Typically, we seek to connect with others for one of four reasons in a professional setting:

Everybody gets a ton of emails these days. When you are job searching and reaching out to people either for networking purposes or to apply for a job, you are really hoping that your email doesn’t get buried in their inbox and never opened. You don’t have a lot of control over how your message is received, but you can control the content of what you write. Strong and specific email subject lines will help to maximize the open rates of your job search and networking emails. Instead of generic subjects like “Introduction”, “Hello”, or “Following Up” try giving more detail.

When you are reaching out for an information interview, you can write:

You have probably heard about applicant tracking systems for resumes and cover letters when applying for jobs online. When applying for jobs online, it is of the utmost importance to use as many keywords from the job description to get through any computer filters. Well, the same holds true for LinkedIn. LinkedIn can be a goldmine for new opportunities. To maximize your number of options it is really important that you add keywords to your profile for the job YOU WANT not the job you have right now. This is especially true for career pivoters who might be changing directions.

How can you do this?

Grace Lordan is a behavioral scientist and the Founding Director of The Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics. She imparted lessons on how to get your career moving forward in a Financial Times article.  Please check out the article to hear more from her perceptive on her own career path in addition to the seven tips noted below.

Calvin Rosser is a writer and startup operator who has an aim to help people lead more fulfilling lives. He tweeted an interesting thread which sheds lights on the many values associated with work and our professional identities. He wrote:

Each job pays your 5 salaries:

A LinkedIn poll found that 90% of professionals don’t accomplish everything they planned for the day. Sounds very accurate, right? The main reason to-do lists aren’t completed is that even though we try to organize and plan, we tend to underestimate how long each task will take. Plus, we don’t factor in all of the things that pop up and on to our to-do list during a workday.

In a Nature Career Column, Kelsey Inouye, describes her career path and her struggles along the way. She completed her PhD at the University of Oxford in November 2020. She committed herself fully to her job search and was doing all of the right things, but still getting dozens of rejections – each one feeling devastating. She notes, “I knew that many PhD holders choose alternative and equally rewarding careers.

Guest Blogger: Ulrike Klenke, PhD: Director, Amgen Scholars Program at NIH, OITE
Part of the “Voices of OITE”

Juggling parental responsibilities while maintaining a scientific career is not an easy thing to do. The pandemic has added many challenges: managing children at home due to school closings or quarantine periods, halts to extracurricular activities, and navigating children's - and our own - emotions around uncertainty and change. At the same time, we are worried about our own careers, the impact of the pandemic on our productivity, and how to keep everything on track.

As students we reach many thresholds: graduating high school, getting into college, getting into graduate school or medical school, completing our postdoctoral fellowship, residence, or internship. Many times, we spend a major portion of our time planning for the next threshold.

Embarking on your graduate career can be exciting. You’re designing your own experiments, directing your own scientific inquiry, uncovering new knowledge. There’s so much to learn! It also comes with a unique set of challenges. There is a lack of structure – there’s no set end time, and the milestones along the way aren’t rigidly defined and often depend on you. You’re expected to work more independently than you have in the past. In addition, you may receive infrequent feedback on your work, and what you do hear is often critical.