Blog posts have been scarce lately (I just moved! Busy, busy, busy.), so here's something I wrote a while back for the University of Chicago BSD Alumni newsletter on the variety of career paths for biomedical PhDs. This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately, and will probably post more on soon!
The article:
Sometimes it feels as if graduate
school will never end. Despite this feeling, one day, inevitably, it will. But
what comes next? The most obvious course of action is to jump on the so-called
“post-doc treadmill,” hoping to eventually land a tenure-track position. Every
once in a while, however, we graduate students hear troubling statistics, such
as those published by the National Science Foundation, stating that in 2006
only one quarter of biomedical PhDs held tenured or tenure-track positions. If
we assume that graduate school is an apprenticeship to become a tenured
professor, this study suggests that we are training far too many PhDs for the
available jobs. Is this assumption correct? Alternatively, what else can one do
with a biology PhD?
To explore these questions, the
University of Chicago Biological Science Division (BSD) organized several career panels with BSD and
Pritzker alumni. For instance, on December 2, 2011, Carol Olson, the Vice
President and CMO of Immtech, Robert Schickel, the Managing Director of
S&BD Consulting, and Michael Silverman, the President of BioStrategics
Consulting, Ltd, gathered to discuss careers in industry. During the panel
discussion, Olson mentioned that she never considered going into industry while
she was in graduate school. She believed, “Industry was not a good place to be.
If you’re really good you’ll be in academia.” Academics, however, tend to study
one topic in great depth, and the panelists were interested in exploring a
broad array of subjects. Working in industry allowed them to, as Silverman put
it, “wear different caps.” Today, each of these panelists manages their own
independent consulting companies, prompting Olson to mention, “you can’t
predict where you’re going to be in 25 years.”
Another career panel occurred on
March 30, 2012, with Fabiola Rivas, a Scientific Editor at Cell Press, Paul
Magwene, Assistant Professor at Duke University, Yolanda Vallejo, Program
Officer at NINDS/NIH, and Emina Stajkovic, Assistant Professor at Northeastern
University. Of these individuals, Yolanda Vallejo explored the widest variety
of careers. While finishing her PhD in neuroscience she found herself asking,
“What kind of lifestyle do I want?” At first, a job as an industrial research
scientist seemed ideal because she loved bench work, but she was unexcited with
product marketing. As a dare, she applied for a job with the Central
Intelligence Agency, mentioning, “It’s very interesting to interview for a job
when they can’t tell you anything about the job.” After working as a CIA
analyst for several years, she applied for a job with the National Institution
for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), explaining that, “It seemed like
a logical choice to come back around to neuroscience.” Vallejo’s career path
illustrates how important it is to explore every new opportunity, and
ultimately you will find the career that is the best fit for you.
Perhaps one of the best ways to
explore career options is to visit Christine McCary, the newly appointed BSD
career counselor at the Career Advising and Planning Services (CAPS). McCary
received her PhD in Immunology from Northwestern University, and started
working at CAPS in November of 2011. McCary’s role is to provide one-on-one counseling
sessions with students and post-docs, and she also organizes exploratory
learning opportunities such as externships and career panels. Recognizing that
a graduate student’s free time is a precious commodity, McCary has been showing
up to BSD coffee hours to provide impromptu resume help and to find out what
career advising services students actually want. “I’m just trying to find ways
to interface with you guys better,” McCary said. McCary recognizes that due to
the poor economy this is a challenging time to be searching for jobs both
inside and outside the academe. Even though it can often feel quite
overwhelming, McCary’s advice is, “don’t panic, come to me, and we’ll figure it
out.”
From attending these career panels
and speaking with Christine McCary, it seems like a great deal can be done with
a biology PhD in addition to pursuing a tenure-track position, suggesting that
we need to broaden our concept of what constitutes a successful scientific
career. Scientific consultants, industrial researchers, administrators,
editors, educators, counselors, and writers have not failed at science. Rather,
they have found the best way to use their talents to promote research and to
share scientific ideas. The world of science is larger than we think, extending
far beyond the bench, and I think it important that we embrace this world in
all its diversity.
