Tag Archives: postdoc

US scientists have their say on plans for biomedical workforce

Posted on by
Reply

Posted on behalf of Gene Russo, Nature Careers editor

US biomedical scientists recently had a chance to set their field’s priorities. And what was the most pressing problem they reported? The very real possibility that there are too damn many biomedical scientists.

The balance between the supply of biomedical researchers and the demand in terms of available career opportunities should be the biggest priority for reforming the US biomedical workforce, according to a survey response issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other big priorities that scientists highlighted were PhD characteristics (i.e. PhD curriculum, length of the PhD training period, and lack of preparation for diverse career paths) and postdoctoral-fellow training characteristics (i.e. a bottleneck of jobseekers causing long stints as postdocs and poor mentoring).

Many of the respondents did not mince their words. On the supply and demand issue, some called the current structure of the research workforce a ‘pyramid scheme’ that takes advantage of cheap student and postdoc labour rather than hiring mid-career researchers. Solutions included tenure-model reform, decreasing the number of funded trainees per principal investigator (PI) and using more staff scientists. On the oversupply issue, respondents suggested class-size reductions, raising programme entry requirements and better training for ‘alternative’ careers. Regarding the contraction of research funding, respondents suggested increasing paylines and limiting the number of large grants a single PI is permitted to have.

The survey, part of an NIH working group effort, asked respondents to prioritize future issues for the biomedical workforce. It had 219 respondents — ranging from graduate students to senior scientists — who made a total of 498 ‘quotations’ about various priorities; multiple comments were ranked and the working group then calculated the overall priority of a given issue.

In addition to PhD characteristics and postdoctoral-fellow training characteristics, the working group asked for comment on six other categories: postdoc training, biomedical research career appeal, clinician characteristics, the staff-scientist career track, effects of NIH policies and the training-to-research grant ratio. Based on respondents’ comments, it then added four more categories to its analysis: diversity, mentoring, early educational interventions and industry partnerships.

It’s not a big sample size. But the message is clear: improving satisfaction among early-career biomedical scientists and boosting the efficiency of a system that churns out far more scientists than academia alone can accommodate will require big changes. And these changes will have side effects. Want labs with more full-time staff scientists, and fewer students willing to work 60-hour weeks? Lab productivity and publication rates could suffer (see ‘Mid-career crunch’ for more discussions around changes to NIH grants). Want to curtail tenure? Some argue this would threaten academic freedom and deflate the enthusiasm of academia’s rising biomedical research stars (see ‘The changing face of tenure’ for more).The NIH working group — whose ongoing charge includes developing a “model for a sustainable and diverse US biomedical research workforce” — certainly has its work cut out for it.

38 tips on writing an academic CV

Posted on by
209

Many academic job vacancies have fairly basic application forms, so the main way you will get an interview is by having a very good academic CV, says Emma Baker, careers advisor for the graduate school at King’s College London. Baker outlined a number of tips for writing academic CVs at the 2011 Naturejobs Career Expo, held last week in London. Have a read and let us know what you think – if you have any to add, please leave a comment below.

Length

You may have heard that your CV shouldn’t be more than two pages long, but Baker says that doesn’t apply to academic CVs. “[Academia] seems to be the only field where you can make it as long as you want it to be,” she says. However, you’ll need to think carefully about the structure you use to make sure the length doesn’t put a potential employer off reading it.

Structure

The most important information should be on the first half of the first page, says Baker, and the very first thing should be your name, not the words ‘curriculum vitae’. Your contact details should be at the top of the first page and should include a professional-looking email address – avoid using an inappropriately worded personal account. Also be aware that your current work email address will most likely expire once you leave, so it may not be the best one to use. Baker adds that it’s no longer necessary to list your postal address on your CV, as most applications are done by email and the job application form probably asks for that information.

Baker says she sees a lot of CVs that start by saying something like: “I’m a passionate, hard-working individual with a PhD and I’m good at working in teams.” Avoid generic terms like this – you want to stand out from the crowd. Concentrate on your ‘unique selling points’.

Consider the use of appendices for lists of publications and other large sections.

Content: the basics

The three main sections that should form the bulk of your academic CV are:

  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Administration

Generally speaking, content in each section should be in reverse chronological order, with the most recent thing first.

Research

Baker recommends including the following in your section about research:

  • A description of your PhD or postdoc – this could be a brief overview with a more detailed account listed in the appendices
  • Consider writing a research statement about your current area of research or the area you want to move into
  • Your publications – you can include papers that aren’t published yet if you indicate what stage they are at

You may also want to include a concise list of the specific lab techniques that you have used.

In the research section, include details of any funding you have received – if you haven’t secured a research grant or fellowship yet, consider including travel or conference grants. “Academics want to know that you have the capability of attracting funding and going through the process involved in creating a funding bid,” says Baker. Give details of the process that you went through and the amount you received.

Don’t forget to include details of any conferences you’ve presented at, and make it clear whether you did a poster or oral presentation.

Teaching

Baker says people often overlook information about teaching on their CV and don’t give enough detail. Explain what level of teaching you have done, for example undergraduate or postgraduate, and what kind of teaching it was, for example a lecture or a seminar.

Administration

“However you look at going into an academic post, [admin] will probably form part of an academic career,” says Baker. Examples of admin experience you could mention include organising symposiums or mini-conferences.

Tailoring your content

The best way to customise the content of your CV for each job vacancy is to make it match the person specification. “Make sure you’ve got evidence for every single point on the person specification in your CV, because it should be the criteria that [the employer uses] when deciding who they want to interview,” says Baker.

Check the department’s website to see what kind of research they are currently involved in and what techniques you need to be aware of. Use your network of contacts to get information about the department to help tailor your CV.

Formatting

“Don’t be afraid to use bullet points,” says Baker. If you do use them, try to limit the number of bullet points to five per section, and order them so the most relevant point is at the top. If you have more than five points to include, consider breaking the section down into sub-sections.

Use a consistent style for headings and subheadings so it’s clear which content belongs together. Getting this wrong is “a really common mistake”, says Baker, and it’s one of the first things she looks at in a CV. Employers also place great importance on spelling and grammar, so make sure you ask someone to proofread your CV.

Finally, if you’re not sure which international format you should use for your CV, ask the employer. “Universities are global now, so a lot of them will be used to receiving CVs in different formats,” says Baker, adding that the difference between CVs across countries is becoming less pronounced.

Have your say

Do you have any comments or further advice to share? Let us know your thoughts below.

Careers hold scientists back from having children

Posted on by
5

Many scientists at top US institutions have had fewer children than they wanted as a result of their careers, according to a new study.

Nearly half of all female scientists and a quarter of male scientists said they would have liked more children — and a quarter of both women and men said they are likely to consider moving to a career outside science as a result.

Sociologists Elaine Howard Ecklund from Rice University and Anne Lincoln from Southern Methodist University surveyed 2,500 scientists at more than 30 leading universities in the United States for the study, which was published last week in PLoS ONE.

The survey showed that 36 percent of male postdocs and 22 percent of female postdocs had children, rising to 75 percent of male faculty members and 64 percent of female faculty members. Female faculty members had fewer children on average than their male colleagues — 1.2 children for women versus 1.5 for men.

Despite women being more likely to have wanted more children, men were unhappier about having fewer children than desired. Both men and women with children worked fewer hours than those without children. However, contrary to the researchers’ expectations, women with children worked the same number of hours as men with children — approximately 54 hours a week on average.

“Academic science careers are tough on family life,” says Ecklund, citing long hours and the pressures of working towards tenure as the main pressure points. She and Lincoln suggest on-site day care and improved mentoring programmes may help improve scientists’ work-life balance. “Universities would do well to re-evaluate how family-friendly their policies are,” says Ecklund.

What’s your reaction? Are you putting off having children as a result of your career? Is the situation similar outside the United States? Share your thoughts below.

Getting a pay rise in academia

Posted on by
241

How long has it been since your last pay rise? For almost half of current respondents to a recent Naturejobs poll, the answer is more than two years – and with ever-increasing inflation, that’s effectively a year-on-year pay cut. So is there anything you can do to improve your salary prospects, particularly in academia, where there is often a lack of flexibility in pay?

Know your opportunities

Setting your starting salary

At universities in the UK, where research positions are appointed at a particular grade, there is often a window of opportunity to negotiate the precise point within the grade after you have been offered the job. “That depends on your level of experience and what you’re earning already,” says Rob Hardwick, co-chair of the UK Research Staff Association (UKRSA) and a postdoc at the University of Leicester. It’s likely you will be able to match your current salary, and you may be able to move up one additional point. If you find yourself applying for a position at a lower grade due to the current economic climate, propose that you are appointed at the top of that grade’s scale. In Germany, where positions in public universities are also appointed at a set grade within each district, with defined increments every two years, there are fewer options to discuss the fine details. “The public wage agreements leave no space for negotiation,” says Ute Heckel, project leader for Kisswin, a career development and information platform for young researchers in Germany. “Scientists have fixed contracts, and the contracts have fixed wages.”

In the United States, PhD students can earn a few extra thousand dollars a year by becoming teaching assistants, but there is little else you can do to improve your pay at that stage. The starting salary for postdocs in academia depends on whether your university follows the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines of a minimum stipend of just over $38,000 per year. If it does, there is not much negotiation to be had, says Zoe Fonseca-Kelly, chair of the US National Postdoc Association (NPA). “For the most part, to negotiate a higher salary you’re looking at a promotion,” she says.

Securing higher pay

Pay at UK universities usually increases by a small increment each year until you reach the top of your grade. If you’ve hit the ceiling, make the case to the university that you should be promoted up to the next grade — you’ll need a letter of support from your supervisor for this. Also ensure you double-check your contract — one of Hardwick’s fellow researchers was automatically promoted up a level as they were appointed at the top of a grade, but their contract still said they were entitled to annual increments.

In the US, if you’re getting paid less than the NIH minimum guideline, Fonseca-Kelly recommends that you try to secure your own funding: “A postdoc’s best way to make sure they get at least the NIH minimum is to apply for their own training grants and get their own money.” If you are able to secure funding that can also benefit your career in general by demonstrating early independence. Scientists in Germany searching for funding at a more senior level to develop their career should apply for several grants or prizes at the same time, says Heckel. “You will be more successful if you hand in more applications. That’s perfectly all right.” She also cautions against having a single narrow research focus. “We advise people to have at least two specialisations that they follow in order to increase their chances of getting funded.”

Gather evidence of your value

Whichever opportunity for a pay rise you pursue, you’ll need to justify why you should get more money. “Frame the request in terms of the value you bring to your employer,” says Deb Koen, president and chief executive of Career Development Services in Rochester, New York (see ‘Salary boost’ for more of Koen’s advice).

If there’s an appraisal system in place at your institute, make sure you use it. “People don’t really do that enough,” says Hardwick. He also recommends using self-help tools such as Vitae’s Researcher Developer Framework to self-assess and quantify your full range of skills. “The research things go without saying,” he says. “Aside from that, there are many [other skills] you can use to your advantage.”

The US NPA provides a similar resource called the Postdoctoral Core Competencies Toolkit. Fonseca-Kelly suggests using the toolkit to set a two- or five-year plan either by yourself or with the help of a mentor. “That gives you bargaining ground and a results-orientated output you can use as a negotiating tool to get a promotion,” she says. “The people that I’ve seen successfully get a promotion in academia have had a very good plan of what they want to do and have been able to market themselves to their PI. It takes a lot of planning and communication skills.”

As well as identifying your full range of skills, remember that your publication record is still one of the main ways your value is judged. “That’s always been the most important thing,” says Hardwick.

Do you have any other advice to add? Have you recently secured a pay rise or a promotion? Share your thoughts below.

Female scientists in UK report improved prospects – but there’s still a long way to go

Posted on by
Reply

The gap between men’s and women’s careers in academia in the UK is closing as women become more ambitious, according to the 2010 Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET) summary report published earlier this month.

The 2010 survey, which included responses from over 7,000 male and female academics and postdocs from 84 UK universities, found that women are increasingly likely to aspire to senior leadership positions and are as likely as men to hold posts such as head of research and director of postgraduate studies.

Female postdocs are more positive about their career success to date than female academics, suggesting a more positive outlook for younger generations of scientists, and the availability of flexible working is having a beneficial effect on career development.

However, there are still significant differences between men’s and women’s experiences at every career stage. For example, on average:

  • Women are more likely to be employed on temporary contracts

  • Men are more likely to receive routine appraisals

  • Women have less understanding of the promotion process and criteria

  • Men feel more valued and visible in their departments and have more control over their employment choice

In the foreword to the report, Royal Society president Paul Nurse said there is still a long way to go before the UK can be confident it is making the most of the talents of female scientists. “It is more important than ever that we ensure the best scientists can flourish,” he wrote. “All groups should be able to participate to the full extent of their abilities.”

What is your opinion on prospects in the UK? Share your thoughts below.

Nature welcomes six new Careers columnists

Posted on by
1

After considering almost 300 applications Nature’s Careers editors have chosen six young scientists as winners of the 2011 Careers columnist competition.

The successful entries cover a diverse range of topics, including how to cope with setbacks in the first year of your PhD, the struggles of postdocs in Canada and selling yourself to prospective employers. The six scientists — three PhD students and three postdocs — will each write at least two columns for the Careers section of Nature over the next year. Their columns will also be published on naturejobs.com.

The six winners are:

  • Adam James, a PhD student in synthetic chemistry at the University of Tasmania in Australia

  • Lucie Low, a postdoc in neuroscience at McGill University in Canada

  • Mariano A. Loza-Coll, a postdoc in genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the United States

  • Lydia Soraya Murray, a PhD student in molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom

  • Andrew Peterman, a PhD student in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University in the United States

  • Gaston Small, a postdoc in ecology at the University of Minnesota in the United States

You can read more about the new columnists and their writing ambitions in the 2nd June issue of Nature.

Thanks to everyone who applied — for those of you who were unsuccessful this time, we hope you keep writing.

Are long working hours inevitable for postdocs?

Posted on by
6

More than half of postdocs surveyed work at least 50 hours per week and one quarter work at least 60 hours per week.

By comparison, an employee in the United Kingdom works around 37 hours per week on average, while in France this figure is 38 hours (ref). In the United States the average working week of a private, non-farm employee is just over 34 hours long (ref).

Just 2.5% of postdocs work part-time, compared with around a quarter of employees in the United Kingdom and a sixth of employees in the United States (ref).

While the poll of visitors to naturejobs.com is not the most rigorous of measures, it highlights the long-hours culture that many postdocs are faced with. So are long hours inevitable, and what can you do if struggling with your workload?

Liliya Bondareva, a board member of Eurodoc, an organization that supports PhD students, postdocs and junior researchers throughout Europe and is based in Brussels, is not surprised by our poll results. “A postdoc position implies longer hours for a number of reasons,” she says. Complex research combined with limited funding, tight timescales and a need to publish regularly all pile on the pressure. “Working hours often include doing research, teaching, supervision and increasingly administration,” she adds.

Rob Hardwick, co-chair of the UK Research Staff Association (UKRSA) and a postdoc at the University of Leicester, agrees work outside the lab can take up a significant amount of time and deserves more formal recognition. “It is easy to see how the hours put in by the average postdoc soon stack up,” he says.

Sometimes it’s the nature of the work in the lab that means anti-social hours are unavoidable — Bondareva cites an example of a UK postdoc who typically remains in the lab until past midnight when monitoring the behaviour of cells.

A lack of employment rights exacerbates the issue in some countries, a situation that support organisations are campaigning to change. In France, the CJC (Young Researchers Confederation) is pushing to relabel postdocs as temporary research workers to highlight their contractual plights, according to spokesman François Briatte: “Private companies treat [postdocs] as ‘late-stage students’ and consequently offer wages and positions that would correspond to much lower levels of qualification.”

Contracts and union representation can offer some degree of protection. In August 2010, postdocs at the University of California formed a union and agreed a contract with the university hierarchy. While the deal says work schedules must be reasonable, there is no upper limit set on hours. “We want postdocs to be flexible about their work schedule,” says union president Xiaoqing Cao, adding that postdocs facing an unreasonable workload can file a grievance since the contract was put in place.

However, Cao says that postdocs should expect to work longer-than-average hours: “I was told to be prepared to work at least 50 hours per week when I became a postdoc. If we want to move forward with our careers, we have to work hard.” Hardwick agrees, saying long working weeks are inevitable for ambitious postdocs: “We put in the hours we do because it is highly competitive out there.”

Hardwick advises postdocs struggling with their workload to tell their supervisors or mentors and get the issue discussed at departmental committees and meetings so senior staff are aware there is a problem. “When you get to department-head level you don’t always remember what it was like to be a postdoc,” he says.

Another tactic to mitigate problems with long working hours is to try to prevent them arising in the first place. Bondareva advises postdocs applying for a position to investigate the set-up of the project, such as checking whether other institutes allow more time for similar projects and whether staff in administrative positions are also doing research, which could be a sign of overworked researchers. She also suggests checking the blogs and social media outputs of those already in similar postdoc positions: “Do they seem to have a healthy work-life balance? Do they blog a lot about their work? Is it only about work?”

Failing that, Bondareva advises postdocs under pressure to take strength from their initial motivation for becoming a researcher: “Think about the reason you are doing it, and if the reason is compelling enough, remind yourself about [it] every day.”

Have your say

Should postdocs expect to work longer-than-average hours? Can you share any tips on coping with a heavy workload? Have you been successful in improving your work-life balance as a postdoc? Share your thoughts and experiences below.