →

#scidata16: Publishing Better Science through Better Data: Writing competition

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This competition provides the chance to attend the Publishing Better Science through Better Data October 2016 event, work with a Nature editor and have your writing published here on Naturejobs.

After a very successful event last year, we are again looking for five budding science writers to help with news coverage of this year’s Publishing Better Science through Better Data event.

 

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Balance: Can scientists really have work/life balance?

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Do we need to choose between life and science? No. If we learn to delegate and lose our perfectionism, we can have it all.

Naturejobs journalism competition winner Judith M. Reichel

Science is a balancing act. There are experiments to be run, grants to be written, manuscripts to be published, students taught, and conferences to attend. It’s not surprising then that the life of a scientist is a balancing act as well. But how can we balance it, and can we “have it all”?balance-716342_960_720

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Babies or career: How to keep young researchers in science

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Could shared post-docs improve work-life balance and make academia more attractive for early career scientists?

Naturejobs journalism competition winner Ulrike Träger.

If you look for advice on work-life balance in science online, the message seems clear: it’s possible to fit a 10-hour work day around quality time with your kids and family as long as you’re organized. Flexible hours of working in the lab help. Experiments don’t mind when you do them, and can be postponed until your kids are asleep. But still, long hours are expected in order to be successful, and finding childcare during midnight experiments is not always easy if you don’t live close by. So for many (including myself, a post-doc in my late twenties pondering the right time to start a family) the prospect of having to plan each and every minute of the day to be a good parent and scientist is daunting. This leaves promising young scientists everywhere feeling like they have to choose between family and career.

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So you want to be a Nature journalist? Join us at the Naturejobs Career Expo!

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The Naturejobs Career Expo Journalism Competition is back!

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We’re thrilled to announce this year’s Naturejobs journalism competition, taking place in both San Francisco and Boston. This is a great opportunity for new and upcoming science journalists to work with a Nature editor, attend the Naturejobs Career Expo, and have their voice published on the Naturejobs blog. Winners will also be provided with a $100 Amazon voucher and a year’s personal subscription to Nature.

We’re looking for 10 new science writers, based in – or able to travel to – San Francisco and Boston, to cover our ever-popular career expos. The conferences will explore careers in academia and industry, the career paths of prominent scientists, and how to develop the all-important practical and soft skills you need to progress in your career.

Winners of the journalism competition will have the opportunity to visit and report on at least two sessions at the career expo, will be able to work with Springer Nature editors on their pieces, and have their winning entries and reports published on the Naturejobs blog.

 

All you need to do to be considered for the Naturejobs Career Expo Journalism Competition is to send us:

1) A cover letter explaining why you want to be considered and what would make you a good journalist.

2) Your CV.

3) A 600 word answer to one of the following topics:

  • Career paths: What do you need to think about before taking your next step?
  • Balance: Can scientists really have work/life balance?
  • Interviews: What’s the worst question to be asked, and how do you answer it?
  • Events: What are the best networking practises at a conference?
  • Attitude: How important is confidence in science?
  • Mobility: How far should you travel for your research?
  • Transferable skills: What are scientists good at (other than science)?

 

The prizes are:

1) The five winning and five runner-up entries will be posted on the Naturejobs blog before the event.

2) The reports of the Expo will be published on the Naturejobs blog after the event.

3) Winners will work with, and meet, Springer Nature editors.

4) The five winners will receive a one year personal subscription to Nature .

5) The five winners will also get a $100 Amazon voucher.

 

The things you need to know BEFORE entering the competition:

1) We cannot offer travel grants or cover travel expenses to the event of any kind. Instead we offer some great prizes, along with the opportunity of having your pieces published on the Naturejobs blog.

2) The competition entries and content created will be used on the Naturejobs blog and in marketing materials for the Naturejobs Career Expo.

3) The deadline for sending in your competition entries is 7th April 2016 at 9pm GMT.

4) You can send your competition entries to the Naturejobs editor at naturejobseditor [at] nature.com.

 

Good luck, and we’re looking forward to seeing your entries!

 

Links

Naturejobs Career Expo San Francisco

Naturejobs Career Expo Boston

Career paths: There’s no set route for scientists

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A scientist’s career path is often the result of a series of chance meetings, unexpected events and changes in personal circumstances. You shouldn’t be afraid to follow your own unique route, says Zoe Self.

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Guest contributor Zoe Self

Have you ever been striding down the road only to realise that you are heading in completely the wrong direction? If you turn around on the spot, you’ll likely get some funny looks from those around you. You could look at your phone, pretend you’ve been called away to attend some kind of crisis and go back in the other direction with a new (if not false) sense of purpose. Or, you could look at your watch and pretend to realise that, actually, you need to be somewhere else. But what if this was your career path?

When I finished my biomechanics PhD in 2012, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in research. More than anything, I was exhausted by the end of my PhD and felt like the approach of ‘a change is as good as a rest’ applied.  I really wanted a job in science communication, as I had loved the outreach and engagement work I’d taken part in throughout my PhD, but had been made aware, by those working in that area, that jobs were hard to come by. I eventually decided a lecturing role would suit as it required many of the same aspects. Engaging students in my discipline sounded equally fulfilling, but it wasn’t long before I felt like I was heading the wrong way. I no longer felt like I was learning and achieving (important at an early-career stage); to my surprise I missed research (a break had changed my outlook), and I still wanted a shot at a career in science communication. Continue reading →

Science communication: A foot in the door

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Payal Bhatia shares how she became interested in science communication, and how she has started carving out a career for herself in the field.

Guest contributor Payal Bhatia

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If I was ever going to leave the lab, it would be to become a full-time science communicator. My first formal piece of science writing was a book chapter I wrote as a PhD. I enjoyed this experience so much that I ended up taking courses at the University of Zurich to improve my writing. This overlapped with a chance meeting Isabel Arnold, editor of the EMBO Journal at the time, who introduced me to the field of science journalism. With my science background, exposure to scientific editing and my passion for writing, I quickly learned that science writing was the career I would love. However, I knew I did not have enough experience to start right away. Employers were looking for candidates with a few years of experience in writing and communication, and when looking at job descriptions, I realized that I was missing a few skills. This gave me an indication on where I could develop and get a foot in the door.

I did some self-reflection and made a plan— a simple outline of what I enjoy writing about, what skills I already have, what resources I can use to gain additional skills and most importantly, if I know someone in the field. Continue reading →

What attracted you to science communication?

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One of the popular career choices for scientists that look for jobs outside of academia is science communication. In this film, three science communicators look back at what inspired them to try this job.

As this is the case, we also want to know what attracted you to science communication. Please share why you decided to start doing science communication in the comments section below. We’ll be creating another blog post to highlight all the reasons in 2015.

The career paths in science communication panel at the 2014 London Naturejobs Career Expo was chaired by the Naturejobs editor, Julie Gould, and consisted of Greg Foot (Freelance), Jonathan Sanderson (StoryCog), Steven Palmer (Cancer Research UK) and Celeste Biever (Chief editor for online Nature news & comment).

Celeste Biever started working in science communication because she enjoys the thrill of not knowing what’s going to happen from one day to the next. She enjoys trying to “understand and pull out essence of complex ideas very quickly.” Rapid turn-around times are also an attraction: “Everything is done within a day or two or in a week. Anything long term is one month.”

Greg Foot always enjoyed the wonder and curiosity of science as well as the way of looking at world and answering questions. “If you’re working in a lab you focus on one thing. If you’re a science communicator, especially if you’re freelance, there is an opportunity to work on many projects at once; some fast and some slow.” However, when Greg was starting out in science communication, it was still an extremely small and under-developed field. Had science communication been as big then as it is now, he “would potentially think about doing the science and science communication at the same time… there is a lot more opportunity to do that now. I don’t think it’s a case of “Leave the lab; Do science communication.”

Jonathan Sanderson believes that the expectation that you have a plan of what you’re going to do with your life is utter rubbish when it comes to science communication: “It’s a nice story that people tell themselves.” Like Celeste, Jonathan knew that timelines were important to him. “The sense of having one career for my working life was something that 17/18 year old me recognised that it wasn’t going to make me as happy.”

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 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?

Should we patch the leaky PhD pipeline?

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Simon Hazelwood-Smith

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Introducing Simon Hazelwood-Smith, one of the winners of the London Naturejobs Career Expo journalism competition

Simon is an MSc student studying science and technology policy at the University of Sussex. He has a background in genetics, having previously worked as a research assistant in the Division of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at King’s College London. Outside of work he likes to keep active and enjoys rock climbing, playing football, cycling and skiing. 

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What would it mean for there to be too many PhDs? An obvious answer might be when the number of PhD studentships far outweigh postdoctoral positions. This is indeed where the current ratio lies (need to register with Vitae to read). However in my view this answer is inadequate; does it mean that there are too many PhDs, or too few postdocs? And is there inherently a problem with some students electing, or even being pushed, to leave academia and pursue other careers?

Science has for some time had a brutally pyramidal shaped career path with some comparing it, perhaps a little harshly, to a Ponzi scheme. For scientists, the reality of short contracts, relatively low pay and highly competitive progression into more senior positions is, in general, well acknowledged. In truth the idea that there is an issue only at PhD level is short sighted; scientists leave in high numbers at each stage of the possible academic career. Continue reading →