When you're in the throes of an interview for a new job, it's natural to focus on selling yourself and your skills. However, it's equally important to ensure that the company aligns with your professional goals and overall happiness. After all, you'll be dedicating a significant portion of your time to this job, so it's vital to ascertain if it's the right fit for you. To aid in this decision-making process, we've compiled a list of seven crucial questions to ask about a potential new job.

1. What are your expectations for this role? 

You’ve been offered an interview with a lab or an organization. As you prepare for the interview, remember to consider cultural fit in your evaluation.  

Waiting for news about our future, whether that be about grad or med school, a new job, or a health diagnosis, can be hard to tolerate. With it often comes feelings of anxiety, fear of the unknown, or worry about potential news we’re not hoping for. These feelings are often intense and highly uncomfortable so we can find ourselves coping with them by distracting, numbing, avoiding, or constantly checking our devices for any new information that may have come in the last few minutes. This can sometimes feel like a new-found anxiety.

Mentoring is essential for the next generation of scientists. It can also be exhausting when you are managing largen mentoring responsibilities on top of your everyday work.  The Harvard Business Review offers five strategies to help you manage mentorship efficiently and sustainably throughout your career. These are summarized below, but the full article can be read here: How to Mentor More People and Not Get Burned Out. 

1. Team-Based Mentorship:

An interesting research paper from the NIH sheds some light on new year’s resolutions.

We are entering the season of New Year’s Resolutions and goal setting.  A commonly used framework for goal setting is to make your goals SMART. It is an approach we have encouraged through the years as it reminds you to make goals that are specific, measurable, action-oriented & achievable, realistic & time-oriented. 

Burnout often presents with three tell-tale symptoms. 1. Emotional exhaustion – you might have moments where you feel temporarily re-energized but then it is quickly swallowed up by an overall feeling of exhaustion. 2. Cynicism or feeling disengaged from your work – a feeling that none of what you do really matters anyway. 3. Self-doubt – burnout can also present by feeling like you are not qualified or good enough to perform the tasks of your job.

Post written by: Anne Kirchgessner, OITE Career Counselor

Recently, the OITE career counselors read an article by Leigh Branham about Questions People Need to Ask about Career Growth as posted within the National Career Development Association. 

Post written by guest blogger Emily Grugan; OITE Program Assistant

A professional profile or qualifications summary can be a great introductory section for your resume, especially if you have over five years of experience and/or are making a career change. This can be your chance to highlight key qualifications, skills, and experiences as a snapshot for hiring managers.

This paragraph should consist of concise statements and strong action verbs to give a big picture overview of your accomplishments as they relate to the position you are targeting.