Woohoo! It is one of our favorite weeks of the year in the R-G lab. Trainees spent the week working on career/skill development and got a TON of things done!
One element of Career Development Week (CDW) is having guests visit us virtually to talk about their paths post-Ph.D. These speakers are often former colleagues of mine and are chosen based on the career interests of current Ph.D students in the group. This year, we had 6 guests visit:
First, Dr. Colleen Brady spoke with us about her career in editing and medical writing. After her post-doc, Colleen was an editor for Cancer Cell. She then went on to be a medical writer at bluebird bio, where she earned several promotions before moving to Relay Therapeutics, where she is now an Associate Director for Medical Writing. Colleen described several different aspects of careers in medical writing, including the need to work collaboratively with the FDA, biostatisticians, clinical staff, etc. She talked about different types of writing products she creates. And she emphasized lots of transferrable skills from Ph.D. training, including critical thinking, data analysis, integrating many perspectives, and teamwork.
Second, we chatted with Dr. Jeanne Jodoin, who is a patent agent at Nixon Peabody LLP. She went into patent law after her postdoc. She deals with patents in life sciences (antibodies, small molecules, gene therapies, and devices). She talked about how she likes the customer-facing aspect of her work, as well as the pace and structure. It was interesting how Jeanne views her current work as “solving a puzzle” which is a transferrable skill she learned as a Ph.D. and postdoc trainee. She also talked to us about how she made the jump to patent law and the pros and cons of working in patent law with a Ph.D. (rather than a J.D.).
Next, we spoke with Dr. Edwin Pierre Louis, who is a former Cellular Biology Ph.D. student in the Etheridge lab who is now an ORISE Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control, working on surveillance system to track malaria. Edwin walked us through how to find and apply for jobs (especially postdocs) at the CDC and how to land an ORISE fellowship in particular. We also talked about similarities in research in government vs. university settings.
We then spoke with Dr. Curtis Thorne, a faculty member at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Curtis talked about his path through academia as a science who has often focused on the bridge between basic and translational science. He helped us think through what it is like to train or work at a medical center rather than in an arts and sciences department (e.g., less teaching, closer interactions with clinicians). And he emphasized that curiosity and freedom of inquiry were main drivers of his decision to work in academia.
Next up was Dr. Dawn Hart, Professor at Grand Valley State University, a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) with some excellent research activity geared toward student training. She talked to us about how academic positions at PUIs differ from academic positions at R1 institutions. She also talked about how to develop a teaching statement and how to align that statement with the mission of a particular university. She talked about how important it is for a PUI to offer research support and time to faculty if they have research expectations; she also talked about how to ask about that support when choosing a job.
Finally, we hosted Dr. Sadie Nennig, another UGA alumnus (Neuroscience Ph.D.) who now works as a Medical Science Liaison for Bristol Myers Squibb. This was a career path that I didn’t know much about, so we first learned what Medical Science Liaisons do (developing relationships with clinicians and investigators and serving as a communicator between these folks and a company - and not sales!). I really was interested in the different types of information MSLs share, in terms of product information and also providing “disease state education” to providers.
The second major component of our Career Development Week is that trainees complete career development activities from a big list that I have developed over the past 4 years (see list HERE). Trainees completed a total of 124 distinct activities to explore careers, develop skills, work on wellness/work-life balance, etc. Trainee highlights included:
Participating in goat yoga and calligraphy classes to help with wellness.
Creating a mission statement and professional brand to help define purpose.
Conducting informational interviews with >1 person in a specific job to figure out how different companies/universities may differ in expectations (e.g., salary, amount of travel, balance of research and teaching).
Re-focusing because a trainee is “done running myself ragged!”
Figuring out a good mindset for career development (making progress without becoming stressed out).
Identifying sources of overwhelm and being curious about where anxiety comes from (and then coming up with potential solutions, too!).
Trainee take-home-messages included:
“There are jobs I am interested in!”
“I am really interested in science outreach.”
“The perfect job does not exist.” (and that’s ok!)
“Career paths are not always straight lines.”
“You can be good at something and it not be your calling.” (Quote from Jeanne!)
“I can learn to view having many opportunities as a positive and not a negative.”
“I have time to figure things out. But there are also things I can do now.”
“I am focusing my efforts in a way that is intentional.”
“I need to network.”
Congrats to Taylor, CarDev Cup winner for 2023! The winner of the Cup gets to keep the trophy on their desk for the coming year and gets to keep all of the goodies.
We always say that everyone is a winner when they participate in Career Development Week but we also incentivize this process to nudge folks toward action. The highest point total for Career Development Week (and the winner of the CarDev Cup!) is Taylor Medlock-Lanier, who completed 32 activities for a total of 180 points! Congratulations Taylor!
In closing, we had a really great Career Week. I’m always grateful to get this opportunity with my trainees and am grateful for folks who spent time on Zoom calls with us and helped to develop materials we use for our Career Development Week. Thanks, all!