career development

Exploring Career Options for PhD Students: Planning for Success

Posted on by Lindsey Drake

Earning a PhD opens doors to a wide range of career opportunities across academia, industry, government, and beyond. While many students begin their PhD programs with specific career goals, research shows that career interests often evolve during their training (Brown et al., 2023). Therefore, exploring career options and remaining flexible to opportunities is important. By embracing career exploration and self-assessment, students can identify their best career options and make informed decisions about their next steps after graduation.

The Many Career Options for PhD Graduates

PhD graduates today find themselves in diverse roles, with opportunities extending beyond traditional academia. Career paths include:

  • Academia: Research-intensive faculty positions, teaching-focused roles, or administrative leadership.
  • Industry: Roles in biotechnology, data science, or consulting, often in research or management positions.
  • Government and Nonprofit Organizations: Research or policy roles in agencies such as the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and others.
  • Additional Careers: Science communication, medical writing, marketing, patent law, or entrepreneurship.

During their training, PhD students develop highly transferable skills—critical thinking, project management, data analysis, communication, and problem-solving—that are highly valued across sectors (Sinche et al., 2017). Recognizing the value of these skills can expand career options for graduates.

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7 Tips for Creating an Individual Development Plan

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

Today’s guest blog is written by Jayme Miller, a Human Resources Generalist at Promega, who has some tips for creating an IDP that will help you achieve your goals. Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are common career development tools used in industry, and there has been a push for PhD programs to incorporate career development tools such as IDPs. By creating an IDP, employees and students both have a formal way to communicate their career goals and help them stay on track.

Employee development, the different paths you can take, arrows pointing

There is one question I am frequently asked by candidates during the interview process—“Is employee development a focus at this organization?” Employees frequently tell me they are looking for employers and opportunities where they will have the ability to learn, grow and develop. While that all sounds great, it is important to have an upfront and transparent discussion about roles, responsibilities and expectations when it comes to employee development.

Many organizations indicate that they have an employee development “program” at their organization, but when they begin talking about their program, they describe their performance management process. Often, they will describe how employees are evaluated and provided feedback from their manager. Feedback is a key component for employee development, but it is up to the employee to use that feedback to create action items that will give them the opportunity to learn and grow.  

Often employees believe that employee development is something provided by companies to employees, that it is something that employers make happen for employees. Good organizations will offer continuous learning opportunities and a feedback culture that allows employees to learn and grow. However, no employee development program will work for an employee who is not fully engaged in their own development and does not take ownership over the process. It is ultimately the employee’s responsibility to ensure they are actively taking the steps to develop within their role and within their organization.  

Continue reading “7 Tips for Creating an Individual Development Plan”

A Quick Guide To Finding That Next Step After A Post-Doc

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva

On February 13, 2020, a group of post-docs from the University of Wisconsin – Madison had the opportunity to spend a day at the Promega headquarters in Fitchburg, WI. Throughout the day, the group heard from a list of speakers including Tom Livelli, VP of Life Sciences, and representatives from Technical Services, Sales, R&D and Marketing. The day concluded with a tour of the Feynman Manufacturing Center, where attendees saw production and packing lines, as well as training and QC labs.

Promega employees and UW Post-Docs having lunch

“It’s always encouraging as a scientist to hear about how each person is different and how they’ve had different twists and turns,” says Alexa Heaton, a post-doc studying immunotherapy interactions in mice. “It’s great to hear from such a range of people and the different job types I could consider.”

To recap the day, we’ve captured a few of the biggest takeaways below.

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Tales from the Trenches: Career Growth in Biotechnology

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

Building a successful career in the biotechnology industry is really just a series of transitions from one role to another. But the devil is in the details—when to make a change, how to create opportunities and who can be your champion as you pivot. So how do you navigate these factors to keep your career goals on course?

Bob Weiland answers a question posed by Michele Smith at the MS Biotech Alumni Symposium.

I recently attended a symposium (presented by the University of Wisconsin Master of Science in Biotechnology Program, of which I’m an alum) that addressed this topic through the lens of one individual with a storied career in the industry. Bob Weiland currently serves on the Board of Directors for CymaBay Therapeutics. He has held various roles, from sales and marketing to operations and strategy, within large, established companies (Abbot, Baxter, Takeda) and smaller ones (Pacira Pharmacueticals). He drew on this wide-ranging experience to provide advice to professionals at all career stages.

Bob began the talk by declaring that there will be points in your career when you reach a “hard spot” and will need to transition, whether to a new role, company or even industry, to meet your career goals. He suggested a good starting point is simply to be thinking about making a change. But in the same breath he emphasized, “What are you doing about it?” He identified four distinct actions that you can take to ensure role changes and career transitions support your professional growth and development.

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Pop Quiz: What Scientific Job is Right for You?

Posted on by Becca McKnight

Word Quiz on yellow backgroundI used to love taking magazine quizzes to learn more about myself. I thought it would be fun to create a quiz to help you find out what scientific career path may be the best fit for you. Be open-minded while taking the quiz and remember that this is just for fun!

1. My greatest strength is:

a)      My artistry
b)      My perseverance
c)      My attention to detail
d)      My problem solving skills
e)      My personality- I get along with everyone

Continue reading “Pop Quiz: What Scientific Job is Right for You?”

Culture Rules- Investigating Company Cultures

Posted on by Becca McKnight

iStock_000025830858SmallWhen searching for a job it’s important to consider the job duties as well as the company and the company’s culture. Two companies have become famous for their cultures—Google and Zappos. Google is known as a company where you work hard in an amazing environment. Oh, and the food is free! Zappos is known as a place where employees are valued, and customer service is the first priority. Here at Promega, science rules, employee well-being is extremely important, and you can make a big impact regardless of your job title.

If you are able to find a company with an appealing culture and similar values to your own, it is a win-win situation. You will likely be happier in your job and therefore a better performer.

Here are some questions that you can ask to learn about the company culture and figure out if it is a fit with your personality and needs. These questions can be asked in an interview or in an informational conversation with someone in your network before you apply for a job. Keep in mind that there is no right answer to these questions. Some people thrive in government jobs while others have more of an entrepreneurial spirit; you need to figure out what type of culture will work best for you. Continue reading “Culture Rules- Investigating Company Cultures”

Compensation 101: What You Need to Know Now

Posted on by Becca McKnight

money in the handsCompensation is a bit of a mystery to most people outside of HR. We go to work to make money and receive benefits, but aren’t always sure how our salaries and benefits packages are decided. In order to understand if we are being paid fairly, negotiate an offer, or counsel a friend on a career change, we need to have some understanding of compensation. Interestingly, in most cases, the more people know about how they are being compensated, the better they feel about their pay and benefits.  I’m going to let you in on some secrets to help demystify compensation. Continue reading “Compensation 101: What You Need to Know Now”