BLS data on Life Scientists

First off, a h/t to Chemjobber, who is great at navigating the Bureau of Labor Statistics to pull out depressing chemistry statistics so I that I can find a place to pull more optimistic biology numbers to share.

The BLS handbook is a great place to explore careers, and the online version makes it much easier to navigate.  Skills and work environment are matched to job growth and salary information, and linked to related jobs in a very helpful way.

So, remember last week when I found that number about huge growth for Medical Scientists?  Well, here is a little more comparative data, including projections for "Life Scientists," which is probably a more accurate description of who I am right now. 



















Life scientists are not as fast growing, nor as well paid as medical scientists- but this also seems more realistic.  In the next 20 years, BLS predicts a 36% increase in medical scientist jobs (or 36,000 jobs), and a 20% increase in Life Science jobs.  (The expected national average is closer to 17% growth in jobs.)

Compare the predicted job growth for biochemists and biophysicists, the need is expected to grow by 31%, but this is actually only 7,700 jobs.  (They make more money though).

One facet you should be aware of (before your brain explodes) is that these documents suggest that there is no on the job training for any of these positions.  What I am getting at, is that none of these numbers account for grad students or post-docs, who I totally believe deserve to call themselves scientists.  I had previously thought that this median income data included us trainees, which implies that the top of that bell curve must be set to counterbalance an army of grant-funded RAs. If that's not the case, then the top of the curve is probably not so far away, because it only includes people who actually perform experiments and still wear a lab coat sometimes.  (BLS is very systematic about their categorizations.  My old PI would not likely count as a Life Scientist, he would instead be a Post-Secondary Teacher based on what he does daily.)

Not sure what this does for my job hunt, but BLS showed me that very few jobs for people with a Ph.D. have any on-the-job training, so be sure you've learned everything you need to know to enter industry before you walk away from academia.  (Ha, I jest).

Next time you encounter a student trying to decide what to do with their life, point that at the Occupational Outlook Handbook, so they can avoid the sad fate of chemists, who believed there was a great need, and are now unemployed.

Great news for Medical Scientists, except epidimiologists!

Over at ChemJobber, there has been some interesting discussion about the derth of jobs for chemists, and many perspectives on why chemists are unemployed and what to do about it.  I'm not a chemist, but I identify with the struggle- I was also trained to do something that isn't what industry wants, and am struggling to transition that technical experience into gainful employment.  There is always a certain amount of finger pointing that "kids these days" can't get jobs because we are lazy, or that our professors pulled the wool over our eyes.  What I like about Chemjobber is that he uses numbers whenever possible- and he pointed out a Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs projection report that he pulled data from to show the shrinkage of the chemists job market.  Ouch.

So I went to look.  I used the most recent version of the same report and found some interesting things.  First of all, based on the career categories used by the BLS, I would consider myself a Medical Scientist (who is not an epidemiologist).  My previous work was to research a human disease to improve human health. Directly from the BLS Jan 2012 Monthly Labor Review:


Life, physical, and social science occupations.
Most new jobs:
Medical scientists, except epidemiologists +36,400
Fastest growing (in percent):
Medical scientists, except epidemiologists +36.4
Fastest declining (in percent):
Forest and conservation technicians –1.0
Highest paying:
Political scientists $107,420

BLS predicts and extra 36,000 jobs for Ph.D. or professional degree carrying medical scientists in the next 20 years.  It thinks the median income for these will be above $70K.

At first blush, I was baffled- if 'medical science' is growing why don't I have a job?  First, this are prediction from 2010-2020, so the growth is not over.  But, as I read the report, I realized that what is needed is scientists with clinical experience.  That's basically the missing piece in my job hunt.  I'm not sure what to do about it, but it's refreshing to have some cold hard data to put up next to my experience. 

Another interesting fact was from the table looking at employment by education level.  BLS believes that 3.1% of the country had a Ph.D. or professional degree (MD, JD etc) in 2010, and that 3.2% will in 2020.  The median income for these folks is $87,500/year.  (For reference, the median income across all education levels is $33,000/year.)

Targetting Employers

At networking events, people always ask "what companies are your targeting."  I've been lazy on this front, in part because I am flexible about what role I'd be willing to take, but mostly because I am afraid of limiting myself.  But, I had a fairly frustrating, but insightful, phone interview yesterday (more on that later) that made me realize I really need to do this.  The types of jobs I am looking for fit into different groups, so I've got a few lists.

Biotech
Amgen*
Seattle Genetics*
Dendreon
Zymogenetics
CMC ICOS
Novo Nordisk
Gilead Bioscience

Medical Devices
Physiocontrol *
Philips*
Seimens

Not-for Profit 
PATH
Gates Foundation*
Institute for Systems Biology*
Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) *
Seattle Biomed

Major Employers who might hire Smart People
Amazon
Boeing
Google*
Microsoft*

* are places I have a contact.
Yeah, I left off the UW, and the Hutch.  I don't want to be a researcher forever and I don't want to get boxed into that in the long run.  More on that later.

Breaking out of the tedium

Job hunting is boring.  Checking job boards, filling out the same forms online, sending emails and leaving voicemails... it's the monotony that is really wearing on me these days.  I just got a rejection for a job I don't remember applying for, what does that say?  It says I need to try something new so I don't present myself as a zombie candidate "Want JOOOOOBB...."

Folks usually have similar advice for me, " Have you tried the UW?" "Your network is really important." (Why do you think we are drinking coffee here?).  I chatted with a really cool guy at one of the not-for-profit research institutes here about new ways to think of and look at the job hunt, so I wanted to share them.  He suggested some ideas I hadn't thought of before, including industries I hadn't thought I could break into.

For example, bio-surveillance is growing in this area.  It's driven by federal money to the Navy and their contractors (Northrup Gruman, Boeing).  Or he suggested approaching clinical epidemiology for the major insurers as a biostatistician. ("Can you do a two tailed T test?  You'll be fine.")  He also suggested watching real estate announcements in the paper for major purchases by out of town biotechs, that's how he learned of a new major player in pharma moving to town.  He encouraged me to go to MeetUps (people still do that), since there are some good professional ones in Seattle, which sounds like a less stuffy way to interact with folks.  See, new, fun ideas to get over the tired old job hunt.

He runs a well attended LinkedIn group in Computational Biology- if this even slightly overlapps with your interests, I'd recommend you check it out.  It's quite relevant.

Day 2- STEM Economy

Today was the wrap up of the STEM summit.  I heard about STEM oriented K-12 school, STEM/Maker-inspired school programs, and novel ways of building post-secondary education.  I worked with a team to develop a short curriculum that could be used in a variety of different ways to teach math, physics, Project Management and communication using a hydroelectric power generation.  I even got to be on the STEM Education panel, representing informal education. 

We talked about the role and importance of STEM Education, how to make that more engaging and where to draw resources from.  What did I choose to highlight? I have feelings on all those things- I talked about how all citizens in a democracy need to have a basic understanding of STEM, including the ability to continue to learn, in order to contribute to our national needs.  I talked about how at the Girls Math & Science Program we have refined techniques for getting girls to engage in STEM, and why this (ie- compassion) might work well for other underrepresented groups as well.  We know we need to provide mentors who look like our girls, to explain the pathway to entry, and to provide an external motivation (studying hard today opens opportunities in your future, like good pay and fun work). Girls like collaboration, so that's a huge part of how we structure events and activities.

And finally, I talked about drawing on students to be mentors.  As I said, my boss doesn't know as much as I do about the workforce right now- he's had his job for 20 years.  Someone did a rough estimate that each of these STEM high schools has a graduating class of 150 students every year, that it would be just impossible to find the mentors for all those students.  I would argue that one mentor can have relationships with multiple mentees, and that borrowing from people who are farther along in the pipeline (post-docs, grad students), helps those of us in training remember why we got on this crazy train in the first place.  My panel also talked a bit about the Grand Challenges in Engineering and Global Health, but I'd like to talk about that more later.

If you are a teacher who wants to bring more hands-on, inquiry-based or  different teaching materials into your classroom, here are some of the interesting resources I learned that are available:
Braincake.org- the Girl's Math and Science Partnership that I work with- we have educational games and materials
Fwee.org- Energy related resources
TransitionMathProject.org- changing our math-phobic culture
Firstwa.org - Science Competitions in Washington (I believe this is a national program)

Referral Pool

Ever hear about someone getting a job cause they knew someone who already had a job there?  This may seem unfair, but it’s a fact, and one I need to get better at taking advantage of.  Many big companies have a referral program, some system through HR that let’s employees submit a friend’s resume with some nice words about what a rockstar they are.  These get immediate priority in many of these systems.  I was unfamiliar with this system, and actually found that several of my employed friends were unaware of the system in place as well.  But, once I asked them to look into it, they found it was pretty easy to add me to the referral applicant pool- which is way better then the suckers-who-applied-via-job-boards pool.  Some companies even offer a referral bonus to the employee- and that’s in addition to the cold one you’ll buy them when you get a job.

At smaller companies (>1000 employees), there may not be a formalized system, but there is still the option for an employee to forward a resume to HR, or to request a specific person’s resume from HR.  I haven’t entirely figured out how to take best advantage of this behind the scenes stuff, but knowing it is there is huge.  At least it explains why I’m not getting a lot of calls back about my resume: sucker-pool.

Current Grad Students- Consider an internship

One of the major hurdles for finding a job is having "industry experience" and contacts who work in industry.  We often bemoan that grad students in biology can't do internships to fill those gaps, but I am starting to think, why not?  Sure, you might delay graduation by a couple months- but who hasn't had a few months where nothing works in grad school?  And your boss will probably not understand why you want to intern.  But unless your boss has tons of contacts in industry that are going to help you make the jump when you are ready, you might need to make a selfish choice.

And lest you think that such a thing doesn't exist, I will correct that with a list of companies that do offer internships for graduate students who are pursuing a degree in the life sciences.  With a little work, you can probably find one that isn't a total waste of your education, too.
Amgen
AAAS
Bayer
Dupont
Genentech
GlaxoSmithKline
USDA and FDA

Perhaps you have heard of some of these employers?  These are just what I came up with in a couple minutes on Google.  If you can imagine that you might be interested, now is the time to apply for summer internships.  Now may also be the time to suggest to your boss those in vitro experiments won't be wrapped up until the fall.

Networking on campus

I've been making a lot of trips back to my undergrad institution to bug my old professors with help in the job hunt.  I don't really expect they will be experts, but it is sort of confusing to hear from them that they don't really know anyone who can help, since they are just faculty members.  But I think I can see what the problem is- they think of their network as their peer group, not just the people they know as a result of their professional activities.  Sure they know lots of other professors- but I was kinda hoping that they'd keep in touch with their old students- surely some of them are professional scientists by now, right?  And many of them do keep in touch, but for some reason they don't think that is who I am looking for.

I had success after some pointed questions about one employer 'that, well, actually, several of our recent grads have been hired by Dr. Whoever.  They are just techs, but we have a good relationship with that lab since they like our grads so much. ' Bingo!  Not every contact I am making is a personal introduction of a friend to a friend who opens the gold gates of employment.  Many more of the contacts I have made lately start with an email like "Hi, Someone you haven't heard from in ages suggested I get in touch with you..."  and I still get a decent response rate.

I've found that the best way to job those ideas for my profs is to sit down with them and tell them what I've been up to.  And then when they say, "Oh drug discovery?  We had someone like 3 years ago get recruited to that type of position.." I ask for their name and any other info they have on that.  I'm realizing that a lot of the people who are in a good position to help me, don't really see their position that way. 

Interview: Medical Science Liason

This week, I had a phone call with a Medical Science Liason (MSL).  I met with someone who was previously in this position, and it sounded like so much fun!  Travel and shmooze with docs! Learn about cutting edge technology in your field, and you don't have to sell anything.  Heck, you are forbidden from selling anything!  She suggested I talk to some others first before I jumped in (I think I am just primed for jumping in to things these days).

I called up a colleagues of hers, who also had great things to say about the job.  It is well paid (Glassdoor suggests 6 figures and up), and there are great perks, like a company car.  You get to be the recognized expert to the people you work with, and the position is far from routine.  And, he says, "there is no one at the home office that I don't get along with."  That's right, the MSL works from home when they aren't traveling. 

So what does the job really look like?  A big drug company wants to release a new product.  They will unleash some of the team of MSLs (and this large drug company has about 100 nationally), to meet with "thought leaders" like physicians to drum up interest in the drug.  The MSL is not allowed to promote the product, they are in a support role.  I imagine them bringing by copies of journal articles and preliminary results to share with curious docs.  Then the drug comes out, and all these docs have questions about how the product works, when it should be used, and what else it might be used for.  The sales team is not equipped to handle that, so enter the MSL again.  He made it very clear that an MSL really needs to develop deep expertise on the product, and broad expertise in the field (his field being rhuematology).  He does get to attend professional conferences (at least one in Europe every year) for training and reconnaissance purposes.

In addition, he spends a lot of time in contact with other MSLs in his field (via conference call), talking with the researchers that developed the product, and training the sales team.  He suggested that different companies utilize their MSLs for different amounts of these roles.  And he loved this job!  I've heard that with the heavy travel demands (30-70%) over wide territories (AK, WA, OR, ID, and Northern CA, for example) people often burn out of this role and transition to something more stable after a few years, but he has been at the job for 9 years.  But he said his working interactions are not like a normal job, he doesn't have coworkers he interacts with regularly.  His "regular" contacts he sees quarterly, and most he sees less often. 

He suggested I look at the MSL Quarterly Newsletter for job postings and ideas about skills to perform the job better.  He also suggested, with a chuckle, cafepharma for trending news and occasional industry gossip.

Interview: Grant Writer

It's been a while since I did an informational interview, I should do them more often.  Talking with people about why they love their job makes me feel optimistic, and every job hunt could use a bit of that.  So here is the context, as you know, I need a job.  While getting a full time permanent job has not come easy, finding small contract editing work (of manuscripts and educational texts) or some related writing seems to have come up fairly often.  I've been relatively passive about this, but I wanted to give this idea a fair shake, could I (should I?) make a career of reading and writing?

So I had to know, was she working week to week on contracts like me?  Well, no.  Although she had started doing that, she now works as an off-site contractor for a firm that sends her clients who need various levels of technical and administrative help.  She said this sometimes means she is literally writing their grants, and sometimes this means she is just convincing a disparate group of PIs to stick to their writing deadlines.  Depending on the client, this may feel like she is making the best use of her background, synthesizing complex data into an easily understandable package, and other times, this might just feel like she is the secretary (but she did admit the administrative work pays better).

Speaking of pay, she makes more than she did as a post-doc, and figures she'll continue to make significantly more than her husband (a post-doc) for a while. 

The contract for this is novel to me, it's the antithesis of a non-compete. She signs up for a 3-6 month contract with her employer.  They have renewed her contract consistently for 4 years now, so she has confidence that this is fairly permanent work.  However, for tax reasons (and as part of this contract), she must take other contracts, to prove that she does not have a sole employer who ought to pay her taxes for her.  She said she normally works 40 hours a week, but certainly goes through periods of working 80-90 hours a week, as a result of having to juggle multiple contracts. 

So how does a person get into this?  She recommended to get started, work with a recruiter.  Alternatively, there are writing firms that have stables of writers for regulatory/technical/medical writing, like Synchrogenix.  Another option is to subscribe to job lists, like the Hitt list (available here).  And this last website brings up some other interesting resources.  Medical writers are certainly in demand these days, and while having a PhD is great preparation for this career, to help with the transition, Emma Hitt offers some short courses and workshops on running a med writing business, or med writing.  Biotech Ink Insider is another resource for those in the field. The American Medical Writers Association also offers some workshops/short courses in similar subjects.  Again, these aren't essential certifications, but if you are looking for a way to show on your CV that you are serious about this transition or just want to build your own confidence this might be a good route.  I'd be very interested to hear from someone who has taken one of these courses to see what they think.

I recently joined the Council of Science Editors group on LinkedIn, and in one of those discussions these additional resources were listed.  Exciting, right?  Doesn't it make you think you could take on a whole new career??
National Association of Science Writers (http://nasw.org)
National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org)
Society for Technical Communication (http://www.stc.org)
Health Sciences Communication Association (http://www.hesca.org)
Bay Area Editors' Forum (http://www.editorsforum.org)
American Copy Editors Society (http://www.copydesk.org/)

My current focus is networking

It's that time of year where companies slow down on hiring, the people that work in them slow down on working and it seems like a tough time to be seeking out open positions.  Rather than frustrate myself, I am trying to position myself to be readily and quickly available for when things finally get back on track in late January, new budgets approved, new work load assessed and hopefully there will be a big demand in the Seattle markets for newly minted PhDs.  How am I going to get ready for that?  I am really focusing on networking for the rest of the month.  I want to meet people, remind the people that I know that I am still here actively looking for a job. 

This feels like I am hauling business cards everywhere, and I am hoping to fill up my calender with coffee and lunches and that sort of thing.  But, I am currently reading the Networking classic "Never Eat Alone" (Why did it take my so long to start reading this book?  It's good, practical advise about how to be professional, and build mutually beneficial professional relationships.  I think the mutually beneficial part is really important for this whole thing to work out- I want to be remembered fondly as that helpful person who remarkably doesn't have a job yet, rather than that desperate schmuck who is scheming for work.  So, I've offered to volunteer with my local Chapter of AWIS, I shared my annotated photo album from the algae workshop with the other participants and I am making a lot of Christmas cookies.  This seems to be working because I have been getting better responses- now we have something to talk about in emails, I have provided myself the opportunity to prove my professionalism without jumping straight into OMG I want to work!  It also is giving me more interesting things to spend my time of than combing the job boards and recrafting cover letters for positions I am a terrible fit for.  It made me feel like spending a few hours working on that Picasa album of an algae lab was really productive, and having ways to break up the monotony of guilt and worthlessness that accompany joblessness is almost as valuable as the relationships I'll be able to cultivate in this way. 

Anyway, hoping to meet and endear myself to lots of people in the next few weeks and then be in a better position to find job in January.

I wrote a contractor contract

I am hoping to find some contract work to fill my time while I am working on job applications/waiting for the economy to improve (ha!).  This still seems like a vague aspiration to me.  I still have to find someone who needs me to do work and convince them to pay me for it, which is the central struggle of the job hunter. But there is a lower standard, contractors are less expensive (yup, because they make less, either in hourly rate or because there are no benefits), and aren't so long term.  I am just trying to color my CV with more industry-experience before I eventually crack and get a post-doc, so my standards are lower too.

I've got this one lingering lead for an equity based contract, and the nature of the small start-up means that for all our big plans to get things going, a contract has never actually appeared.  I was complaining to my brother about how I WANT to start this work, but I feel like I should wait until there is a real contract, but bringing it up hasn't seemed to help.  He suggested I write my own contract- which to me gets at the heart of why I want to take this contract even though there is no economic benefit; I have never seen a contract before.  Like most things in business, I am a complete novice, and need some immersion school.  Well, he sent me a link to a site with contract templates ( I used Rocket Lawyer, you can use them for a week free and create as many legal documents as you might forsee very easily, but there are other services out there).  I created a quick contract to formalize the nature of the "we work together" relationship that was left open broadly to renew or terminate in a couple months.  It made me feel really empowered to send off the email. "I look forward to working with you once you have signed my contract."

However, this does bring up a lot of other issues I have about this intermediate type of work.  Should I form my own business (for legal/tax reasons)?  If I actually make any money, how will I figure out who to pay my taxes too?  I formerly thought I would never want to deal with those things, and thought I would pursue a job where taxes and business entities were more clear cut, but I think having some professional independence may give me some flexibility in the types of positions I can accept and work I'll be able to do.  But will it make me more appealing as a candidate? Investigation to continue.

Caution: More ways to Spam yourself

Getting up to date information is really important in a job hunt. You want to know who is hiring and you want to have relevant news to share with your network. But, I am starting to think all these email updates may be getting out of control.

I get updates from job boards, so I know when jobs I might be interested in come up so I can apply for them (BioCareers, USAJobs, Washington Biotech Business Association etc.). I get "daily/weekly digests" from my LinkedIn groups (19 and counting) to tell me who is discussing what, and if jobs were posted. I'm now signing up for updates from Lead411.com and Google Alerts for biotech news- which I am hesitant to do. This morning, I cleared out 184 unread messages from my inbox.

I'm hoping a clean slate and adjusting some of my settings will help. I am already going to the LinkedIn Groups, so I don't need to hear from them, and I should probably just admit that daily digests of anything are too much for me. I'll let you know how Google Alerts pans out, unless I just decide I've got too much email to read anymore.

Networking advice from a true master

Remember the recruiter that I follow on twitter whose radioshow I love? Her name is Adrienne Graham, she tweets as @talentdiva and she is the CEO of empowerme.org - she is awesome. Well, she wanted to host a G+ hangout to talk about networking (also, she's an early adopter). She was on a twitter riff the night before with loads of great networking advice (like get business cards and don't go into it thinking you'll get something right away) so knew I wanted to try this hangout. (Don't know what a Hangout is? Still need a G+ Invite? email me)

Uh... and I was the only one who showed up. What? Uninterrupted quality time with one of the leaders in the recruiting field? I must be doing something right! I should add, I was prepared for this hangout. I had some questions, I had some stuff I thought I would share- I was ready for both giving and taking. But really, she just fed me vastly superior gems of advice. Some of it easy stuff- social networking tools don't make up for actually quality time, and you need real relationships with people. Get face to face. And stay in touch over the long run. So yes, coworkers, I'll be coming back by the lab soon.

And some really savvy advice- when I mentioned I was trying to build a network to help me move across the country, she suggested I get a Google phone number in that area code and take my address off my resume. That way geography won't get in the way of my application. She also said I should ask to meet via Skype or Googlechat with people I might otherwise call- it's more personal.

She suggested I get Google alerts for biotech news, and then told me about a cool site called lead411.com that can provide inside info about target companies like upcoming hiring and firing decisions. I'm excited to explore that!

And can we go on about the books she wrote? She didn't even bring this up until I mentioned what a novice I am at really getting value out of networking, but yeah, she's written 4 books on it.

Net result? My goals for tomorrow include:

• get free business cards printed
• set up Google alerts
• check out lead411.com
• get a California phone number
  
• start reading "Go Ahead, Talk to Strangers" which is downloading as I type

I'll break it up by continuing to look for target companies in Seattle and San Diego via LinkedIn, and maybe pinging my network a bit. Today I got a couple new contacts I need to check in with, so tomorrow will be a busy day.

Interacting with Recruiters

I'm awkward on the phone. I can't seem to pick up the few remaining social cues on the phone, so I tend to be very literal in phone conversations. "I am calling about X job. Can I commence with my qualifications? Oh, X job is full. Abort. Goodbye." What can I say? I am working on it. This is one reason I am really excited about social networking tools that don't require immediate telephone conversations. Which is probably why I tweeted a question to a talk radio show, but I digress. I want to share some resources for job hunters who may be interacting with recruiters.

One of the recruiters I follow on twitter (because she is approachable and gives good advice) is @talentdiva. She is a recruiter, not in biotech, who is good at sharing how HR/recruiter types think. It's hard to target a resume for the first eyes that will see it, so I've found her perspective helpful. She has a weekly talk radio show called Views from the Top where she covers a variety career related topics. The last two shows were specifically on candidate recruitment. I downloaded the first one, and happened to be listening live to the second one. Talk radio? For job hunters? There is no end to the resources out there.

On the show, they were discussing why it is important/valuable/useful for HR people to notify unsuccessful candidates. I tweeted in a question about how the candidate should respond to such a phone call (see above re: awkward phone talker). All the panelists suggested using this as an opportunity to get feedback about your application. Yes, it is hard to stomach it, but the feedback system in the job hunt is pretty binary- you present poorly= no job offers, you present well = job offer. This is one time when you can actually ask someone how close you were and how you can improve for next time. Just stay professional.

While this wasn't precisely the conversation that was discussed on Views from the Top last week, I've been trying to stay in touch with the recruiters who will talk to me. Simply Biotech of San Diego is a great group- they have job postings on line and they actually get back in touch with you when you call or email. So I searched the job postings for something I thought I could do, mostly as an excuse to stay in touch, and called. We talked briefly about this position before I realized my guy was trying to talk me out of it gently. But rather than resume the above protocol, I tried to get some feedback. I told him I am looking for a job I can enter in as a PhD, and that is more important to me than the title or the pay scale. "Oh," he says, "well, actually... here is a job you might be interested in..." Sweet. I'm glad I didn't get off the phone at the first hint of rejection. Having spent the other part of the morning trying to track down another HR person with another company that is "hiring" it made me realize how valuable good recruiters can be for the overall strength of a community or organization.

Ways I'm going to try to use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a struggle- there is supposed to be lots of important connections to be made there, and yet I'm not sure I am doing any of them. I'm looking into what I'm "supposed" to be doing on LinkedIn. Here are a few of the resources I can recommend, which are helping me think about how to use this tool:

HOW TO: Get a job via LinkedIn (and other good resources at by the Avid Careerist)
HOW TO: Use LinkedIn to Find out What makes Hiring Managers Tick, (hint: you look at how managers are recommending other people. This was insightful)

The blog of the internet's first LinkedIn Guru.
Ideas for beefing up your Profile.

Want to be found by recruiters? You have to show up in their searches, so think about search engine optimization.

All this aside though, LinkedIn is a social network- it's only as good as the people you are connected to. Do a favor for the people in your network, and keep your profile up to date and well connected. Want to know how good you are doing? Beansprock will grade your network strength, my network scored a D.

Science Illustrators

Have you read Peter Fiske's book? You've probably heard of "Put Your Science to Work." It's a fantastic book that gives credit and credential to the parts of your experience in graduate school that weren't "science," and by science I mean the hard to describe to your grandmother part of your job. Those writing skills, the fact that you give insightful seminars, that you can deal with very complex, dynamic systems and that you have the project management skills to keep the many threads of a complex project in-line. Fiske suggests you think about your transferable skills, all those things that will make you a fantastic professional in any job, even if there aren't conical vials involved. Things that make your science successful, or can make you the golden child at your next job. Recognizing and developing these skills will make you a better scientist, or a better whatever you choose to be. I highly recommend the book, it certainly changed the way I thought about graduate school, and what I want to do afterwards.

For starters, it made me lighten up on the way I spent my time at work. As a first year, if I wasn't on the bench, I felt guilty for slacking. As a result, I almost never had time to think about what I was doing. Now, I get that it is important to be more well rounded, or at least recognize the parts of my job that I like enough to want to develop. I enjoy writing, I like being around people who are learning, and while I find it much more tolerable to help someone else troubleshoot experiments than to solve my own, I hate being in a position of authority. This is why careers like Application Scientist or anything called Liaison are appealing to me.

Perhaps this is why this item of note got bounced my way. What are cool ways you can use your science for good, but on your own time? Take a minute to bound around Shmoop, a sort of social networking study guide for teens. Perhaps if the entire site didn't have the California cool attitude, the job posting for Scientific Illustrator wouldn't have been written so that I thought I could do it. I don't mean to sound like a billboard for them (although I'd love to have a conflict of interest), but there are lots of postings for writing and illustrating jobs to create accessible science for high schoolers. And the description of the posting is simple, can you make figures? Yes, you can. You probably did it for lab meeting already this week.

As it turns out, I actually kind of loathe making figures (I was just reminded of that when I opened powerpoint to diagram a cell for that very application), but this is a really interesting job you could either try out as a grad student, or look for in other venues. If making pretty figures appeals to you, this is a real job. There is even a guild (Guild of Natural Science Illustrators). There are graduate programs you could enroll in, but I suspect if could collect the portfolio of things you made for talks and posters, you might already have a decent start.

Weekend Reading

This week I've run across a number of interesting articles I wanted to share, so let me get to it.

Two interesting studies out on employment in science (one I found on Twitter, one provided by Uncle Bart in the comments). The first on post graduate salaries and employment in 2009. The number that sticks with me is that only 67% of life sciences graduates go on to post-doc. Where is everyone else going?

The second, on the state of women in STEM jobs. The Department of Commerce still wants better representation.

Next, two blogs of science-job worlds I wish I knew more about:

Medical Science Liaison- bridging the tech with medicine for both internal purposes and for physicians using your products. Sounds like an Application Scientist with a better clinical background, but check out the immense resources on this site to find out for yourself. If you are considering this career path, there is everyone from job postings to an active online community.

Here is another great blog written by a former bench scientist in sales. I'm linking you specifically to the definitions of jobs that I had never really understood before (Field Application Scientist? Territory Manager?). She's got some great insight about the hiring process as well, so poke around.

The great Twitter experiment continues. I'm curating a twitter list of job-posting-centric tweets. Check it out, or follow me directly. But actually, the list has more information on it.

And what the heck, it's Friday: I found this amazing radio interview on Twitter, too. It came with the headline Man Arrested for building Nuclear Reactor in Kitchen.

Other information you think deserves a wider audience? Leave a comment or email me.

Informational Interviews

Networking is not something that comes naturally to me. I'm pretty lame at staying in touch, I stress about meeting strangers and using the phone. But all the experts agree, networking is the key to landing your dream job. I used to think this meant I was going to have to meet someone who needed to hire someone like me, then coyly mention how great I would be for this job so they might consider making me an offer. Not so,but you do need your network to help you hear about jobs, and to help you appear to be a great candidate for them. So, I'm working on it.

One networking tool I am trying to use a lot right now is the informational interview. I hope to be sharing more of my interviews with you, but in case I am not talking to people with your dream job, here are a few tips about how to do an informational interview so you can get the information you need for your own job search. But first, the purpose of an informational interview is to learn from someone who has been through the same process you are facing. You aren't asking for a job. You probably aren't talking to someone who could hire you anyway. Most people are willing to share their experience if it is clear you aren't going to ask more of them.

First, who to talk to. It's great if you know someone directly, or maybe one person removed that you can ask to talk to. My most recent interview was an e-introduction from someone I was also e-introduced to, which is just shy of a cold call. If you can find a person who has a position or worked for a company you are interested in, chances are they would be willing to talk to you. Have you ever talked to an undergrad about getting in to graduate school? Then you can understand why someone professional might be willing to talk to you, just be brave and reach out.

Second, getting the interview. Once you've found someone who is interesting, send them an email or call them to ask for a couple minutes of their time. My last couple emails out were a few lines, to 1) Introduce myself, 2) Explain my interest in them and 3) ask if they'd be willing to talk. In my experience, a phone call or face to face visit is easiest for the interview, and it needn't take more than half an hour.

Third, what do you talk about. My last several interviews, I've had about 4 questions. You probably know generally what this person does, but the reason you are talking to them is to learn about how they got there, and specifics about their job. So when you introduce yourself, take a moment to explain why you want to talk to them, "I'm really interested in pursuing a career in drug development, but I am not sure how to make the switch to clinical research. Your colleagues told me you are very happy in your job, so I was hoping you could tell me about how you got there." Or "I'm interested in working for Pfizer, but I haven't had much success finding a job posting that matches my qualifications. Can you tell me about how you found your position?" Again, you aren't asking for a job, you are getting information to help you find a job or ace an interview, or navigate your fellowship application or some other aspect of the job hunt that you need some guidance on. Although this isn't meant to be a journalistic endeavor, I tend to scribble some notes, and just let the professional talk. Respect their time, try to keep this to about 30 min.

Fourth, say thank you. Wait a day or at least a few hours and then send a follow up email, first to the person you talked to. You want to have something to follow up with, "Thanks for your advice, I've been exploring the webistes you've pointed me to and have found a lot of great information there," "I am looking into the certifications you reccomended," etc. And did you find this person through a mutual contact? Thank them for their help, too. You want to reinforce to everyone that speaking with you was a good use of their time, in case you have more questions later.

Try this to get access to the information you need at every stage of your career.