Tuesday, November 01, 2011

So Many Science Careers!

Another hilarious installment of "Experimental Error" on the Science Careers section. This time, the topic is on the diversity of science careers beyond just academia.

While there's a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor in the article, it is littered with quite a bit of reality. For example:

For example, there was the classic (and, in my experience, largely useless) question about how we each found our current jobs. I could tell that the students really wanted to hear stories about how we noticed a posting on Science Careers or Monster.com, answered an ad, and survived competition with 200 random applicants -- because that’s their own best idea for how to land a position. Instead, each of the panel members talked about how we found our own careers through serendipitous meetings, friends-of-friends, and good old blatant nepotism.
It is why, kids, that I always tried to emphasize on the "intangibles" when you are in school, such as publishing, going to conferences, being social by meeting others in your field (and outside), etc.. etc. Being isolated and a loner in this field simply reduces your chances of landing a job. It is as simple as that.

Zz.

1 comment:

rob said...

i got my two jobs in this way. the first i answered an ad on Monster.com. didn't get any bites. i ran into a friend at a barbecue that knew who posted the add. that monday i got an interview. i have been here over four years now. the other job i have i ran into an old grad school colleague at a book signing. she gave me a job. :)