‘Tis the season for academic faculty job searches. From summer until late fall, the bulk of faculty jobs are accepting applications to fill positions that begin in the fall of the following year. If you are considering this route, here are some things you need to think about: What kind of school do you want to be at? Do you want to be at a large research university (like Columbia University in NYC), a state school that terminates in a master’s program (like Eastern Michigan University), or a liberal arts environment (like Swarthmore College). Each of these types of institutions has different expectations regarding the amount of teaching and research…
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Two-Part Series on Government Jobs — PART ONE: HOW TO FIND & READ JOB ADS
Federal jobs, positions where you are an employee of the government, are all listed at USAjobs.gov. This website is a one-stop shop for all positions across the entire US government. There are other opportunities to work with the government, one of the largest being a contractor, which we will talk about more in Part Two. USAjobs has a reputation of being hard to search, but it is not that bad. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the site and find some keywords and job titles that work for you. Some Job Search Tips: UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM Occupations are classified in the government system based on what you do, for…
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NIH Alumni: Where are they now? Communications Manager
Name: Benjamin Porter, PhD Job Title & Company: Communications Manager, Office of Communications; The University of Texas at Dallas Location: Dallas, Texas How long you’ve been in your current job: 3 months Postdoc Advisor, IC and subject: Alan Koretsky, NINDS, Behavioral fMRI What do you do as a Communications Manager? Basically, my job is public relations — I handle both internal and external public relations matters for the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UT Dallas. When researchers do interesting work or if they just received a grant or published a paper, I will write up a story for the University website. If we think it could be a…
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Letters of Recommendation – Our Recommendations for Getting Them
References are an extremely important part of any application. However, many people struggle with knowing what is the best way, and whom do you ask, for great letters of recommendation. Generally speaking, you should aim to get at least three letters of recommendation. Although the common thread throughout these should be you, each letter should be unique, helping elucidate a different aspect of your candidacy—whether that is your education, technical and research skills, leadership abilities or beyond. Whom to ask? Ask someone who knows you very well! Although this might sound obvious, many individuals are lured by the appeal of having a well-known scientist write a recommendation. It is much better…