Atlanta
BEST
Magazine
Summer 2018
Table of Contents Magazine Team 3 Link in Until You Get In: 4-7 A Job Search & Secure Strategy Success Stories and Advice 9-13 Mental Health and Career Resources 14-15 BEST ASoM Book Club 16-17 Strong-arming the Marathon Work Week 18-19 Improving PhD Training 20-23 The Business of Science 24-26
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Editors-In-Chief
E. Motunrayo Kolawole, PhD BEST Cohort 3 Postdoc, University of Utah
Tami Hutto, MSPP E. Motunrayo Kolawole, PhD
Editors Kylie Ainslie, PhD Tami Hutto, MSPP E. Motunrayo Kolawole, PhD
Design E. Motunrayo Kolawole, PhD Tami Hutto, MSPP Kylie Ainslie, PhD Darcie Cook, PhD
Tami Hutto, MSPP Former, BEST Program Manager Associate Director, MBA Career Management Center, Goizueta Business School, Emory
Kylie Ainsle, PhD BEST Cohort 2 Postdoc, Imperial College, London
Darcie Cook, PhD BEST Cohort 2 Science Content Developer, Cape Fear Museum of History and Science
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Link in Until You Get In: A Job Search & Secure Strategy for the Transition out of Academia By MaKendra Umstead, PhD BEST Cohort 2 Emory, Cancer Biology ‘16 GoGlobal Graduate - Merk KGaA - Pfizer-Oncology Alliance, EMD Serono, Inc.
If you are like me, the thought of finding a job after finishing graduate school seemed like a very daunting task. I knew the time would come…but it all seemed to happen so fast! Multiply that by the unknowns of venturing outside of the lab into a new sector and the uncertainty of how far your savings account will stretch during the “temporary unemployment,” and a bit of anxiety is sure to set in. The great news is that the graduate school experience, especially in programs like the Atlanta BEST program, adequately prepared me for the next step. Now, it’s your turn to apply the time, strategy, and patience to seize your next opportunity. LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that can be a critical piece of your job search and secure strategy. In this article I share a few tips that I used to ultimately find, apply, and accept a wonderful post-PhD position. The future awaits.
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Build Your Profile
Set Up Job Alerts
I won’t rehash the information that can be found across the web about how to create a profile. I will note that having a professional photo, an engaging tagline that sheds light on the job you WANT rather than PAST positions, and key word descriptions that briefly convey the highlights of your experiences will raise the visibility and impact of your profile. You’ve heard dress for the job you want not the job you have. The same applies for your profile.
I love the fact that you can tailor your job search in LinkedIn and let the site do the work for you. Each day LinkedIn sends an email listing jobs that match the criteria you set (location, industries, key words, experience level, etc). The LinkedIn Jobs mobile app is another easy way to search and save positions. Some jobs also allow applications directly through LinkedIn (another great reason to have a top-notch profile). LinkedIn is a fairly seamless way to view open positions, get basic company info and news, and look for connections.
Choose your words wisely. A. Graduate student at Emory University B. Graduate student interested in business careers in science C. Cancer Biologist and Biotechnology Commercialization Professional Which tagline is more compelling? You’ve done it! You have completed (or are near completion of) the training phase of your career. Own your discipline and the experience you gained during your BEST internship. Add the -ist! Scientist and Science Policy Advocate. Chemist and Intellectual Property Professional. Statistician and Big Data Guru (okay that does not end in -ist but you get the g-ist). Another important area to complete in the LinkedIn profile is the skills section. Find the profiles of professionals in your target area and choose some keywords to add. This helps when applying for positions using LinkedIn and when recruiters review your profile. Pro Tip: That pesky LinkedIn Premium free trial email has suddenly become useful. Now is time to use it! This premium feature provides insights when applying for positions such as how well your profile and skills match the job description, how many people have applied, and the contact information for the recruiter who posted the position. Just set a calendar alert to end your subscription after the free month ends!
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Use the Network LinkedIn is a social media network, after all. Identify a few job titles that sound like positions of interest. Search for these titles in LinkedIn and identify individuals whose jobs sound amazing to you. Then contact them! Your message may sound something like this: “Hi Jane! I found your profile while reviewing [job title] roles at [company]. I am a PhD graduate who wants to transition into business roles in the biotech/ pharma industry. I’d love to connect and chat about your experience and your current role. Thank you!”
Contact Now, Apply Later...or Vice Versa You found a description of a job you’d love. Way to go! Now what? There are two approaches at this stage. If you want to learn more about the company and possibly speak to someone about the position before you craft your cover letter and resume, contact the recruiter, someone who works in a similar position, or someone who held the position previously directly through LinkedIn. Either send a direct message or InMail (LinkedIn Premium feature) introducing yourself, your background, and your interest in the position. Try to schedule a brief phone call or meeting over coffee. The worst that can happen is no response. The best that can happen is a foot in the door and a person who can pass your name along to HR!
Pro-tip
Follow-Up
You can browse anonymously. You can change your privacy settings while you are searching other profiles so that you browse as an anonymous LinkedIn member. This will erase the history of who has viewed your profile, but you can always turn this function off when you finish the “lurk.” LinkedIn Premium will let you browse anonymously without erasing your history. Another approach is to log out of LinkedIn in your browser to view (sometimes limited) profiles without showing up in the “who’s viewed you” list.
Another excellent way to use LinkedIn is to follow-up after an interview. If you made genuine connections with the people you spoke to - reach out to them via LinkedIn and thank them for your time and state that you hope to remain in touch no matter the outcome. If they add you on LinkedIn, send a short “thank you” note appreciating the fact that they connected with you. Even if you don’t get the job, they may post other positions, be able to connect you to others in the future, or be a resource later on in your career.
Sometimes, a job description may list the person to whom the posted position would report. In this situation, after applying to the job, I looked this person up on LinkedIn, sent them a quick note and an invitation to connect. They accepted! We then scheduled a time to chat about the needs of the position and my background. Now that is the foot in the door that you need. They will certainly be looking for your resume as it comes through the door. In my experience, 50% of the time this approach got me a skype interview or phone conversation with the person directly involved in hiring me. It can work!
It's Your Turn Exercising these powerful tips using the networking platform LinkedIn is a great way to take a proactive step in your job search. Remember that so much of the search is based on variables that are out of your control. The company you really like may be going through a hiring freeze. You may be limited to searching in a certain geographical area. Your PhD research may not exactly fit the job description. However, with a combination of a great resume, topnotch interview preparation, and some LinkedIn savviness, you can make your dream job a reality. Above all, patience is key. It has taken people I know two months to a year to find and secure a job, but it was a job they absolutely loved.
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The BEST graduate career options Lauren Murphy, PhD BEST Cohort 4 Emory, Neurobiology and Behavior ‘17 Research Scientist, Lieberman Research Worldwide
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ost PhD-level graduate students say that a faculty position is their career goal (1), yet a smaller and smaller number of students are achieving this milestone (2). This is in part due to decreasing numbers of faculty positions, declining research funding, and increasing numbers of graduates opting for non-traditional careers. Some believe that it is unethical or immoral to continue training high numbers of PhDs without increasing the number of faculty positions(3). Others agree that redefining success for doctoral students and improving professional development at the university level will allow institutions to develop opportunities that will better prepare scholars for a wide variety of careers, inside or out of academia (4). To better understand graduate outcomes at Emory, during Spring 2017 our team collected, classified, and analyzed data from the GDBBS graduate programs to classify current occupations of alumni (n=878). Data on current positions were collected using email requests and supplemented with LinkedIn and Google searches. Job types were classified based on job descriptions and, where relevant, classified by the research level of the academic institution. Overall, the findings show that more than half of GDBBS graduates are working in jobs that are research-intensive (e.g. faculty, research scientists) or are continuing training (e.g. post-docs), largely in research capacities. Another quarter are in careers that are research-related (e.g. administration), while a small percentage fit into the “other” category (i.e. business, law). The primary sector for all GDBBS students was academia, followed by for-profit and government institutions. However, when we examine job functions, only 15% of the grads we surveyed were classified as PIs (research-intensive at R01 institutions). Considering the time needed to secure a position as a principal investigator, we then considered only individuals who graduated class of 2005 and earlier (>12
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years ago, n=362). Of these late-career graduates, most were in research-intensive careers, followed closely by research-related positions. However, only a quarter (27%) of graduates with 12 years’ experience following their degrees were classified as PIs. When we consider these findings, and consider that we train individuals to become researchers above all else, professional development beyond scientific training is critical to the clear majority of GDBBS graduates. If graduate success includes the placement in research related careers, then graduate training in the GDBBS program is highly successful. However, if the metric we use to measure success is the placement of graduates in positions as principal investigators, then the program is struggling. While additional analyses are needed to determine how the career trajectory of individuals impacts career outcomes and success, the first step to tackle the “PhD problem” should be to examine and define realistic outcomes that are most relevant to the student population. As demand increases in the broader biomedical ecosystem for highly skilled workers with statistical, computational, and writing skills, and as research funding continues to be tightened, students will likely continue to explore careers outside of the traditional academy and develop fulfilling careers in a variety of positions and sectors. To prepare graduate students for the greatest possibility of success, and to continue our reputation for producing high-quality graduate students, Emory University should continue to promote professional development in the early years of graduate training, and provide a framework for transitioning students diverse skills into satisfying careers in and outside of academia.
1) Woolston, Chris (2015) Graduate Survey: Uncertain Futures. Nature, 536. 2) Powell, Kendall (2012) The Postdoc Experience: High Expectations, Grounded in Reality. Science. 3) Offord, Catherine (2017) Addressing Biomedical Science’s PhD Problem. The Scientist. 4) Cyranoski, Gilbert, Ledford, Nayar, and Yahia, (2011) The PhD Factory: The world is producing more PhDs than ever before. Is it time to stop? Nature, 472.
Success Stories and Advice
Emily Weikum, PhD BEST Cohort 3 Emory, Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology ‘17 Senior Medical Writer, Scimentum
1. Why did you join BEST?
When I came to graduate school I knew I did not want to go into academia, yet I did not know what other career paths were available. Before BEST I attended many talks and job presentations at Emory but still didn’t find my fit. When I saw the advertisement for BEST I knew this was a program I needed to join. Before this program I did not appreciate how many skills I gained in graduate school that I could leverage into a career.
mational interviews. During the program I did not see the full value of these, but I now have a career to thank for this! It does not take a lot of effort to reach out to people and ask to talk with them about their job. I found that most were eager
with my PI that if he could find me a career where I could make figures for manuscripts and get paid I would be happy. It happens that a BCDB alum gave a talk about her job at the programs annual retreat and her job was almost exactly
to have these conversations, and also offered to edit my resume and cover letters, provide leads to other people to talk to, and pass on my resume when I applied for a job.
what I joked I wanted to do. I didn’t think about the job for a while, but decided to reach out for an informational interview months later. She spoke so highly of her job and told me how it was both challenging and required the strong communication skills she harnessed at Emory. I knew then that this was the job I wanted. As I was about to start the
2. How did BEST help you decide what career you wanted to go into? BEST was essential in exposing me to all the career possibilities. When I finished BEST I had my mind set on a career in project management. However, as I began to apply for these jobs I realized I was under qualified. I also talked with more people (through informational interviews), and came to realize that maybe a career in project management wasn’t the best fit for me. However, what BEST did was give me the encouragement to keep looking, read about other options, and continue to seek out informational interviews and add to my network.
3. What were the most useful aspects of BEST?
One of the most important things the BEST program gave me was the push I needed to seek out infor-
4. When and how did you decide to pursue your desired career?
During my last year of graduate school I was mainly writing. I joked
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job searching process she agreed to pass on my resume.
6. How did you approach the job search process?
I started my job search about 6 months before my defense date. I had a number of informational interviews with people in a variety of Many aspects of my new job excareers. Having these conversations cite me. This job brings together were critical in determining what my creative side, love for writing, I wanted to know, but, more imand general interest in science. I portantly, what I didn’t want to do. am able to take new and exciting When I was ready to begin applyscientific data and help our clients transform that data into everything ing for jobs I reached back out to those I spoke with and they agreed from manuscript preparation, to pass on my resume. This is how booth design for conferences, to I got the interview for the job I teaching videos. I am also excited to be working on a team, of mainly ultimately accepted. I also utilized job boards to apply to anything that PhDs, where we can bring our diverse scientific backgrounds togeth- looked interesting. I did find I was either over or under qualified for er to ultimately create impactful many jobs I wanted. The only intercommunications. views I got where from the places where I knew someone there.
5. What aspects of your current job were attractive to you?
7. Were there any specific resources or websites that were particularly helpful?
Instead of looking at websites, I asked a lot of people to read and comment on my resume and cover letters. This was very helpful and I now have a solid resume and am able to pass on the things I learned to others. Also, before my interview I had someone practice potential questions with me. One key thing that I think sealed my job offer: I could recite the companies mission statement: they were very impressed by that!
Nicole Brown, PhD BEST Cohort 3 Emory Molecular and Systems Pharmacology ‘17 Director of Laboratory Quality Management, Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, CDC Currently, I work as the Director of 1. Can you say a little about how you ended up getting the job you have now and why you Laboratory Quality Management in the Clinical Research Branch in chose it?
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2. Why did you join BEST?
I first joined BEST because I knew that I didn’t want to spend a career the Division of Tuberculosis Elimin academia, but was unsure of ination at the Centers for Disease what other potential careers were Control and Prevention. My job is available. My adviser was willing to to coordinate tuberculosis laborato- help me explore careers outside of ries participating in an internation- academia, but he admittedly didn’t al 2500 participant Phase III treathave the best resources to advise ment shortening clinical trial for on non-academic careers. BEST drug sensitive tuberculosis. I chose offered resources to talk to people to do this work because this trial who had pursued non-academic cacould have a huge impact on the reers as well as a supportive cohort way tuberculosis is treated globally. who were also exploring alternative Working in clinical trials has an im- careers. mediate impact on health that basic science research does not. I get the same fulfillment of doing research but with a much more immediate impact.
3. How did BEST help you decide what career 6. How did you approach the job search you wanted to go into? process and what tools did you use? BEST helped me focus on which aspects I really wanted in a career and which aspects I didn’t. For instance, I knew I wanted a job that would provide a variety of challenges each day. I didn’t want to become bored with monotony. At the same time, I didn’t want a job that I would be traveling all of the time or be put under intense time crunches.
4. What were the most useful aspects of BEST?
The most useful aspect was setting aside time to devote to the job search. Completing a doctoral program is so overwhelming that it’s difficult to set aside the time to also find a job. BEST sessions that were spent translating skills developed in graduate school to real world skills that could be listed on a resume were immensely helpful.
5. What aspects of your current job were attractive to you?
I liked that my current job would still involve working with laboratories though not necessarily doing wet lab work. A major drawback to laboratory work was how tedious and repetitive the work could become. My current job presents a new challenge each day. There is constantly a new question from laboratories or a new issue arising that has to be addressed. There is also a persistent feeling in basic science that the work you do may never provide an impact on people’s lives. I liked that working on a clinical trial could have a much more immediate benefit for people.
I went to conferences in different areas that I thought might fit. I also used informational interviews to find out more about careers I was interested in. Once I had a career focus, I used Indeed.com and the Emory Public Health Employment Connection to find jobs.
“BEST helped me focus on which aspects I really wanted in a career and which aspects I didn’t.” 7. Were there any specific resources or websites that were particularly helpful?
8. How did you balance career exploration and your dissertation work ?
I started looking for a job soon after my committee recommended I start in October 2015. At the same time I was wrapping up a paper that would become a chapter in my dissertation. I applied to my current job in January 2016 and was invited for an interview in early February. I was soon offered the position after interviewing but hadn’t completed my dissertation yet. My job was flexible enough to allow me to work part time while I finished a paper and my dissertation. For two months I worked part time at the CDC and part time at Emory to complete my dissertation. Five days a week, I would go into my CDC office from 8am to noon. Then for the rest of the day I would either go in to the lab or home to work on my dissertation. I would work nights and weekends to finish as quickly as possible. Once I had started my job at CDC, I found myself immensely interested in the work and motivated to complete my dissertation and defend.
Having an idea that I wanted a job in public health, I found the Emory Public Health Employment Connection useful to find what types of public health jobs were available. Most posted jobs are geared towards students graduating with a Masters in Public Health, however, I was able to find a position for a PhD candidate.
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Michelle Giddens, PhD BEST Cohort 3 Emory, Neuroscience ‘17 Medical Writer, Articulate Science
1. Why did you join BEST?
I heard great things about BEST from a lab-mate. I knew that I didn’t want to become a PI, and was hesitant to do a post doc. I knew this meant I needed to spend time figuring out what I did want to do, but I also knew that I needed motivation to keep professional development near the top of my to-do list.
communications and medical writing, the more I realized this position was exactly what I had been looking for. In my position as a medical writer, I am constantly coming up with creative ways to display and convey information. I work with my colleagues to educate a variety of audiences about drugs, clinical trials, and human health and disease.
2. How did BEST help you decide what career 3. What were the most useful aspects of BEST? you wanted to go into? BEST introduced me to a variety of careers that I didn’t know about and educated me about careers I thought I wasn’t interested in. The career I am in now, medical communications, was not something I thought I would want to do. Through the workshops, internships, and panel discussions from BEST I learned that medical writing is much more dynamic than a solitary writer pumping out dry manuscripts (which is how I originally imagined it). I also learned how to identify what I didn’t want through BEST. I have always enjoyed working with people, especially teaching and helping others solve problems. For a long time, I thought this meant I should go into teaching, but that career path just didn’t seem to fit exactly. I began to realize teaching wasn’t as interactive as I thought; I much prefer the back and forth of working with others to solve a problem or teach something. The more I learned about medical
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BEST provided so many things. I think I benefitted the most from interactions with my peers, hearing their stories, and the career seminars/panels/networking events. Also, having the time and space for professional development carved into my schedule was essential.
4. When and how did you decide to pursue your desired career?
[I was first exposed to medical writing when] my lab-mate (another BESTie) did an internship through BEST with a medical writer and told me about her experience. I really liked some aspects of medical writing, but I didn’t think I was suited to this career because I had always associated writing with anxiety and procrastination. However, when I sat down to write my first first-author paper, I wrote a draft in 3 days. All the information just flowed and it was awesome. After that I began working on my dissertation, and I realized that I actually enjoyed the process of writing. Once I decided to pursue medical
writing, I began to contact people I knew that were associated with medical communications. I had some contacts from previous informational interviews and networking events (as well as my labmate’s internship) and I just started emailing people. I asked about internships to try to get my foot in the door and get some experience. I did eventually score some freelance work with the medical writer my lab-mate had worked with. This experience was a great way to get experience and confirmed that I had found the right path. I also began following job postings via Indeed.com, writing tailored cover letters and a resume, and applying for open positions. In the end, what got me my current job was meeting a medical writer for Articulate Science (the company I now work for) at a BEST networking session. I kept in contact with her for a few months and when I eventually applied to her company, she passed my resume to her boss. I think this was key for getting my resume noticed and getting an interview.
5. What aspects of your current job were attractive to you?
ning to check out what resumes could look like for people leaving academia. I used Indeed.com alerts to get a feel for the jobs out there. Recent alumni posts on Facebook were surprisingly helpful and relevant! I heard about and applied to 2 different jobs from alumni posts!
Also, my efforts can have a direct impact on patient care. As a freelance medical writer, I have worked on a couple of continuing medical education grants. If these grants get funded (which is much more likely than an RO1 or NRSA), a non-profit organization will gather experts in the field to educate hundreds of nurses about different aspects of prostate cancer. Often, a medical writer will create the content for these seminars. I am so glad to have found a position where I can work closely on cutting edge science and still contribute to human health outside the lab.
8. How did you balance career exploration and your dissertation work?
I think communicating science effectively is one of the most important things we as scientists can do. Medical writing is all about effective communication to a variety of audiences.
This was hard. I did a lot of the legwork before writing my dissertation. I went on a bunch informational interviews, talked to program alums, revamped my Linkedin [profile], set-up Indeed. com job alerts, and applied to a few jobs. I prepared several versions of [my] cover letter and resume. I also made business cards. I went on a job interview during this time, but even though it went really well I didn’t get the position. I got the impression that the timing wasn’t right (I wasn’t scheduled to defend for another few months).
Then, when I was writing my papers and dissertation (~2months), I didn’t do much. However, I did keep my eyes open for the right opportunity (alerts and such) and kept up with my contacts. Once I turned in my dissertation, I spent ~2 weeks focused almost entirely on my job search. I ramped up my networking, applied to a dozen or so jobs and kept refining my job docs (resume, cover letters, cv, etc.). After that, I focused almost entirely on my defense. During that time, I heard back about a job! I did a phone screen, a writing test (common for medical writer positions), defended, had my job interview and landed the position. The timing could not have been better; I was very lucky!
6. How did you approach the job search process and what tools did you use?
For about a year before graduating (during and after BEST) I was doing as many informational interviews as possible and generally talking to recent PhDs with new jobs. I knew I wanted to stay in Atlanta, so that narrowed my search area considerably. I used Indeed.com alerts, Linkedin, and Google to find relevant companies and positions. And, networking, networking, networking. Connecting with program alumni is a GREAT resource and was definitely influential in my success.
7. Were there any specific resources or websites that were particularly helpful?
I used Versitile PhD at the begin-
“BEST provided so many things. I think I benefitted the most from interactions with my peers, hearing their stories, and the career seminars/panels/networking events.” 13
Mental Health Resources Emory Student Health Resources: »» Student Health Services . 3 main offices on campus http://studenthealth.emory.edu/ . Offers a variety of services, including mental health counseling and referrals, health education, wellness programming, and individual consultations . Located at 1525 Clifton Rd »» CAPS: Counseling and Psychological Services . Offers one-on-one counseling and programming (first 7 sessions are free) . Appointments are scheduled by calling (404) 727-7450 . Located at 1462 Clifton Rd, suite 235 (Old Dental School Building) »» Office of Health Promotion . Offers proactive programming for students on living a balanced, positive life on campus »» Ombudsperson . The Ombudsperson is an individual to whom students may speak regarding a problem, conflict or concern.
Georgia Tech Student Health Resources:
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»» Georgia Tech Counseling Center . Offers free mental health counseling services to all currently enrolled Georgia Tech students, as well as psychoeducational testing services, stress management and wellness workshops, and in-house focus groups to help clients connect over shared experiences. »» Health Promotion Department: . Health Promotion provides learning opportunities designed to empower the Georgia Tech community to make healthy decisions, including topics such as stress management, yoga, and nutrition. »» Campus Recreation Complex (CRC): . Campus Recreation inspires and promotes a healthy lifestyle through diverse, quality recreational opportunities and services to enrich mind, body, and spirit while enhancing lifelong learning. Program offerings include: Aquatics, Competitive Sports, GIT FIT, Healthy Lifestyle Programs, and Outdoor Recreation. »» Women’s Resource Center:
Information on Broad Career Paths for PhDs General Exploration Sites
• Science Careers: Large archive of past and current articles on a wide range of career options for PhD scientists and engineers • myIDP Individual Development Planning Tips, from Science Careers • Versatile PhD: Online community and forum sharing info about a wide variety of careers for PhDs in all disciplines. Find same resume and cover letters, stories about how others got their job, and learn about a variety of career paths • NIH BEST consortium resources • Career Exploration Road Map made by UCSF
Career Path Videos
• By the Vanderbilt School of Medicine on NIH BEST Consortium Website • By The New York Academy of Sciences • NIH Office of Intramural Training and Educations archive of video casts on a range of career and professional development topics from communication skills to career exploration • Reimagining the PhD TED Talk
Job Search Sites
-- Check out job boards on Professional Association websites, too! • http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/ • https://www.dropoutclub.org/jobs/list/ • http://www.biospace.com • http://jobs.fiercebiotech.com/ • http://www.phdproject.org/resources/academic-job-sites/ • https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/phd-jobs • http://careers.faseb.org • http://www.chooseatl.com/opportunities/bioscience • http://www.womeninbio.org/jobs • http://careerhq.pmi.org/
Personal Development Resources: Books, articles, and videos collated by Director NIH OITE Georgia’s Bioscience Industry
• Georgia Bio is Georgia’s Trade Organization “Georgia Bio’s mission is to advance the growth of Georgia’s life sciences industry and foster strategic partnerships that can create a healthier world. To accomplish this mission, GaBio conducts business and economic development activities; advocates on behalf of the industry on public policy matters; educates the public about the benefits of life sciences research and product development; and provides a network for the exchange of ideas, information and opportunities.” • For Students and Postdocs, they have an Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) that hosts events and provides career and professional development opportunities, email eln@gabio.org to become a member for free and be added to their email list • Check out info on Georgia’s BioScience Industry with list of companies at the bottom of the site • Interesting data report on Georgia’s growth: The Value of Bioscience Innovation in Growing Jobs and Improving Quality of Life 2016
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Photo credit: Tami Hutto
BEST - ASoM
Book Club
Signe White, PhD Student ASOM Participant Emory, Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution
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he Atlanta Society of Mentors (ASOM) in collaboration with the Atlanta Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Program recently hosted a book club for interested graduate students, post-docs, and faculty. Participants were welcome to attend either or both conversations. I love book clubs, and having an excuse to read a new book was ideal, but when I couldn’t decide which book I would rather dive into, I decided to read each of them and attend both workshops.
Cruical Conversations Kerry Patterson
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The second book we read, quite different from the first but equally important, was Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson et al. This book was marketed towards high-stakes conversations in a corporate environment, but it has valuable lessons for anyone who has to deal with people on a daily basis (a.k.a. all of us). The academic world can be a complicated maze of power dynamics, poor communication, and feuds for the rights to intellectual property. Any situation, from graduate student-faculty advisor dynamics to postdoc-lab manager dynamics can come with its own series of hurdles and barriers to communication. To keep a lab, collaborations, and student workers all running smoothly, it’s essential to know how to communicate. The book emphasized a list of rules to follow when navigating a difficult conversation. These include: start with heart (staying focused on what you really want and what the other person wants), notice when safety is at risk, how to talk about almost anything, master your story, how to speak persuasively, how to listen, and how to turn crucial conversations into results. This book is a goldmine of tips for communication, and something that everyone can learn from.
Next Gen PhD Melanie Sinche The first book, Next Gen PhD by Melanie Sinche, was a practical guide to navigating both internal (academia) and external career options in today’s economy. At first I thought this book may not apply to me since my goal has always been to secure a professorial position, but the book has turned out to be an invaluable source of wisdom even for those looking to stay within the academy. Sinche, the author, is an educational counselor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, and has counseled innumerable graduate and postdoctoral workers forward inthroughout their careers. She emphasized certain traits that are important to have as an employee in any discipline: strong communication skills, negotiation ability, building networks, etc. Furthermore, this book serves as an essential guide for navigating the specifics of the current job market. As many of us are struggling to come to terms with that fact that there are many more PhDs granted each year than there are faculty jobs available. Inevitably, many PhDs will have to find jobs outside of the academic market. It is important to keep in mind what skill sets are needed to procure a job. Technical skills typically lean towards computational, programming, or bioinformatics skills. Thus, a thorough evaluation of personal skills, interests, and values is essential at each stage of a scientist’s career. It is likely that a student’s interests will change over the course of their graduate training along with changes in the job market. This book served as an essential guide to my own professional development and is one that I am sure I will continue to come back to for its sage advice.
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Strong-arming the M Darcie Cook, PhD BEST Cohort 2 Emory, Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis ‘17 Science Content Developer, Cape Fear Museum of History and Science
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I know that this will not be the last time that I have a week like that and, to be totally honest, I did not handle the fallout as well as I could have. I was short with my labmates and generally not the most pleasant person to be around. I was ready to quit all over again. When I finally had a moment to breathe (and sleep), I took some time to evaluate what I could have done differently. While the amount of work that had to be done couldn’t be changed, my attitude towards it could. A few weeks ago, I had my first marathon workI came to the realization that I was using the posweek since I returned from my year off. It was just sibility to quit as a crutch. My time off was over. I was back in the lab, but I wasn’t committed; I as mind-numbing and difficult as I remember. By Friday, I had worked almost 40 hours in three days wasn’t all in. I had one toe in the pool with my towel still around my shoulders. There was still a and knew that I would be working through the weekend to wrap up this set of experiments. By the voice in the back of my head telling me that if it got too hard, I could just walk away. I almost did middle of the next week, I was beat and seriously it once before, what would stop me this time? But disgruntled with graduate school. These are the moments that are the most challenging for me to then I thought, I have put in so much effort and so many hours that to walk away now would be manage my emotions. The times when it is most important to keep the end goal in sight and not get a blight in my story. It’s time to silence that voice bogged down in the misery of the here and now. and jump into the deep end. ne of the most difficult aspects of graduate school is staying positive and motivated when everything begins to pile up on top of you. In my experience, the insanity tends to come in waves. One week will be really slow with mostly reading and planning days while the next week, I’m living in the lab working myself to exhaustion. It would be nice if it didn’t happen that way, but that is the nature of the beast.
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Marathon Workweek “ One of the most difficult
aspects of graduate school is staying positive and motivated when everything begins to pile up on top of you” With this newfound determination, I started to set goals for myself, I made lists of everything that needed to be accomplished long-term and short-term, and I asked for help. I was working on my own project, helped with other students’ projects, and covered a post doc’s project while she is away. Then I met with my advisor and we worked out a new plan that would involve training others on the post doc’s project to be able to lessen my time burden. That allowed me to buckle down and really focus on my own project. My overall attitude in the lab changed. Benchwork could quickly become tedious which can lead to careless mistakes. I worked on training my brain to embrace the tedium. The more precision and care I performed on an experiment, the more likely it was to succeed (maybe, this is still science we’re talking about here). I took more time to plan my experiments fully beforehand instead of starting them and figuring the rest of it out on the fly during an incubation. I made sure that I was wholly focused on the task at hand (and doing it well) instead of focusing on something else I’d rather be doing in that moment. There was a time in my early years as a graduate student that I genuinely enjoyed doing benchwork. Perhaps - I told myself - I can channel that former self to propel me towards my thesis defense. While the marathon workweek almost broke me, it’s turned out to be a learning experience unlike any other. In the moment, it felt like it would never end, but with an appropriate amount of time to recover and reflect on my motivations, it proved to be the catalyst for me to find my motivation and define my personal goals.
19 Photo credit: E. Motunrayo Kolawole, PhD
Improving PhD Trai Sonia Laurie, PhD ASOM Facilitator and Student Representative Emory, Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis, ‘18 SPIRE postdoc, UNC Chapel Hill
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n May 2015, the University of Michigan hosted the first Future of Bioscience Graduate and Postdoctoral Training (FOBGAPT) meeting to utilize input and feedback from the academic scientific community to generate guidelines to promote best practices for the training of biomedical graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. On June 8-10, 2017, the University of Colorado Denver-Anschutz Medical Campus and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan hosted the follow-up working meeting, FOBGAPT2, in Denver to discuss how to update and implement training models. I attended this meeting as a graduate student representative on behalf of Emory University. As a member of the Atlanta Society of Mentors and a participant in the BEST programs mentor training team, I found this weekend to be a wonderful learning and networking experience, and encourage other graduate students to participate if the meeting is held again. Participants included individuals from federal agencies, academia, and a number of private sector foundations. The conference aimed to drive consensus recommendations for bioscience trainees and was scheduled such that each attendee was able to attend five concurrent workshop sessions, with a six repetition at the closing of the conference, enabling partici-
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pants to reengage in their favorite materials and assist the session chairs in determining summary guidelines to contribute to the meetings white paper. The meeting began with a presentation by Alison Gammie, the director of the Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Dr. Gammie works at the NIGMS to strengthen aspects of diversity building, training, and career development at the undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty levels. In Dr. Gammie’s plenary talk, entitled, “Catalyzing the Modernization of Graduate Biomedical Education”, she shared insights into the new NIGMS-specific funding announcement for T32 training grants and discussed the modernization of review criteria for those awards. For example, the old criteria was primarily concerned with whether or not a given program was home to a sufficient number of broadly defined, “well-qualified students”, where as the new system will encourage the recruiting and appointing of trainees from diverse backgrounds (age, education history, representation status, etc) that have demonstrated their commitment and potential to becoming successful independent scientists. Additionally, the new criteria will also include an assessment of the process in place
ining to evaluate faculty mentorship and program-specific mentor training practices. Next, Dr. Julia Kent from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) gave a talk entitled, “Supporting Career Diversity and Professional Development in Doctoral Education”. Dr. Kent discussed her work at CGS and described the type of data being collected by a number of survey instruments and how these data are being used to tailor professional development opportunities and shape effective programs. She closed with an emphasis on skill gaps and unmet needs in STEM that must be further addressed, in both general (communication skills, time and project management abilities) and STEM-specific (information systems, statistics, analytics, genetics and genomics) areas of education. To conclude the plenary session, Dr. Paula Stephan, professor of economics at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, gave insights and analysis into the postdoctoral labor market in her piece “Economics and the Postdoctoral Position”. In her talk Dr. Stephan described the unique challenges that occur when institutions are driven to rely heavily on postdoctoral research associates. Dr. Stephan also emphasized the need to use the language and resources of economic theory and practice to meet the changing
needs of science policy in the current funding climate. Together, these talks set the stage to identify and address the current limitations and challenge in American biomedical training, scientific culture, and funding organizations to identify the best ways to move forward with implementing sustainable and authentic improvements to these practices. Following the powerful plenary addresses, conference participants moved into rotations of five different workshop sessions, each with a different topic within graduate and postdoctoral training, that were led by key leaders in the respective field. Excitingly, each topic was ambitious yet feasible. The first workshop aimed to address the need to better increase the diversity of scientists in senior and leadership roles and was facilitated by Drs. Jabbar Bennett, Christine Chow, Ambika Mathur, Nancy Schwartz, and Nancy Street. The goal of this workshop was to create a series of recommendations to enhance diversity and cited the experiences of the Yale Ciencia Academy, which has developed and assessed a Hispanic science network to enhance training experiences and also utilized the model put forward by the National Cancer Institutes Diversity Career Development Program.
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The second workshop focused on how to increase engagement and skills of faculty in mentorship and was led by Drs. Rick McGee, Christine Pfund, and Jonathan Wiest. The goal of this workshop was to create an action plan to increase the skills and engagement of faculty at all levels with mentorship training experiences based on existing data and evidence-based approaches. Our BEST group submitted an abstract that can be found here about mentor training initiatives at Emory and Georgia Tech. The third workshop was organized and hosted by Drs. Patricia Cameron, Robert Duvoisin and Mary O’Riordan, and addressed the need to find ways to modernize (and keep updating) curricula and training while maintaining research and scholarship tenets. This session addressed the changing needs of trainees as they navigate through an educational system in which expectations regarding knowledge needs, competencies, career paths, and funding are ever changing. The fourth workshop focused on increasing the engagement of the private sector and other potential employers in training paradigms and opportunities and was directed and facilitated by Drs. Philip Clifford, Andrew Feig, and Diane Klotz. This workshop sought to identify barriers, and subsequently, implementable
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strategies, based on evidence, to enhance the productivity of collaborations between universities and external organizations, with the goal of improving doctoral education and postdoctoral training in the biomedical sciences. The fifth and final workshop was run by Drs. Kevin Finneran, Chris Pickett and Elizabeth Watkins and assessed what data on Master’s, PhDs, and postdocs can be collected nationally, and how can it be used to inform trainees and training. This working group established the importance of monitoring and tracking completion data (including attrition rates) and time-to-degree (by gender, URM status, citizenship, program), how prepared for their career graduates perceived themselves to be, demographic information about total applicant pool and admitted students, and mentorship experiences. Together, these highly interactive and discussion-based meetings served to outline the ways in which collaborative efforts by members of industry, academia, and government can come together and support the growth of graduate and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences to improve training and support the development of a diverse, inclusive, and well-prepared bioscience workforce that can excel in a wide variety of positions and workplace situations.
On the final evening of the FOBGAPT2 conference, attendees gathered together at the Denver Performing Arts Center to network, share the major takeaways of the meeting, and celebrate their hard work. Consensus indicated that there are a few main ways that we can begin to change the shape and nature of bioscience education for trainees and include efforts to:
1. Begin leadership training early for graduate students and postdocs. 2. Provide incentives and awards for programs that impact institutional culture, which enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion. 3. Encourage change in practices for recruitment, hiring, promotion, funding, publications and awards. 4. Require inclusivity training for all senior administrators, faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students. 5. Identify champions/advocates/allies, among senior faculty and administrators both inside and outside your institution/organization. 6. Provide adequate support services and family-friendly policies, e.g., dependent care. 7. Link programs and encourage partnership across various levels, e.g., IMSD to NRMN to AGEP to IRACDA. 8. Encourage funders to make awardee data available and drive overall change by mandating training and broadening participation. 9. Establish process to conduct regular institution-wide equity self-assessment. 10. Establish funding mechanisms to prepare underrepresented postdocs for transition into careers. From these ten key takeaways, the meeting facilitators and participants created five core recommendations that can be utilized to update and implement biomedical training models for master’s and graduate students, as well as for postdoctoral associates as are outlined below:
1. Begin leadership training early for graduate students and postdocs. 2. Provide incentives and awards for programs that impact institutional culture which enhances diversity, equity, and inclusion. 3. Encourage change in review practices for recruitment, hiring, promotion, funding, and awards. 4. Require inclusivity training for all administrators, faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students. 5. Establish major funding mechanism to prepare underrepresented postdocs for transition into successful careers. In sum, the FOBGAPT2 conference brought together participants from academia, private industry, and government sectors to share insights and ideas on how to modernize and improve trainee development in the biomedical sciences. Themes throughout the working meeting emphasized approaches to honing the development of skills and knowledge, methods to experimentally assess these core competencies, mechanisms for enhancing rigor and reproducibility, as well as diversity and inclusion, and on the best practices for supporting adequate training regarding the responsible conduct of research. Many of the resources and materials utilized, discussed, and generated during the meeting are available on the FOBGAPT2 website, https://gs.ucdenver.edu/fobgapt2/main.php, which will serve as a repository for new and exciting ideas and data going forward.
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If you are interested in the economics or business side of science, there are some great career options out there for you after your PhD. Read on! About myself:
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graduated in May 2017 with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech and Emory University. I am now part of the Global Graduate Program, a rotation program at Merck KgaA (known as EMD in the US) the parent company of Millipore Sigma (life science), EMD Serono (healthcare), and EMD Performance Materials (materials). During grad school, I did an internship with the Emory Office of Technology Transfer, worked as a volunteer business consultant for a startup, and engaged in several extracurricular activities involving teamwork and leadership. Having developed an interest in working at the intersection of science and business, I gained some knowledge about careers in that area through informational interviews and exploratory activities and now I’m happy to share it with the BEST community.
What are the different kinds of jobs at the nexus of business and science? • Technology transfer: University technology transfer offices (TTO) are responsible for commercialization of technologies developed in research labs. Holders of doctoral degrees in the natural sciences and engineering are hired by TTOs. Their work involves evaluating invention disclosures for commercialization potential, marketing and finding industry partners for licensing the technology to, and negotiating deals with the industry partner on behalf of the university. The office also helps with the spinoff process for startups, including finding funding. Similarly, on the industry side, ‘technology scouts’ or ‘university liaisons or alliance managers’ exist that work with academic centers to find inventions that they could license for their pipeline. • Consulting: PhDs are hired for management consulting and life science consulting jobs. In these roles, consultants help companies determine and execute competitive business strategies. Some firms like the MBB i.e. McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain work with multiple industries as well as non-profits and government. On the other hand, boutique consulting firms are smaller in size and work with few industries or a specific industry. Life science consulting firms such as ClearView, Putnam Associates, and Clarion serve the healthcare and life science industries and hire PhDs with training in the biomedical sciences. Problems solved by consultants require knowledge and application of business and science principles to varying extents.
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The Business Srishti Bhutani, PhD Emory and Georgia Tech, Biomedical Engineering ‘17 Associate Consultant, Global Graduate Program at EMD Serono & MilliporeSigma
• Product managers: Doctoral degree holders are also recruited to oversee the management of a portfolio in science and technology companies such as 3M and W.L. Gore. They typically work with multiple aspects for success of a product including marketing, regulation, engineering, sales, biological sciences, clinical medicine, legal, and business. • Rotation programs: Some companies like Merck KgaA, Becton Dickinson, Northrop Grumman, Genentech, and Johnson & Johnson have rotation programs that allow participants to sample different roles in the company while developing talent for leadership positions within the company at the end of the rotation program. Participants typically get exposed to different businesses and roles, along with professional development and networking opportunities during the program.
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How can one prepare for such jobs? • Networking: I had heard a lot about the benefits of networking, but realized how valuable it was when I was job hunting. My recommendation would be to start going to networking events early on to practice being comfortable at such events. It also helps to develop contacts that inspire you or can help you in the future. Georgia Bio holds several networking events. Attending business related seminars and short courses can help you find contacts, and participation can be included on your resume. Another very useful way of networking is conducting informational interviews. Many people are happy to share their experiences with you and put you in touch with other useful contacts!
tiative. Such experiences prove handy for telling stories when asked to share examples of leadership and teamwork. BBUGS and Laney graduate student board are examples of organizations where one can find such opportunities.
• Internships: Internships are a great way to sample the career of your interest and strengthen your application. Internships are highly recommended as they help demonstrate to recruiters that you are sure of transitioning to a role you did not formally train for. If you are unable to take time off from lab to do a full-time internship, you can do a part-time BESTernship locally in conjunction with lab work. Internships with the Emory Office of Technology Transfer, volunteer consulting through the Georgia Tech Consulting Club, or Com• Extracurricular activities: Taking leader- munity Consulting Atlanta and ACTSI are examples of ship roles in or outside the lab helps build experience part-time internships where you could gain some in teamwork and demonstrates your ability to take ini- business experience. Some companies also have
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Photo credit: Tami Hutto
short programs to help one learn about consulting careers- McKinsey Insight, Bridge to BCG, Bain Advance Into Consulting, and Connect to ClearView. Applying to these programs helps get you started early on applicatiowwn materials and get some valuable interview experience before applying to full-time positions. Participation in these programs boosts one’s resume and is a great opportunity to network and learn more about consulting and these companies. • Interview prep: There are typically two kinds of interviews for such positions: personal experience interviews and business case interviews. Personal experience interviews involve questions to assess fit with the company and leadership qualities. Anticipating questions and practicing answers to tell crisp, impactful stories using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method is a good idea. The other common kind of interview is the case interview, where you are required to solve business cases. Solving business cases takes practice, and GT and Emory consulting clubs can help one find practice partners. The careers sections on websites of the MBB firms and some boutique firms like ClearView Healthcare are good starting points. Marc Cosentino’s Case in Point, Victor Cheng’s Case Interview Secrets, and Brad Schiller’s Embrace the Case are helpful case interview prep books. Practicing with real consultants is also an available option and is a good way to use professional development funds. For technology transfer positions, if you have internship experience, be prepared to share your experience in detail.
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Photo credit: Tami Hutto
Many people find satisfying careers in business after their PhDs, so it is a direction you should consider if you like thinking about business, meeting people, crunching data, and giving presentations. The best tip I received was to start looking at job ads a few years before job hunting. This helped me think about whether I would like a certain role and to how to tailor my experiences to match the job requirements. Thanks, Tami! ;) Please feel free to reach out to me at Srishti.Bhutani@emdgroup.com if you 27 have questions!
Photo credit: Tami Hutto