Insider tips on how to make your postdoc application stand out from the pack.

Guest post by B. Duygu Özpolat.

While some graduate students have resources and institutional support to help them navigate the transition to postdoc life, not everyone has a mentor to guide them through the many unwritten rules of this complex system. As a PI who has just advertised a postdoc position, I compiled a few “insider” tips for grad students on how to set themselves up for success in their postdoc applications and beyond.

Don’t be afraid to contact the PI first.

Be proactive. If you’re interested in working at a particular lab, you don’t need to wait for the PI to advertise a postdoc position to get in touch. Tell the PI why you’re interested, and ask if there are any opportunities at their lab. If you are a good match for each other, they might be able to hire you if they have funds available. If they do not have funds readily available, they can help you apply for fellowships so you can join their lab. Some institutions have internal postdoctoral fellowships that the PI might know about. Even if they’re not able to hire you, they may offer to help in other ways—for example, by referring you to other PIs who are hiring. 

Research your options.

At least a year (or more!) before you defend your dissertation, start actively looking into options for your next career move. If you’re interested in continuing in research, learn what postdoc positions and fellowships are or will be available. Researching your options in advance is especially important if you feel strongly about working for a particular PI or place, as it will give you (and the PI) time to secure funding.

Have a plan, even if it’s flexible.

You may have a very exact idea of what you want for your future, or you may want to take a more flexible approach. Either way, it’s important to outline some general career goals, stay up-to-date on literature, and take note of what interests you. This will come in handy when someone inevitably asks what you want to do after your PhD. A genuine answer, even if it’s not completely focused on one career path, will demonstrate your independent thinking skills to PIs. (Also, be sure you don’t fall into the trap of simply repeating keywords on the lab’s website. PIs can easily tell if you’re not sharing your real thoughts!) 

Learn to highlight your skills.

When reaching out to a potential employer, be sure to mention the benefits they will gain by having you on the team, not only what you will get by working there. Emphasize the expertise you will bring, how you will help elevate their research, and any other relevant skills you have. Do not forget to give details about the skills you have that are specifically highlighted in the job advertisement. This goes for any job application, at any level!

Prepare project and funding plans.

Be prepared to write your own project proposals when you join a lab (unless the PI specifies otherwise). In your cover letters, tell PIs about project plans and what specific fellowships you could apply for to acquire funding. This is key even when you are applying for an advertised (read: funded) postdoc position, because those jobs are typically advertised for two years. PIs do their best to maintain funding, but things happen, so it’s imperative that you don’t depend solely on them to fund your projects. Plus, being able to secure your own funding will give you the freedom to do research that interests you, which will benefit your growth as a scientist. 

Don’t let timing stand in your way.

Unless there’s a strict timeline for the funding or project, PIs are usually flexible about when you can start working, so don’t let timing issues discourage you from applying. If your application impresses the PI, they will try to find a way to hire you that works for everyone. They understand that you might need time to get a visa, relocate, finish one last experiment for a paper, etc. Talk to the PI about your situation during the interview process, and see if you can work something out. 

International students, don’t get discouraged.

I myself was an international student, so I understand the unique challenges it presents. Fellowship options for non-US students are limited, but they are out there. To give yourself the best chance for success, make sure you thoroughly research all the opportunities available to you. Personally, as a PI, I like to see in your application that you did your homework and that you looked into these opportunities. Also, keep in mind that you will need to have publications to be competitive in these applications, so try your best to plan ahead and get those papers published! Getting independent funding will be extremely important down the line for faculty jobs (if that’s what you want to pursue). But if there aren’t any fellowships available to you, don’t be discouraged. There are always exceptions, so keep trying and focus on showing your productivity.

Good luck in your search!

Guest post by Giovanna Collu

Are you interested in applying for the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships (S&TPF)? Applications are now open and to help you prepare we have compiled some tips we learned from current and former fellows Cara Weismann, Maryam Zaringhalam, and Avital Percher. To learn more about the fellowship experience, read our previous interview with a fellow.

Written application (deadline November 1)

The initial application materials consist of a CV (5 pages maximum), a brief description of your extracurricular activities (500 words), and a candidate statement (1000 words) about your career goals and qualifications for the fellowship. You will also need three references. Applications are evaluated using these criteria.

The candidate statement is a unique opportunity to highlight the reasons why you want to apply and the qualifications that make you particularly well-suited for success. This is the place to include your policy areas of interest and how you might be able to apply your expertise—whether you gained it at the bench or outside the lab—to make meaningful contributions to the scientific enterprise. It’s important to also include details about your career goals and how the fellowship will help you achieve them. Here are a few tips to guide your writing:

• The application statement requires a unique style of writing; it is very different to writing as a scientist. You must be tactful, the author of policies you are critiquing might be one of the reviewers!
• Get feedback from a former fellow; you can find a list of former fellows here.
• Be deliberate about the kinds of evidence you put forward to demonstrate your policy interest and expertise.
• Be consistent with your messaging and have a common narrative across all your application materials.
• Highlight any public communication experience you may have, including items you’ve written for general audiences, mentorship and outreach projects, and speaking to the public.
• Explain how your journey is unique and include details that will make you stand out —consider using the narrative arc of where you are now, what got you there, and where you see yourself going.
• Be clear about you would get out of the experience and what you can contribute to the community. Don’t explain why the fellowship is a great opportunity (they know this already!), rather explain what makes you the right match.
• To make sure references are consistent with your message, share your application materials with your referees and give them examples of times you accomplished specific goals or worked in specific areas.
• Above all else, make it easy for application reviewers to see your potential!

Semi-final interviews online (February–March)

If you successfully pass the first round, you will be invited to write a one-page briefing on one of the designated science topics. You are asked to pick a topic unrelated to your field of expertise. Previous examples have included lethal autonomous weapons, Zika virus, and the Flint water crisis. You will be writing for a specific agency or person, for example, the Director of the National Institutes of Health testifying to Congress. Here are some tips to consider:

• Find out what has been in the news on your topic and whether current affairs impact the content of your briefing.
• Look for historical precedents on similar issues and try to apply lessons from them.
• Give alternatives; outline which other agencies could complement the agency for which you are writing and what is happening in the field.
• Know your audience. Understand that you must keep the current administration’s priorities in mind as you write recommendations.
• Overall, consider what information you would want in that situation to feel prepared.

You can also find examples of how to write a policy briefing here and here, as well as a list of things to bear in mind as a scientist writing to policy makers

The deadline for your briefing memo will be 7–10 days before the online interview. You will present the briefing to an evaluation panel as part of the 30-minute interview. The panel is comprised of 6–8 people, including policy experts, as well as people from the fellowship program. You will have five minutes to deliver your briefing to the panel, followed by five minutes of questions. During the presentation, you are expected to be able to deliver the briefing without reading directly from notes. You cannot use any visual aids, such as PowerPoint, and there will be a countdown timer displayed on the screen, so you will not be able to see the audience as you present. There are then 20 minutes of questions and discussion of your application materials. Some tips include:

• If the situation has changed in the intervening time include updates in your briefing.
• Practice delivering your briefing beforehand.
• Role play ‘typical’ interview questions ahead of time, such as who has influenced you and why or describing a challenge you’ve faced and how you overcame it.
• Refer to your application materials to make sure your practiced answers are consistent with what you have already provided.
• Reinforce that you will bring something unique to the process and get something unique in return that will then shape your future.

Finalist Interviews – on site in DC (April)

For executive branch fellowships, in-person interviews take place over one week in April in Washington, DC. You will learn how to navigate DC and the surrounding sites such as the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA. You will have anywhere from 5–20 interviews at different host agencies during the week, and you will receive the schedule the previous week. The matching process depends on which agencies are interested in you, and which agencies you are interested in. Reviewers from the agencies have to look through hundreds of applications, so having a focused and consistent message in your initial application materials will make it easier for everyone at this stage. You may also be asked to send an additional writing sample to certain agencies about why you want to apply there and why you would be a good fit. Don’t be concerned if you are given only a small number of interviews on day one—you will also have the opportunity to schedule your own. Some other things to consider:

• Using key words in your written application becomes helpful at this stage. For instance, if you are interested in the National Human Genome Research Institute, ‘genetics’ and ‘genomics’ should feature in your written material. If you want to explore areas such as science diplomacy, make sure you include those key words and that you are open to international travel.
• Figure out what is important to you and mention your aspirations in each interview.
• Bring up policy issues that you are interested in working on.
• Find out what that particular office does specifically in the agency, so that you can ask informed questions.
• Make sure to check that the office knows a portion of your time is to be directed towards career development.
• Red flags are red flags—do not ignore issues that come up in interviews that make you question whether you would enjoy working in that particular office.
• Don’t overshoot with the number of interviews—if you arrange too many, you risk entering a meeting fatigued and distracted.
• Keep an open mind. If you so choose, the fellowship is an incredible opportunity to work in an office and on a portfolio that may seem totally outside the realm of your expertise.

The application site can be found here. Many of these tips also apply generally to other science policy fellowships; if you would like to look for other opportunities, check out our fellowship database. Good luck!

About the Author:

Giovanna Collu is co-chair of the Early Career Scientist Policy Committee and a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Giovanna’s goal is to increase advocacy opportunities for early career scientists with a focus on diversity and inclusion.

Guest post by Irini Topalidou.

In the last decade or so, biological research has moved to a new level of complexity and competitiveness. Principal Investigators (PIs) are now primarily tasked with grant writing and managing, while also executing the numerous additional responsibilities the position demands. But to be successful, labs require experienced scientists to help run them. There is a growing need for highly skilled, well-trained scientists who can run complex projects while also training and supervising students, evaluating data, writing manuscripts, contributing to grant writing, and managing the lab’s day-to-day operations.

Postdocs are rarely in a position to perform these tasks, given that their focus is on advancing their own projects in order to achieve proficiency and independence. Additionally, it usually takes several years to acquire the scientific maturity and experience of a skilled staff scientist. These circumstances mean we must reevaluate the traditional structure of labs that are composed exclusively of a PI and his or her trainees.

Some institutes are already applying new organizational methods by combining the expertise and interests of faculty members and experienced staff scientists (also known as research scientists).¹ This model allows staff scientists to lead ambitious projects while also working collaboratively with PIs, advancing complex projects that could not be accomplished otherwise. Often, faculty and staff scientists with different kinds of expertise partner, providing a diversity of experience that is beneficial to both the individuals and to science.¹ Combining the skills and interests of a PI with those of a highly qualified staff scientist can amplify a lab’s success rate and increase overall progress. This synergistic model allows for a higher level of creativity and achievement that may soon be necessary for even traditional academic labs to run efficiently and successfully.

Currently, there are not many institutes that offer staff scientist positions, and they’re even rarer in university settings. Creating more staff scientist positions will be an ongoing challenge because long-held traditions create cultural barriers to change, and limited funding reinforces the use of more affordable postdocs. To retain more well-trained scientists in research-intensive roles, junior scientists and PIs must advocate for the creation of these positions within their research institutions and universities. Imagine a new era when universities and institutes recognize the benefit of providing positions with greater job security and professional respect, moving away from the practice of exclusively hiring inexpensive and inexperienced trainees.

It is also important for up-and-coming scientists to realize that it’s possible to be ambitious and desire to do good science without running your own lab. Too often these things are seen as incontestably linked, which is not necessarily the case. Accomplished scientists who have decided not to pursue positions as PIs still make significant contributions to science.  Therefore, being a staff scientist should be recognized as a valid, satisfying, and rewarding career path in its own right. Faculty members and institutions, for their part, should realize that the position of staff scientist does not imply a lack of scientific drive or disinterest in professional advancement and should strive to promote and nurture more of these positions.This model will help keep talented scientists in research-intensive roles and serve to advance the goals of both individuals and institutions.

There exists a false narrative that the path to scientific success is always linear: from grad student to postdoc and then to PI. There should be alternative routes that create niches for experimentalists and the increasing numbers of devoted scientists who either do not want to open their own labs or are not able to obtain one of the rare tenure-track faculty positions.² This would not only benefit these individuals, it would also move science forward at a faster and more efficient pace.

1.Hyman, S. “Biology Needs More Staff Scientists.” Nature 16: 283-284 (2017).

2.Kuo, M. “Staff Scientists Find Satisfaction in Playing the Support Role.” Science (2017).

About the Author:

Irini Topalidou is a molecular biologist and geneticist who works as a Research Scientist in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a strong advocate for basic research and the use of model organisms in biological research. In her research she uses C. elegans and mammalian cells to study dense core vesicle trafficking and Gq signaling in neurons.

Guest post by Bob Dolan.

An effective curriculum vitae (CV) is needed for  academic job applications, as well as for some research positions in other settings. This article will cover the important elements of writing a CV, along with strategies for navigating your academic job search.

Identify what you want

Before you begin, you should evaluate several factors:

• Do you need a job now? Do you have time to look now?
• Do you want a faculty position or another role within academia?
• Are you considering a postdoc or continuing education as an option? What are the financial implications of this option?
• Is the job market/economic climate likely to change in the next few years?
• Will your visa status impact your search?

Think about the academic institution you want to work in:

• Large vs. small
• Public vs. private
• Domestic vs. international

What features of an academic career interest you?

• What percentage of your time would you like to spend on research?
• What percentage of your time would you like to spend on teaching?
• What level of student would you like to teach and/or mentor?
• Are you looking for a position where your salary depends on grant funding, or something that has little need for funding?
• If you are considering a position in academic administration, what types of roles are available?

As with any job search, you should evaluate important lifestyle factors:

• Is the culture of the institution or lab aligned with your values and lifestyle?
• What type of setting are you comfortable working in?
• Will you be compatible with the work environment?
• Do your philosophies and life values align with the institution’s core values and guiding principles?

Use your network and know what’s out there

One of the most effective ways of finding faculty opportunities is through networking. For your academic job search to be successful, you have to develop connections in your department and in your field.  Faculty within your department can be important allies and mentors, but it is also helpful to connect with other faculty and postdocs on campus. They may be familiar with a wider range of potential employment opportunities. You should also see if your department offers information or notifications about specific position openings.

In addition to resources offered by your department or professional associations, you can find posted faculty positions for the universities in which you are interested on their website home page or human resources site. Other resources, both domestic and abroad, can be found in academic journals, society newsletters, and websites.

Sculpting your CV

Once you know the direction you are pursuing, you will need to create a document that aligns you with your targeted institutions. Your CV should provide a full list of your professional and educational history. Note that what is presented early on your CV will generally stand out more than material listed later.  

Highlight your strengths

Your CV should highlight the four to five key attributes you want the hiring committee to know about you. These include your skills (both technical and behavioral), achievements, your knowledge areas, and other professional qualities that you can bring to their department or lab.

Don’t forget about your behavioral assets, such as:

•       Ability to work in a collaborative environment
•       Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary lab
•       Ability to lead a lab project
•       Team orientation
•       Strong verbal and written communication skills

Length

For an early-career professional, a CV of two to four pages is not uncommon, while an individual with more experience could have a document of four to seven pages or longer.  

Sections

Heading
Include your name, address, and contact information.

Research
Your research should be clearly described on page one and include What you did, How you did it, and the Results/Impact of your effort. Researching the lab to which you are applying will enable you to show how you align with their environment. Generally, you should list your most current research first; but work that you have performed in the past may also align with the needs of the department. 

Teaching

If you are pursuing a faculty position that will be primarily a teaching role, consider placing your detailed teaching section before your research section. Include classes you taught, any teaching certificates, and mentoring that you performed. Include the size of your classes, whether you held office hours or corrected exams, and whether you have included student evaluations. If you are pursuing a faculty position where you will both set up a lab and teach, you must demonstrate both of those abilities in detail.

Follow the research and teaching sections with your other accomplishments, listed in their order of importance to your targeted audience.  

Publications

• List your publications in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.
• Set your name off typographically, in bold or underlined font. This allows for easy identification of your position on the author list.
• Place an asterisk on papers for which you made a leading contribution.
• Group publications in sections, i.e. Books, Refereed Articles, Abstracts, etc.
• List “Work in Press”, “Submitted Articles”, or “Work in Progress”.

Your discipline may have a distinct protocol on how to list your publications. Check with your local career office for guidance.

Presentations

List the following:

• Title of paper
• Name of conference
• Dates and location
• You may also indicate “Invited Talk”, “Poster”, etc.

Fellowships

Be sure to include information about who provided the award and the relevant dates.

Honors and Awards

List these in reverse chronological order.

Dissertation

Add the title of your dissertation, including a brief description of your thesis work. You can also include this information in the research section, if you prefer.

Professional memberships

Certificates

Work experience

References

Depending on the employer, you will need three to five references. They should be individuals who can comment in a positive way about your technical abilities and how you fit with the institutions to which you are applying. If relevant, make sure at least one of your references can talk about your teaching abilities. Include their name and title, university affiliation/address, and contact information, such as their telephone number and email address. You should always ask permission in advance before including them on your CV. In very large labs, sometimes you may have to provide your references with a draft of your research to ensure that they deliver the right message.

In most academic application packages, your CV will be the lead document — so it’s important that you deliver a message that will capture the interest of readers and prompt them to invite you in for an interview. Good luck!

For additional resources on-line, consider:                            

https://chroniclevitae.com/job_search

https://careers.insidehighered.com/

www.jobs.ac.uk (includes a career resources section)

http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/

https://www.higheredjobs.com/default.cfm

http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cdc/

http://www.academickeys.com

http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/jobs/europe/faculty/

https://www.aaas.org/

https://www.asm.org/   

About the author: 

Bob Dolan provides career counseling and professional development workshops for the Postdoctoral Scholars program at MIT. He is a Certified Job Search and Career Transition Consultant with experience in the field of Career Management since 2001. Before joining academia, Bob had a private Career Consulting practice and worked with clients across multiple industries, as well as providing career consulting services for a global Career Management firm.

Guest post by  Jessamina E. Blum, Jennifer Knight, Michelle Smith, Rachelle Spell, and Erin Vinson.

Are you looking for ways to advance your career while sharing creative instructional materials? CourseSource can help! CourseSource is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes articles describing biology activities developed with evidence-based pedagogical techniques, such as active learning, that have been shown to be effective for student learning. Whether you are a graduate student, postdoc, or faculty member, CourseSource can help you share your activities with others.

Publishing activities in CourseSource provides recognition of the creativity, experience, and time needed to develop effective classroom materials, while also supporting the dissemination of teaching practices that have been shown to increase student learning and retention. CourseSource articles include background information, detailed step-by-step lesson plans, and supporting materials (e.g. slides, animations, worksheets) for activities that are aligned with learning goals developed by scientific professional societies, including the Genetics Society of America.

CourseSource represents a new genre of scientific communication, with different norms from those of science or biology education research papers. While journals such as Life Sciences Education (LSE) publish education research studies, CourseSource articles capture examples of effective activities focused on key concepts in undergraduate biology. With an emphasis on application, CourseSource articles are more similar to methods papers, which can serve as both significant scholarship and service to other educators.

Working on a CourseSource manuscript also offers graduate students, postdocs, and faculty a way to learn about pedagogical techniques while, at the same time, getting credit for those efforts on their CV. Authorship is evidence of your commitment to high-quality teaching and demonstrates your contribution toward the goals of Vision and Change (which describe the concepts and competencies undergraduate biology students should learn).

Publishing in CourseSource can also provide an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues. We regularly receive submissions with authors from the same or multiple institutions who identified a common conceptual difficulty shared among their students and worked together to develop an activity and assessment questions.

Lastly, the CourseSource review process provides a unique opportunity for authors to receive meaningful feedback on their instructional materials from peers. Reviewers often point out additional resources to include, ways in which language and figures can be improved, clarification of learning objectives, and alternate assessment strategies. Such feedback is rare and invaluable.

In addition to publishing your own work, you can also benefit from using CourseSource activities by other authors. For example, you can search the database for a topic such as “meiosis” to access tested activities that address the GSA-developed learning goal of “What are the mechanisms by which an organism’s genome is passed onto the next generation?” Other activities address learning goals for additional biology subdisciplines, science ethics, or process skills.

Quality control by the CourseSource editorial team means all articles meet a high standard and align with the needs of undergraduate biology instructors. Thus, CourseSource helps to overcome some of the major barriers to the spread of active learning: constraints on instructors’ time and concerns about effectiveness.

If you have developed an undergraduate biology activity that incorporates evidence-based teaching, we hope you will share it with CourseSource. The instructions to authors can be found here: https://www.coursesource.org/for-authors.  

The journal is committed to helping authors get their work published; as such, the journal editors view their role as coaches in this process and work closely with authors to ensure a high quality, replicable manuscript. Furthermore, by publishing your ideas, you can amplify the impact of your work, make a difference in the field, and help students learn—all at once.  We welcome any questions and look forward to your submission.

About the authors:

Jessamina E. Blum University of Minnesota, jblum@umn.edu	Jennifer Knight University of Colorado-Boulder, Jennifer.Knight@colorado.edu
Rachelle Spell Emory University, rspell@emory.edu	Michelle Smith University of Maine, michelle.k.smith@maine.edu
Erin Vinson University of Maine, erin.vinson@maine.edu

Guest post by Rory Flinn, PhD

There are many career paths for PhDs that don’t require a postdoc, including some faculty positions in certain disciplines. When you are exploring career options, it is important to ascertain whether doing a postdoc would make you more competitive for a career path of interest. If you determine that you need to do a postdoc, the next step is finding the right postdoc opportunity. There are many routes to securing a postdoc position. Trainees often directly inquire about possible opportunities with faculty members of interest. For some, their PhD or current postdoc advisor will facilitate a postdoc opportunity with another faculty member. Others will respond to ads in scholarly journals or via professional societies. Then there are those who will network their way to a postdoc position during a conference. Whatever the route taken, deciding to do a postdoc at a given place and under the mentorship of a particular person should be a decision that is weighed with the utmost gravity. Often, trainees only consider their interest in the research area and the research reputation of the mentor. To be clear, these elements must be factored in heavily when deciding upon a postdoc position; however, there are many more facets that should be evaluated and that could have a bigger impact on one’s career, life, and happiness.

Training environment

You should carefully assess the mentorship of the faculty member as well as the training environment of the research group and the institution. Most PhDs will conduct postdoctoral training with the goal of securing a faculty position; however, career outcomes data unequivocally shows that most postdocs will ultimately secure non-faculty positions. Even if your goal is to secure a faculty position, you should be cognizant of the hypercompetitive faculty job market ahead of you and the possibility that you may decide to make a career transition for a variety of reasons down the road. It is critical to find a supportive mentor and a training environment that has adequate career and professional development resources, both for academic as well as non-academic career preparation. There are several training environment areas to assess:

• Mentorship – How will your mentor actually help you advance in your career? Will they be supportive of a range of career outcomes? Will they be an advocate during a future job search?
• Management style – Is your boss a micromanager? Do they lay out clear expectations and provide constructive feedback? How do they deal with conflict? What is their communication style?
• Funding – Where will your funding be from, how stable, and how long? Will your position depend upon securing a fellowship/training grant spot, and if so, by when? Will you have the opportunity to seek out funding or gain grant writing experience? Will you be able to acquire the resources needed for your project?
• Project portability and niche – If interested in a faculty career, will you be able to take your project with you? Will you be able to develop a research/expertise niche for yourself that will make a unique and competitive faculty candidate down the road?
• Collaboration – Will you have opportunities to collaborate locally and externally? Will you have the opportunity to initiate and lead collaborations?
• Career and professional development – Are there career and professional development resources available to postdocs there (workshops, courses, career counseling, networking and career exploration events)? Does the institution foster a training environment that enables postdocs to become competitive for a range of career opportunities?
• Coworkers/workplace – Will you able to be friends/friendly with the others in the group?  Does the workplace environment (working hours, atmosphere, tidiness) gel with your own preferences? Will you be supervising other trainees or staff, involved in lab management, or performing routine administrative duties, and if so, is this of interest or a distraction?

Compensation, benefits, community, and locale

Many notable research universities and institutes are located in very high cost-of-living areas around the world, yet postdoc salaries and stipends are seldom adjusted for this. In addition, many schools and institutes have very limited or no on-campus or subsidized housing available for their postdocs. Never assume that the postdoc compensation offered at a given place can adequately cover basic living expenses. Postdoc training can last several years and involve multiple postdoc stints before an academic or non-academic job is secured—don’t start off the process taking a position that will have you going further into debt each passing year. You may be able to negotiate a higher starting salary or additional compensation on top of a stipend, as well as ask for a plan to receive annual pay increases. Your advisor may even have enough clout to get you into a limited pool of subsidized postdoc housing. Beyond being able to comfortably live where you work, you will also want to consider whether you will thrive beyond work. Proximity to family, friends, and support systems can make all the difference in the world during very stressful periods of time during a postdoc. There are several compensation and community elements that one should assess:   

• Salary/Stipend – Will the salary offered be sufficient to cover your basic needs and leave some disposable income for savings and fun? What is the prospect of future salary/stipend raises, when might these be expected, under what conditions, and what might a typical increase look like? If receiving a stipend from a fellowship/training grant, can this be augmented with salary from faculty member?
• Affordability and commutability – Can you afford to live comfortably within a reasonable commuting distance from work? Will you be able to afford childcare if needed now or in the future? Is the area safe, especially traveling from work late at night regularly or on occasion?
• Health benefits – Are you considered an employee of the institute? Note that many postdocs on fellowships and training grants are not considered employees and have no or limited access to institutional benefits or pay a very high premium for these benefits. Will you receive health benefits? If so, what are the costs, and can you afford this? Do the health plan options available meet your personal and family medical needs? Will you have access to affordable dental and vision insurance?
• Other benefits – Will you be receiving full employee benefits, including retirement (account access, employer match/contribution), tuition benefits for you and family members, life insurance, legal assistance, wellness benefits, gym discounts or access to an institutional gym, child care discounts or ability to enroll children in on-site childcare services, backup care, child or elder care accounts with employer contributions?
• Lifestyle alignment – Does the area align with your lifestyle? Will you be able to find groups, people, activities that enable you to enjoy your time away from work?
• Support systems – Are there cultural, religious, affinity, and/or special-interest groups in the area that will provide the support network you need? If you need to be close to family, especially for current or future help with child care, will this locale be amenable to that?         

Postdoctoral training can be an exciting period. Ask faculty about their postdoctoral training experiences and you will likely hear many recall with positivity the freedom they experienced during this time period – freedom to really explore their research interests and freedom from administrative responsibilities, extensive grant writing, teaching, mentoring, managing, etc. However, postdoctoral training can also be one of the most challenging times in your life for a myriad of reasons. It can be easy to get excited about a possible research project and ignore warning signs of poor mentorship, lack of institutional postdoc support, and a less than ideal locale. Postdoc training can last several years, and excitement about a research project will likely ebb and flow. Making sure you have what you need to live, thrive, be supported, and advance in your career should be significant factors when deciding upon a postdoc opportunity. Keep searching if you feel you are sacrificing too much or there are too many red flags. The decision you ultimately make will have a critical impact on your career, so do a thorough search and really assess opportunities that you uncover.  

About the author

Rory Flinn is the Director of Graduate Student Professional Development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where he designs, develops, leads, and facilitates professional development programs for graduate students. Prior to joining WPI, he served as the Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Columbia University, a role with a focus on postdoctoral career services and professional development programming. Rory conducted his postdoctoral training at NYU School of Medicine, earned his PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and has served as an adjunct Assistant Professor at Yeshiva University. Rory is passionate about improving graduate career and professional development and contributes to the national conversation through his membership in the Graduate Career Consortium.

Guest post by Zeba Wunderlich.

Applying for academic jobs can conjure a mix of emotions: from excitement to anxiety. One of the specific challenges of the process is that it can be a long wait from when you submit your materials to when you are invited to interview—a distinct difference from other job markets, where the time between application and interview is short, and you can alter your job materials using a feedback cycle. For academia, you spend the time between application season and interview season wondering if you’ve submitted the strongest package possible. Of course, part of the outcome is out of your hands. Factors like your “fit” in the department, which may or may not be clear from the ad, can eliminate a very strong application from the short list. But the goal of this short guide is to help you take control of the part of the search process that is in your hands—the documents you provide to the search committee.

Cover Letter

Examples of cover letters abound on the internet, and the conventional wisdom is pretty spot-on. Most letters start with a formal statement of interest in a particular position and go on to briefly summarize the graduate school and postdoc accomplishments of the applicant, the applicant’s research plans for the future, and—if appropriate for the position—details about the applicant’s teaching interests and experiences.

The cover letter is also a place where you can share information that doesn’t seem to belong anywhere else. Is there a gap in your CV you’d like to explain? Put it here. Is there a special reason that you think you’d be a great fit at an institution? Maybe there are faculty members who would be great collaborators, a research center you’d be excited to join, a reason you’d like to move to this location in particular. Share it here. You don’t want to be overly personal, but something like, “I’d like to move to location X to be close to my family in nearby Y” is OK and shows specific interest in a position.

TIP: If there is a gap in your CV or something else that you don’t feel comfortable sharing in your cover letter, you may also ask one of your letter writers to address it in his or her letter. This might include reasons for why there is no letter from a key writer, like your thesis advisor, or why you are leaving an existing assistant professor position. In most cases, it’s better to explain an issue than to leave it unaddressed, which may distract readers from focusing on your strengths while they ponder what happened.

CV

Again, excellent sample CVs are widely available online. Put the key factors first: your education, postdoc or other research experience, and publications. You can then include awards and honors (especially grants and fellowships), teaching experience, presentations, and service, but put yourself in the shoes of the reader. What do you think they would like to know from your CV? Put those items first.

TIP: If you were on the job market last year, don’t include those seminars on your CV. There’s no problem with going out on the job market more than once, but those seminars won’t strengthen your CV.

TIP: If you have manuscripts in preparation, submitted, or under review, keep them in a section separate from your published papers. You may want to limit this list, as many faculty members don’t weigh manuscripts in preparation very heavily, and too many entries can seem like you have a lot of things to finish in your postdoc lab!

Research Statement

For many positions, this is the crux of your job application, and presentation matters! A research statement should include:

1 – A vision or the big question you’d like to tackle. You should also include WHY this is an amazing question/vision.

2 – How your research accomplishments to date have contributed to this vision. You can choose to include your graduate accomplishments or not. You have to decide if you can weave them into the story or if they are unnecessarily distracting.

3 – How you are uniquely suited to attack this big question. What’s your niche? This can be especially important if you work in a popular or crowded field—making the case for your unique approach will make your application especially compelling.

4 – The next steps you plan to take in your own lab to contribute to your grand vision. This section, known as the Aims, will be the bulk of the statement, but without items 1–3, it will be hard for the reader to evaluate your research plan.

TIP: Often you are addressing a big question using a particular model system. EXPLAIN WHY this is the best model to use; what about it is either (1) highly representative of the general biological problem or (2) experimentally advantageous in a way no other system is? Most of the time, someone outside your immediate field will be reading your research statement and will not necessarily know if your model is a good system to answer your big question. As an added bonus, you will need this rationale to write all your grants, so you might as well start early!

Teaching Statement

In the teaching statement, most candidates choose to include their classroom and mentoring experience, and some include classes they’d like to teach and a brief statement of teaching philosophy. If the job for which you are applying has a strong focus on teaching, the classes of interest and teaching philosophy are more likely to be needed, and you will want your teaching philosophy to be well structured and well reasoned, preferably supported by evidence.

TIP: When listing classes that you would be interested in teaching, be sure to pick classes that the hiring department might feasibly teach.

TIP: Even if you are applying to a university where the teaching load is relatively light, put effort into the teaching statement. I’ve seen packages with beautiful research statements and teaching statements riddled with typos and poor sentence or paragraph structure. This can considerably dampen enthusiasm for a candidate.

Diversity Statement

Some universities request a statement on your contributions to diversity. This can often stump applicants, as they don’t know exactly what to write. For my own institution, if you search for “UC Irvine Diversity Statement,” you can find the university policy on diversity statements in faculty applications and a bullet point list of what is expected in such a statement. If it’s not clear for the institution you are applying to, ask around; see if you have a friend or colleague who applied to that institution or (even better) works there now. Make the effort! I find the rate of typos, editing errors, or totally off-topic statements is much higher in the teaching and diversity statements than in other parts of the package, which can ding your application unnecessarily.

Besides these specific tips, you can both improve your application and alleviate stress by assembling a trusted set of mentors and colleagues who can help read your materials and share the highs and lows of the process with you during the months ahead. Good luck!

About the author:

Zeba Wunderlich is an assistant professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology at the University of California, Irvine. She has served as a member of a faculty search committee in her department. Her lab, established in 2015, studies how features of regulatory DNA, like enhancers and promoters, encode specific properties of gene regulatory networks, like their ability to function under perturbation or to evolve to meet new demands.

Can your résumé survive a ten-second scan from a recruiter and still make it into the YES pile?

If you are targeting non-academic roles, you will need to create a résumé for each job application. This article will discuss the many strategies you can use to develop effective written communications, and how to provide a list of relevant accomplishments linking your skills to the needs of the employer. If you do not send the right message your document will not be read.

As you create your résumé you need to consider your strategy, the format of your message, and the overall visual presentation. This key document can serve many purposes. It can be a marketing tool that highlights your academic and work history. It can serve as a reminder to an employer after an interview. It can also be a way to direct an interview by strategically highlighting how your skills and accomplishments match the job description.

Before you begin writing, consider the following questions:

• What positions are you targeting?
• What are your accomplishments/successes/best qualities?
• What skills are most relevant to your targeted audience?
• What roles are you pursuing? Technical, research, leadership, etc.
• What size organization is right for you?
• What company environment would you be compatible with, or comfortable working in?

When answering these questions, develop a list that will help you make better decisions as you pursue jobs/professions that align with your interest, skills, and work style. Emphasize your accomplishments/successes and focus not only on what you did, but also on how you did it, and positive results from your efforts. What are your strongest selling points? Are they apparent in your current document? What 4–5 things do you want employers to know about you? Don’t forget your behavioral assets, such as the ability to lead a project, strong verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to work in a collaborative environment with a multidisciplinary team.

Résumé Content

Research the job and employer so you better understand their specific needs. This will help you align your skills more effectively. Information gathered during your networking and research can also provide context on the employer’s needs. Reviewing company websites can provide additional insights to help you align more closely to the job requirements.

Next, tailor your content to both your audience and the job description. Who will be reading your document? The Hiring Manager may focus more on technical skills while Human Resources/Recruiting may look for behavioral skills. In most cases, you should exclude information related to salary expectations, religious or political affiliation, geographical restrictions, relationship status, age, etc. Know your audience and choose, prioritize, and tailor your content to the information needs of the readers. Translate what you do into what is of value to them. Often there are hundreds of applications submitted for one position. A good résumé piques the interest of the reader and prompts them to invite you in for the interview.

As you review the job description, consider this three-step process to identify critical information:

1. Read the description and identify all of the technical skills required for the job.
2. Now take a second pass and identify all of the behavioral skills.
3. Finally, identify the emphasis. Look for phrases such as “must have,” “is required,” “demonstrated ability,” “must be capable,” “in-depth hands-on experience,” etc.  These indicate the skills that are critical to the job, and therefore should appear in your résumé. These phrases also help prepare you for the interview process because these skills will be vetted during your interview.

The résumé will contain some standard sections:

Heading: The heading will include your name and contact information. Many people also include a link to their website or LinkedIn profile. Most recruiters use social media to source candidates so it is a good idea to have a rich virtual profile to compliment your résumé.

Education: This includes your educational institutions and the degrees that you earned. Some people also include their advisor and dissertation topic if applicable.

Summary of Qualifications: If you already have work experience, consider using a Summary of Qualifications. This section can help you deliver your message quicker and highlight your skills and expertise up front.  Sometimes this section comes before the education section and sometimes after, depending on the job and audience. Here is an actual summary by a PhD in Molecular Biology who listed their summary before the education section. Most of the content corresponded to items in the biotechnology company’s job description:

Highly motivated and innovative Molecular Biologist with specialization in mitochondrial biology, molecular genetics, cell biology, microbiology, and biochemistry. Expertise in development and execution of genetic and biochemistry-based research methods. Passionate about learning new scientific skills. Enthusiastic team player adept at providing leadership while also learning from fellow team members. Experienced in managing multiple projects simultaneously. Effective communicator and teacher that can conceptualize complex biological concepts to audiences with varied expertise.

Skills: The next section can be either your Work/Research Experience or a Skills section, depending on the language used in the job description. If the job requires several technical skills and you possess them, often a prominent skills section can help you align with the employer’s needs. Below is an actual skills section by a PhD in Biological Engineering. Several of these skills were listed in the job description.

SKILLS:
• Pharmacology: Pharmacokinetic, Pharmacodynamic, PBPK, Human GI Tract, IVIVC
• In Silico Analysis: Phoenix WinNonlin, GastroPlus, MATLAB, SimBiology, Python, Excel
• ADME-Tox Assays: Intestinal Absorption, Drug Transporters, Cytochrome P450, LDH
• Analytical Chemistry: HPLC, Mass Spectrometry, Spectrophotometer
• Cell Culture: Bacterial Culture, 2D and 3D Mammalian Cell Culture, Tissue Culture
• Other: Biomaterials, Microfluidics, RT-PCR, Confocal Microscope, Bioreactor, Fermentation

Work/Research experience: The Work/Research experience section will describe your work history in a way that highlights your skills and accomplishments, specifically those that align with the job you are targeting.  In most cases your content will be in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most current followed by a sequential history of your accomplishments. When developing your message consider using the PAR (Project, Action, and Result) method to help you create an effective accomplishment statement. Here is an actual example of the PAR process:

Project – Lipid membrane cubic phase investigation
Action – Applied solid state NMR techniques as a member of a team
Result – Distinguished membrane lipids of different phases

Now put them together to create your accomplishment statement:

Member of a team that collaborated on a project of lipid membrane cubic phase investigation and applied solid-state NMR techniques to distinguish lipids of different phases.

When your message is clear and conveys results, it is understood more easily by the reader. Consider this method to help you present your work experience. If you only list what you did, or what you were responsible for, generally your message lacks impact. Here is an actual example of a line item on a résumé showing the before and after version.

Before: Work included research on interface sensitive behavior of materials
After: Collaborated with lab team to develop experimental and theoretical research on interface sensitive behavior of materials using innovative triborheometry fixture/design

Using the PAR method helped this PhD create a more effective message.

In addition, key verbs (action words) help deliver a stronger message e.g. Researched, Created, Developed, Implemented, Led, Managed, Investigated, Collaborated, etc.

Finally, for a winning résumé that can survive the ten-second scan, consider these tips:

Do

• Create a document that is presented in a professional manner.
• Keep the layout simple, well organized, and easy to read.
• Consider a one-page document for undergrads or people with five or fewer years of experience.
• Late in a PhD program, a postdoc, or someone with five plus years of experience can be two pages.
• Be consistent with bolding, capitalization, or italics.
• Include quantifiable measurements/results whenever possible.
• Always have someone proofread your document for spelling and grammar mistakes.
• Always research the employer/job and tailor your résumé to each position.
• List accomplishments and skills in order of importance to the job.

Don’t

• Include personal information, salary requirements.
• Exaggerate or lie.
• Use negative or neutral words or phrases.
• Use flashy graphics or print that is difficult to read.
• Forget to proofread.

About the author: 

Bob Dolan provides career counseling and professional development workshops for the Postdoctoral Scholars program at MIT. He is a Certified Job Search and Career Transition Consultant with experience in the field of Career Management since 2001. Before joining academia, Bob had a private Career Consulting practice and worked with clients across multiple industries, as well as providing career consulting services for a global Career Management firm.

Guest post by Kalyn Gackowski

What makes me unique? How are my experiences relevant? How can I show them I’m the ideal candidate? What do I know about [dream job I have never had direct experience in]? Whether you’re looking for a job or just starting your career exploration, the answer to these questions will center on transferable skills. Transferable skills are those skills you obtain from your experiences that are applicable to other contexts and positions. Being able to identify and articulate these can set you apart as an outstanding job candidate. As simple as this may seem, students often struggle to define related and relevant skills that they have acquired during their educational and professional experiences.

The more time you take to reflect and become self-aware of your skills, the more confident you are going to be in those intimidating interviews, networking events, and family holidays. Defining these skills will also greatly strengthen your application materials and lead to more interviews and job offers.

So what experiences can/should you pull skills from? It depends on the position and the field.  However, think broadly and beyond the most obviously related experiences. Volunteering, summer jobs, internships, activities, and other outside experiences can be sources of important job and personal skills.  

What skills come from your science training?  A graduate student I know once told me science has prepared him to think, learn, and adapt.  Whether or not a job requires knowledge of science, any employer would value such transferable skills in a potential candidate. Technical skills such as proficiency with specific lab techniques are great to highlight, but research experience gives you so much more. For example, I have worked in a genetics lab for three years, completed a genetic counseling internship, and am working towards a biological science major. Some of the skills I can highlight to employers include: the ability to communicate to both the scientific and nonscientific community, to read technical literature, to follow protocols effectively, to work both on a team and independently, to adapt, to solve problems, to present and network at conferences, and the list goes on.

There are many ways transferable skills can help you to stand out.

Resume/CV/Cover Letter/Personal Statement: Describe not only what you did in each position, but also what you gained. A common mistake is focusing too much on your duties and not enough on the skills you used.

Read the job description carefully, and highlight the skills sought to ensure you address them in your own words within your application.

Interviewing/Networking: Knowing your skills will help you develop your 60-second commercial and will give you confidence in your interview responses. Interview questions often ask about past experiences to gauge how you would react to a similar experience in the future. To answer these questions, you should follow an answering method called STAR which focuses on how you demonstrated and applied relevant skills.

Career Exploration/Job Search: To narrow down your job and career search, you should understand the skills you already possess, what you are qualified to do, and what skills you want to improve.

Lastly, don’t forget you are unique. There are over 7 billion people on this planet, and everyone will have different experiences and will learn something different from each experience. My biggest recommendation is to set aside time to reflect on what makes you unique. It is sometimes helpful to write out your thoughts, talk to someone like a mentor or career counselor, or read job descriptions to generate some ideas, even if you don’t apply for those specific positions.

It can be challenging to learn to talk about ourselves and market our skills, but it is a key component of professional development. In summary, to do is important, but to reflect and apply is even more valuable.

About the author:

Kalyn Gackowski

Kalyn Gackowski provides career-related services to students and alumni at Marquette University’s Career Services Center and is also an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Edward Blumenthal’s genetics lab at Marquette. She recently presented her research poster and gave a talk at the 58th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. She will be graduating this August with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biological Sciences and is looking to pursue a career that combines her professional development skills with her science background to make a difference.

Guest post by Bob Dolan

In a highly competitive market it is important to distinguish yourself. To do so, you need to create your personal brand. While a “brand” might sound like something that only applies to a commercial product, this is just another way of saying your message should be clear so people understand who you are, what you stand for, and what skills you bring to your profession. Developing your personal brand may help to enhance your professional opportunities today and in the future, and your brand can grow as you develop as a professional. Creating your own brand will help you shape people’s initial impressions of you, and first impressions are lasting.

 Things to consider:

• How do you distinguish yourself?
• How do you want to present yourself to your target audiences, including others in your profession?
• How do you get your message out?

To begin, identify the top skills that you want potential employers to know you have. Consider the following:

• Behavioral – Working in a team/collaborative environment, Leadership, Conflict resolution
• Achievements
• Research skills
• Verbal/written communication skills
• Technical – discipline-specific skills/tools

How do you get your message out?   

1.  Written – Resume/CV, Cover Letters, Research and Teaching Statements
2. Verbal – Interviewing and Networking
3. Virtual – LinkedIn, Website, other Social Media

All three methods should deliver a consistent message!

Written

Resume/CV, Cover Letters, Research and Teaching Statements

Your written communications are often what people see first. Whether you are applying for a faculty position, an industry job, a grant or attendance at a conference, your writing will precede you.

• Resume/CV –  These documents should be focused on the information needs of the readers. Your Resume/CV serves many purposes. It is a marketing tool that highlights your skills, attributes, and accomplishments, and it must be easy to read.
• Cover Letters – This document is generally one page in length. It includes an introduction, followed by a message that aligns with your audience, followed by your closing statement. It allows you to express how your skills, interests, and experiences meet the needs of the position, both technically and behaviorally, and certainly will highlight your ability to communicate in written form.
• Research and Teaching Statements – These documents will always accompany an academic job application. The research statement provides you with the opportunity to deliver a more in-depth explanation of your work that is only briefly mentioned on your CV. Often this document has a past, current, and future component that highlights your history, your growth, and the impact of your research in the future. Your research statement will also highlight your collaborations and ability to get funding, if need be. Depending upon the lab/department you are targeting, this document should be tailored to align with the reader. Much like the cover letter, it will highlight your ability to communicate in written form. The teaching statement will be shorter than your research statement (generally 1-2 pages) and will highlight your ability to teach certain undergraduate and graduate courses. Often times it begins with your teaching philosophy and how you would make a positive impact on students. This document may also include a diversity statement to highlight how you would attract underrepresented minorities into your lab/classroom.  

Verbal 

Interviewing and Networking

How you talk to people, and what you say, should be consistent with your intended message.

• Interviewing – Interviews vary by institution/industry/company. For PhDs there is often a presentation component of the interview process. These can last anywhere from 30-60 minutes and must convey your skills and credibility to the audience.  There will also be one-on-one sessions where you will be expected to answer questions about your abilities. One of the most common questions is “Tell me about yourself”, or “Tell me about your research.” A recommended strategy is to research the lab/department; know what they do, know what they want, and create a response that shows you fit their environment. Consider this response structure: 
  • I am a…
  • With expertise/experience in…
  • I have had project work on, led teams, had internships…
  • My strengths include skill, skill, skill

Here is an actual response from a postdoctoral scholar, and many of the skills were listed in the lab’s job description:

“I am a postdoctoral scholar at MIT with expertise as an analytical biochemist specializing in chemical analysis methods.

My areas of interest are in the synthesis and characterization of metallic nanoparticles and improved diagnostic ability in cancer.

I have worked in several labs and have led multidisciplinary teams to design photosynthetic system-based bio solar cells. The team screened antibodies targeting markers for tropical diseases for use in an efficient platform for diagnosis. We also generated four serotypes of dengue NSI protein by gene expression of transfected RNA into eukaryotic cells.

I also have additional skills and am proficient in the execution of biochemical assays, including ELISA, western blot, cell-based assays, flow cytometry, FACS, and HPLC”

• Networking – Networking is something that we do every day, yet sometimes may not realize it. Every work conversation you have is a way of learning and aligning with the people you work with, and an opportunity for you to share your contributions to your team. Networking is a huge part of conferences because you meet people from other institutions along with potential future collaborators and employers.

 Virtual

Lab/Company Website, LinkedIn, and other Social Media

Your online presence is becoming a major resource for employers. If your lab/department has a website, ensure that your profile is rich with details of your work. For industry positions, Jobvite survey (n=800) reported the following percentages for employers who use social media:

• Searching for candidates = 96%
• Contacting candidates = 94%
• Following potential candidates = 93%
• Vetting candidates pre interview = 92%
• Posting jobs = 91%

Social media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. In general, you should use caution and be professional. LinkedIn dominates social media recruiting. When developing your profile, consider including the following:

• Your full name
• A professional photo
• Summary that highlights your 4-5 major skills/contributions
• Detailed list of accomplishments – current and previous institutions
• Links to publications
• Any patents/trademarks
• Volunteer work
• You should also join groups and follow institutions that align with your profession

Your Branding strategy— written, verbal, and virtual—should differentiate you from others in your field and should position you clearly in the minds of others. By focusing on your message and your mission, you will project credibility, develop loyalty in your profession, and create connections to others in your field.

Bob Dolan

About the author: Bob Dolan provides career counseling and professional development workshops for the Postdoctoral Scholars program at MIT. He is a Certified Job Search and Career Transition Consultant with experience in the field of Career Management since 2001. Before joining academia, Bob had a private Career Consulting practice and worked with clients across multiple industries, as well as providing career consulting services for a global Career Management firm.