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Recent Posts
- How do THEY do it all? June 25, 2019
- Book Club – The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist April 29, 2019
- How to welcome a new person to your department March 29, 2019
- I Am Not an Easy Man March 21, 2019
- Navigating lab in a wheelchair March 13, 2019
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Tag Archives: alternative careers
Some more thoughts on networking – my two cents
It’s been five years since I received my PhD and I think I might be starting to enter a new phase in my career. For those of us without the imposed timelines of “K” and “R” awards career staging can … Continue reading
Working Through: Fertility issues in the workplace
My husband and I stopped trying not to get pregnant 6 years ago. About 3 years ago we started trying to get pregnant and just over a year and a half ago I had my first miscarriage. We found out … Continue reading
Posted in biotech, bosses, female scientist, gratitude
Tagged alternative careers, career plan, career trajectory, control, flexibility, happiness, having it all
3 Comments
“Do you need a Ph.D. for that?”
As a recent Ph.D.-graduate-turned-high-school-teacher, I am constantly fielding questions about my transition. These come from my former graduate student friends, my current colleagues and even a few from my students. People seem shockingly interested in why someone would give up … Continue reading
Ideas (About Science Careers) That Should be Retired
I love podcasts! The other day I was listening to Freakonomics, one of my go-to podcasts, and they started talking about “ideas that must die.” The hosts ask scientists what popular scientific ideas should be gotten rid of because they … Continue reading
Posted in academia, alternative career, biotech, industry
Tagged alternative careers, Biotech, career plan, Grad school
1 Comment
Last Day of School.
I am in lab. Today is my last day here. My last day as a postdoc. I inhale deeply. With my eyes closed. I focus on the sounds around me. Two days ago, I started my seventh year in this … Continue reading
Posted in academia, fague, finishing postdoctoral training, insomnia, last day of school, new job, perfectionism, postdoc, twins, uncertainty
Tagged academia, alternative careers, insomnia, last day of school, leaving academia, money, new job, perfectionism, postdoc, transition, twin parenting, uncertainty, wrapping up
4 Comments
My (blank) lab alumni page
The other day, I was looking for the proper citation for a publication from my graduate lab. I’ve been working on a manuscript to be published in an educational journal. In the process, I had to resurrect some information from … Continue reading
Posted in alternative career, Leaving Academia
Tagged alternative careers, career trajectory, high school
4 Comments
“Alternative” has to go
Alternative careers. Everyone calls jobs for PhDs outside of academia “alternative careers.” No one calls careers that undergraduates pursue outside of academia alternative careers. No one calls lawyers who don’t teach at law school alternative. Why is it that PhDs … Continue reading
Why I Left Academia and Chose Biotech
I recently met a young undergrad. who wants to become a professor because she loves research and, “professors have great job security, flexible work schedules and can take summers off if they want to!” It made me totally uncomfortable, probably … Continue reading
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman 