Search Strategies
Career guides
- Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty: This book is a collection of practical advice and experiences from seasoned biomedical investigators
- Career Basics: Advice and Resources for Scientists: Seven chapters of career advice from sciencecareers.org
- Career Advice for Life Scientists: Career guides from American Society for Cell Biology
- Life Sciences Research and Teaching: Strategies for the Successful Job Hunt
- Career guides from the American Chemical Society (these guides have some chemistry-specific information, but most offer solid advice for all scientific disciplines. All are available at the ACS Career Center online): Employment Guide for Foreign-Born Chemical Professionals, And Gladly Teach: A Resource for Chemists Considering Academic Careers, Job Search Strategies for Chemical Professionals, Interviewing Skills for Chemical Professionals
Search Strategy
- It Pays To Plan: Why You Need a Career Map by Carol Milano for ScienceCareers.org
- Your Official Job-Application Checklist by David D. Perlmutter for The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Career Trends: Building Relationships-Mentoring, Collaborating, and Networking by ScienceCareers.org and AAAS
- Conducting the International Job Search by Katrina Gulliver for The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Essential Steps to Conducting an Informational Interview from Georgia Institute of Technology
- Choosing your postdoc position by Elisabeth Pain for Sciencemag.org
- Use Spreadsheets to Keep Your Job Search Organized
- PhD Jobs: How to Transition from Academia Into Business from Cheeky Scientist
Learning about Companies
- Vault has individual company listings include corporate histories, major products, lists of company executives, and fact sheets with sales and employment figures as well as general guides on job searching topics (Note: Vanderbilt’s subscription to Vault is provided by the Vanderbilt Career Center. You will need to log in with your VUNet ID and password, then create an individual Vault account to access the content).
- Glassdoor is a resource that provides salaries of people employed at the companies you are targeting.
Making Yourself Unique
- How to Create Digital Letterhead for Your Department and Job Search by Brian Croxall for The Chronicle of Higher Education
Social Media
- 5 Clever Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media by Dan Schawbel for Mashable
- 5 Painless Steps to Controlling Your Online Rep by Miriam Salpeter for Money
- Career Checklist for Your LinkedIn Profile by Sandy Jones-Kaminski for BioSpace
- Best Career Websites of 2013 by OITE Careers Blog
- Tips on How to Improve E-mail Communication from The GradHacker blog
- To Connect or Not to Connect by Kim Petrie
- 6 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make with Your LinkedIn Profile by Bob McIntosh
References
- The Why’s and What For’s of Employment References by David Jensen for ScienceCareers.org
- Getting Great Letters of Recommendation by Richard M. Reis for The Chronicle of Higher Education
- The Scarlet Letter: Tips for Obtaining the Best, and Avoiding the Worst, in Your Letters of Reference by Peter Fiske for ScienceCareers.org
- Interfolio a dossier and portfolio service recommended by fellow trainees in the job search
Once You’re Hired
- Seven Deadly Sins for New Hires by Larry Buhl for Monster.com
Managing the Job Search with Spouse/Partner
- The A to Z of Dual-Career Couples by Female Science Professor for The Chronicle of Higher Education
- The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure-Track Faculty Life by Radhika Nagpa
- How Stereotypes Can Drive Women to Quit Science by Shankar Vedantam
- A Postdoc's Guide to Pregnancy and Maternity Leave from The National Postdoc Association
- Job Searching While Pregnant by the OITE Blog (Office of Intramural Training & Education, NIH)
Career Options
- Academia
- Alternative Academic
- Business Development
- Clinical Research
- Consulting
- Data Science
- Defense and Intelligence
- Drug Development
- Entrepreneurship
- Global Health
- Government Administration
- Government Research
- Grant Management
- K-12 Teaching/Outreach
- Medical Communications/Writing
- Medical Science Liaison
- Nonprofit Administration/Management
- Patent Law
- Pharma/Biotech
- Regulatory Affairs
- Research Administration
- Research and Development
- Science Journalism
- Science Policy
- Technical Sales/Support
- Technology Transfer
- Tenure Track Research
- Tenure Track Teaching