It is that time of year when many of you are preparing to apply to doctoral programs in the sciences.  You may be asking yourself:

• Where do I apply?
• What strategies will I use to decide between programs?
• What are the best programs for me?

Here are several suggestions to simplify the process provided by Dr. Bill Higgins, Pre-Professional Consultant in NIH’s Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE).

Define Your Research Interests Defining your research interests is the first step in identifying Ph.D. graduate programs.  Your definition may be relatively broad or quite narrow, but you should spend time thinking about the types of research questions that interest you.  If your interests are broad, e.g., metabolic regulation, neural networks, gene expression in cancerous cells, etc., you may gravitate toward more diverse umbrella programs that include investigators in many loosely related disciplines.   Frequently such programs offer laboratory rotations during the first year to help you discover a focus for the dissertation research.   A narrower, more focused interest often leads an applicant to specific laboratories or a small group of laboratories.  Many applicants have more than one area of interest and thus apply to graduate programs that reflect these different interests.  Remember that the dissertation topic is just the first of many research projects in the career of a successful investigator.  Few P.I.s pursue the same research thread for their entire research career.   Proper training prepares a Ph.D. to approach questions in any area of the discipline.

Find the PhD Programs in Your Chosen Field of Study For those of you seeking programs in the United States, there are rankings posted in the US News and World Report annually.   For some PhD programs, however, the graduate school rankings may not apply to the part/sub-discipline of the program you are interested in.  In this case, Dr. Higgins recommended networking with researchers and attending meetings to discover these programs.

Identify and Interview NIH Researchers Find NIH investigators conducting research in the area of your interest.  You can conduct an informational interviews and ask them for names of respected and productive colleagues at other institutions.  Start a list of such people and of their institutions and programs.  Always look at the References Cited sections of these investigators’ recent publications for the names and locations of other investigators in the field.  Add these to your list!

Attend Professional Meeting Gatherings The investigators in your field are usually attend the same national scientific meetings every year.  Identify these organizations, find the on-line site, and then peruse the Abstracts from the recent conferences and write down the investigator’s names.  They also attend NIH Scientific Interest Group (SIG) programs.  Also, these are excellent places to identify prospective dissertation mentors, e.g., contact them at meetings you may attend, use NIH PI’s to help establish contact, emails after you apply to call attention to your application, etc. Now that you have a list of productive people and their programs and what academic institutions and departments where they work, you are ready to explore the relevant web sites and narrow down your list.

To keep track of your information, we suggest that you create a spreadsheet with key dates and information for each university using the following column headings, PhD Program, School, Entrance Exams, Where to Apply (school or on-line application service), Personal Statements, number of references needed, Application Deadlines, and any other criteria you choose.  This strategy will also enable you to make additions and corrections as well as track your application process.

Feel free to visit the OITE Career Services Center and schedule an appointment to meet with pre-professional advisors, wellness, and career counselors who can further support you during this process.  Click the following link for general information about how to apply to graduate programs and visit the OITE Calendar of Events page for related programs. We also encourage you to view the additional resources on our webpage that include the Career Services Blog, Alumni Network, and OITE Video-casts.

OITE services are available to NIH intramural trainees only. Check with your home university or college and utilize the personal, career, and professional school advising resources they offer to you.  

Behavior based interviewing is an effective tool used by many science industry recruiters and graduate/professional school admissions officers.   They differ from technical or scientific interviews because they are designed to give a glimpse into how you will perform in the future on “soft skills” by having you reflect and talk aloud about behaviors that you have done in the past. The answers that you provide will inform the interviewer about your potential for succeeding in their organization or school based on your experience in such areas as being an effective team player, ethical and professional, and using your critical thinking , leadership, communication, and problem solving skills.

Often interspersed with scientific interview questions, behavioral interview inquiries will usually start with, “Tell me about a time when...,” or “Give me an example of a time when….”  The best responses to require you to specifically describe actions and behaviors that you used in the past s and then describe the outcomes from this approach.   The SAR technique is an excellent formula to use to create the best answer. Memorize the following acronym and then recall it when you are answering questions.

S              Situation – the background to the problem that you are going to discuss

A             The actions (behaviors) that you took to address the situation from this role

R             The results of your actions

The more thoroughly you describe your behaviors the better the interviewer is able to visualize you fitting into their organization.   You can use examples from the lab, graduate or undergraduate school, internships, work, community, and leadership roles.  Industry and academic examples are welcome.  Here are a few behavioral interview questions for you to try:

• Tell about a time when you had to make a difficult decision at work.
• Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.
• Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.
• Give an example of a time when you had to arrive at a compromise with members of your team.
• Describe a situation in which you had to adjust to changes over which you had no control.
• Give an example of how you set goals and achieve them.
• Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.
• What do you do if you disagree with your boss?
• What do you do if you disagree with your co-worker?
• How you would you deal with a co-worker who wasn’t doing his or her share of the work.

Your interviewer may ask additional clarifying questions such as:

• What were you thinking at that point?
• Tell me more about what you specifically did at that time?
• Lead me through your decision-making process.

Although awkward, go ahead and answer their questions because they are attempting to understand the full spectrum of specific behaviors that you used in the situation.

To prepare for the behavioral interviews, identify several examples of past experiences in which you utilized the soft skills mentioned earlier.  Select examples where you accomplished something, overcame an obstacle, or something did not go as planned.  

Feel free to choose academic experiences and non-academic experiences.  Next, practice answering the questions using the SAR technique.

For more practice, visit the OITE website  make an appointment for a mock interview with a career counselor to receive constructive feedback on your answers to behavioral interview questions.  We encourage you to visit our interviewing blogs or skills workshops.

OITE services are available to NIH intramural trainees only. Check with your home university or college and utilize the personal, career, and professional school advising resources they offer to you.

For many NIH PhDs and post-docs in the sciences, the formula that you learned to use to find a successful academic career has been straight -forward:

 Graduate Degrees + Research +Publications + Academic Job Talks + Academic       Achievements (BS through PhD) = Successful Careers 

You may not know that after the Post-Doc, there are some additional skills that can be added to the job search equation.  Here they are:

Eight Skills Developed During Scientific Training that are Useful for the Job Search

Persistence        ability to persevere towards a career goal without immediate results

Analysis               ability to research careers, create job-search criteria, and evaluate fit

Networking        ability to identify a professional network and to ask for career advice at

professional conferences and from alumni from your department

Web Savvy         ability to use web-sites and social media to research and apply for

jobs

Teamwork &      ability to lead and collaborate with diverse multi-disciplinary groups    Leadership         of scientists, PIs,  Post Docs, MDs, and other professionals.

Science                 ability to talk about your expert scientific skills and knowledge

acquired from your thesis and post doc research anf publications

People Skills       ability to establish rapport with employers orally and in writing

The Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE) offers many programs, services, and resources to help you your plan for and succeed in a competitive academic and industry job market

1. Review the services available and useful handouts through OITE at: https://www.training.nih.gov/career_services/postdoctoral_fellows
2. Watch  OITE Videocasts about job search and career options in academia, industry and beyond at: https://www.training.nih.gov/oite_videocasts
3. Register for career and job search workshops at: https://www.training.nih.gov/events/upcoming
4. Attend the 10th Annual NIH Career Symposium on May 11, 2017 where invited NIH PhDs and Post Doc alumni scientists will discuss their pathways into specific career sectors including academia, business, industry, government, non-profit, writing and communication.  Register at  https://www.training.nih.gov/events/view/_2/1920/10th_Annual_NIH_Career_Symposium
5. Review the OITE job postings
6. Check out these additional OITE On-line resources

Feel free to schedule an individual appointment with a career counselor to talk about your specific career and job search, plan, discover your interests, values, and skills, or have a mock interviews.