What can you actually do with a Biology PhD? The traditional path is to go on to a post-doctoral position for a few years, eventually landing an assistant professorship and working your way up to a tenured position at a university. However, competition for these jobs is very fierce. Many PhDs are pursuing “alternative” career paths. In a recent news article, the journal Science covered an NIH report that found 43% of PhDs are working in academic research or teaching, 6% are in government research, 18% are in industrial research, 18% are in science related, non-research careers, 13% are working in a career that is non-science related, and 2% are unemployed (no distinction here between looking for work and being a full-time at-home parent). As you can see, there are many science PhDs who no longer work in academia. Let’s take a closer look at what Biology PhDs are doing, and what it will take to get you the perfect job.
Note: I must say that I don’t have a lot of actual “knowhow” in this area. I have been doing some job searching, but still feel that there is a lot I don't know. However, I can give advice from fellow students that have gone ahead, and from a few other sources. As always, I encourage those who have additional experience and knowledge to comment below.
The “Traditional” Academic Track
This is the most common career option for PhDs but as I said earlier, it is becoming more and more competitive. There are actually a lot of PhDs and not a lot of professors retiring. In order to pursue this track, a PhD will need to do something called a post-doc. This entails another 3-4 years of bench research in a different lab. Post-docs are encouraged to get their own funding and come up with their own project to pursue without a lot of guidance (or any) from a professor. It is not uncommon to need two post-docs in order to be competitive enough for a professorship job. As far as universities are concerned, it’s all about your publication record. If you don’t have a lot of publications, you will need to do more post-docs to get more papers published. (It is possible to jump into an associate/assistant professorship with a few small papers if they are in top-tier journals.) Usually it’s easy to get a post-doc position, and by the time you are ready to graduate your PI probably has a few labs in mind, and you should have met and talked with some PIs at meetings that you would like to work for. Post-docs do basically the same work as PhD students. The pay is slightly better, but you will not be making too much more than your stipend got you as a Phd student. I think that post-docs at UMass make around $40,000, but that can vary depending on fellowships and grants. Once you've completed one (or more) stints as a post-doc, you can begin to apply for a faculty position.
How tough is it to get an academic position? Our department has been looking for new professors recently, and I was able to ask them about their job search. Our favorite candidate had applied to 80 positions, and that was actually on the low end. He got 5 interviews. One of his fellow post-doc friends had applied to over 100 openings. That’s a serious amount of cover-letter writing, my friends. Also, there are many applicants for each opening, making competition stiff. You need top quality research to nail down an academic job.
If you get an academic position, you will start as an assistant professor. After a few years your work will be reviewed by a panel of professors and the dean, and if you are doing well you will be promoted to associate professor. The same holds true a few years down the line when you are up for tenure (usually 6-10 years after being hired). If you get tenure, awesome! Your future is secure. If not, you will have to leave the university. No pressure.
Professors rarely do any bench work. Their main task is running the lab, which means they spend a lot of time writing grants, writing papers, managing their employees, mentoring their students, attending meetings, reading papers to keep up with the field, and presenting the work of the lab. It’s a very different world from graduate school and requires a different skill set. Early in their careers professors must work very hard, but once they are past tenure they begin to slow down - a lot. My professor did not have tenure when I first started in the lab, and it was not uncommon for him to walk into the lab at 7:30 pm looking for a student. Now he has tenure, and he usually arrives around 10 am and leaves between 4-5 pm. However, I have never seen him work at the bench. He is a successful PI because he is a successful manager, not because he is a successful bench worker. These are two very different things!
But I don’t actually want to be a Professor anymore …
Most of us entered graduate school thinking that research would be our ideal life for years and years. After we have seen what actually goes on in academia, many students are jaded and begin to look for different career paths. And happily, there are plenty of other careers out there for PhDs! However, tenured professors tend to look down upon these types of career moves, and it’s not commonly talked about or mentioned that there are careers outside of academia. In fact, some argue that students searching for careers outside of academia are considered “soft,” “demotivated,” and “cop-outs.” Don’t let that type of sentiment discourage you from seeking out the right job for you.
I will now reference a seminar given at my school by Peter S. Fiske this past October. Fiske is the author of the books “To Boldly Go: A practical career guide for scientists” and “Put Your Science to WORK: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists and Engineers.” In this seminar Fiske gave a list of transferrable skills and personal qualities that many PhDs possess that are the most valuable skills in the workplace. The list is found in his book “Put Your Science to WORK!” (AGU, 2000).They are:
Transferrable Skills
- Ability to function in a variety of environments and roles
- Teaching skills: conceptualizing, explaining
- Counselling, interview skills
- Public speaking experience
- Ability to support a position or viewpoint with argumentation and logic
- Ability to conceive and design complex studies and projects
- Ability to implement and manage all phases of complex research projects and to follow them through to completion
- Knowledge of the scientific method to organize and test ideas
- Ability to organize and analyze data, to understand statistics and to generalize from data
- Ability to combine, integrate information from disparate sources
- Ability to evaluate critically
- Ability to investigate, using many different research methods
- Ability to problem solve
- Ability to work with the committee process
- Ability to do advocacy work
- Ability to acknowledge many differing views of reality
- Ability to suspend judgement, to work with ambiguity
- Ability to make the best use of informed hunches
Personal Qualities
- Intelligence, ability to learn quickly
- Ability to make good decisions quickly
- Analytical, inquiring, logical-mindedness
- Ability to work well under pressure and willingness to work hard
- Competitiveness, enjoyment of challenge
- Ability to apply oneself to a variety of tasks simultaneously
- Thorough, organized and efficient
- Good time management skills
- Resourceful, determined and persistent
- Imaginative, creative
- Cooperative and helpful
- Objective and flexible
- Good listening skills
- Sensitive to different perspectives
- Ability to make other people feel interesting
When you look at it this way, us PhDs actually have a lot of useful talents besides our technical skills, which we tend to overvalue. The main thing you need to communicate to a future employer is not that you know how to run a Western, but that you've acquired the large and impressive skill set listed above.
Career and Professional Development
No matter what career you want to pursue, there are key areas that you need to develop.
Presentation skills: develop the ability to give a clear, dynamic research talk. Be able to design and present a quality poster.
Teaching skills: be able to identify and teach to different learning styles, know how to prepare and teach a lesson, lead a discussion section, or lead an entire course.
Designing and creating figures: As early as possible, obtain Adobe Illustrator and familiarize yourself with it. There are good articles that exist about figure layout, color schemes, proper data presentation, etc.
Project management: practice setting goals, time management skills, and work-life balance.
Networking: this will help you get a job!
People management: Do some self-assessment to figure out your working/personality style - Meyers-Briggs type tests. Learn how to work as part of a research team (your lab). Try to get some mentoring experience. Learn how to effectively communicate with your own mentor(s).
Professional skills: Try to learn things about business, hiring/managing people, and starting up a new lab.
Scientific writing: You’ll get a lot of practice in this area. Learn how to write a paper, write a proposal, correspond with editors and reviewers, and the ins and outs of peer review. Try to develop a strong, clear writing style (which may be very different from your PI’s style).
Where and When to Start
You should begin thinking about your career in your 3rd year of graduate school. (Even better, take this step BEFORE you begin graduate school!) Although this seems early, some careers require specific experience that you will need to seek out while you are still in grad school. By the time you’re ready to graduate, it will be too late. Don’t procrastinate!
Begin your career search by going to this website: http://myidp.sciencecareers.org/ This is a very complete resource for students to search the type of career that fits with their expectations and values. You will be asked to fill out three assessments: skills, interests, and values. Once complete, the site will match your answers with possible careers. I was matched with over 60 career paths in 20 career categories. The site will give each career path a score. For example, the highest career path in my list is science education for non-scientists.The second career path is tied for science writing and science policy. The last career path listed on my score sheet is principal investigator in a research-intensive institution. After I research my matches, I can compare them to my top values, which for me are earning potential, work/life balance, recognition, expert status, intellectual challenge, and the ability to influence people. Once I choose my top careers, the site provides sections on career exploration, setting goals, and implementing a plan. I recommend everyone interested in a science PhD to use this website - it’s very easy, it’s free, and it’s extremely informative.
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/about. Both of these sites provide articles and blogs about general science jobs. For example, Nature has a section called “Career Toolkit,” which offers CV and resume tips, interview skills, networking advice, salaries, and more. Science offers detailed descriptions of a wide variety of careers. Both sites contain searchable job postings from around the world. If you are interested in a teaching position in academia, I recommend the Chronicle of Higher Education and HigherEdJobs.Com.
Note: I have heard from some professors that sending your completed application to schools you are interested in is also an acceptable way to search for a job. For example, if I am interested in a teaching position at a small, liberal arts school, I can send my application materials and see if there might be a spot for me. I have not yet employed this tactic, but it seems to be something else to try.
Once you’ve narrowed down your focus a bit, do what you can to gain knowledge about the career(s) you want to pursue. One way to gain insight into a particular career path is to do informational interviews. Informational interviews give you the opportunity to quiz professionals about their job, how they got there, what they love/hate about their work, hours, salary, expectations, etc. This is a great second step toward deciding on a career. Usually people like to talk about themselves, so sending an e-mail to a few different folks in the area near you should get you at least one informational interview. Prepare a list of questions to ask before you meet. Think of any concerns you may have about the job, or any tips you want to get from the interview process.
At this point, a job search in science is basically the same as a job search in any field. You prepare your resume or CV, send it out to plenty of openings, get interviews, negotiate, and finally get a job. There are many sites out there with great advice on these topics, and I will not address them here.
