Once a trainee/graduate student at the National Institutes of Health, Nick Edwards now hosts a new podcast called Once A Scientist.  Edwards notes a few goals for his podcast, including: 1. Provide a resource for young scientist to learn about different career paths. 2. Speak with scientists from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. 3. Make science cool again. and lastly, 4. Have honest conversations.  In relation to this last goal, Edwars recentlyspoke with our very own OITE Director, Dr. Sharon Milgram. If you’d like to listen to the whole interview, the podcast is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, and also here at this link. The interview with Dr. Milgram is…

Most people recognize the benefits of exercise for your physical health; however, many studies have confirmed that exercise seems to be beneficial for your mental health as well. Last year, researchers at Harvard published an article in Depression and Anxiety that seems to indicate that exercise can serve as a buffer for depression, even for people born with a predisposition for the illness. Recently, researchers from Iowa State University, Trinity College Dublin, and other institutions decided to look at how people were faring during the early April shelter-in-place mandates. While their results have not yet been peer-reviewed, they have been published at Cambridge Open Engage. About 3,000 healthy non-smoking men…

In a Medium article entitled “Maintaining Professionalism in the Age of Black Death is…A Lot” the author, Shenequa Golding, quite simply enumerates: “Your Black employees are exhausted. Your Black employees are scared. Your Black employees are crying in between meetings.  Your Black employees have mentally checked out. Your Black employees are putting on a performance.”  Similarly, in a Huffington Post article, “This is What I Want to Tell My White Professors When They Ask ‘How Are You Today?’” Nolen describes her experience as a Black woman at Harvard Medical School where she feels she is forced to leave her personal experience at the door for the sake of “professionalism” and…

The “bystander effect” occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation, against a bully, or during an assault/crime. Generally, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is for any one of them to provide help to the person in distress. People are actually more likely to take action when few or no other witnesses are present. However, we all play a role in creating a safe public space and supporting each other when harassed or in threatening situations. Many different things count as harassment, including: intimidating looks/staring, comments about appearance, vulgar gestures, following someone, saying racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, and…

Video interviews are now the rule, not the exception. With many companies still moving forward with hiring decisions, phone and video interviews have become their main solution.  Even before COVID, many organizations were implementing pre-interview assessments which ranged from sample work/skills tests to personality assessments. Given how involved and lengthy job applications can be, once you finally score an interview, it is deserving of a mini celebration! So, what types of virtual interviews can you expect? Phone Interviews Phone interviews are still taking place and are often used as the first screening tool of a candidate. Usually during a phone call, you are speaking with a representative from Human Resources…

Collectively, we are living through a global pandemic. Personally, each of us may be responding very differently to this collective experience. Given your personality and preferences, how are you coping? Is this very different than a person you are sheltering in place with?  Your partner, roommates, parents, and child(ren) may be having different responses and reactions to your own. How then can these differences be reconciled within the same quarantined household? Some of the main differences seem to be between extroverts and introverts. At the beginning of the quarantine, there were many memes circulating around the internet proclaiming that introverts forced to stay at home felt like they were finally…

Did you miss the Career Symposium this past Friday? Don’t fret! All of the events and panels were virtual and are still available online at our OITE YouTube Channel. Here is an overview of what to check out: Faculty Careers: An Introduction to Academia Dimitra Bourboulia, PhD, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Assistant Professor David Sharlin, PhD, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Associate Professor Kerry Smith, PhD, Clemson University, Professor and Director of EPIC Tracie Delgado, PhD, Seattle Pacific University, Associate Professor Industry Research and Development Careers   Dennise A. De Jesús Díaz, PhD, Remedy Plan Therapeutics, VP Scientific Operations Samantha Yost, PhD, ReGenEx Bio, Scientist-Research and Early Development Catherine Nezich, PhD, Biogen, Scientist…

COVID-19 has already had a large impact on the job market; the full extent of this impact will continue to unfold day by day and month by month; and it will likely be much more evident in certain sectors first and foremost. The hospitality, service, and food industries are currently taking a huge hit and the unemployment numbers are staggering. Within a month, the last decade of job gains has been wiped out.  These are not necessarily sectors where NIH trainees tend to land; however, a compressed job market tends to have a ripple effect making this very stressful for any job searcher.  If you have been actively job searching,…

The last few weeks have tested even the calmest among us. If you find that stress and anxiety are impacting you in ways you are unable to handle on your own, we encourage you to seek help from a doctor or a counselor. It is always a good idea to take stock of your stress levels and mitigate as much as possible.  Here are some other ideas and resources to keep in mind: The OITE is continuing to offer a mix of career and wellness events daily. Check out our “Upcoming Events” to see what will be online soon. If you missed the discussion on “Strategies and Tools for Dealing…

Post written by guest blogger Ana Martins Ribeiro, Special Programs Coordinator in OITE. How to Help Individuals and Communities Heal So much has been said about how the Coronavirus pandemic is threatening our mental health and how the anxiety, panic and fear we are experiencing are affecting our focus, productivity and wellbeing. If we were to look inside people’s physiology now, we would probably see a staggeringly different profile in hormone levels, brain activation and overall homeostasis. Our efforts towards understanding the present crisis and how it’s is affecting our lives may often keep us present focused, leading to difficulty remembering that this major event may affect us in the…