Taking Control of Your Scientific Career: Building Towards Independence and Beyond

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Taking Control of Your Scientific
CareerBuilding Towards Independence and Beyond
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Acknowledge Multiple Career Options

• Federal Science Policy
• Technical Services
• Quality Control
• Investor Relationships
• Secondary School Teaching
• Community College Teaching
• Corporate Communications
• Regulatory Affairs
• Entrepreneurship

• Biotechnology
• Pharmaceutical research
• Science Journalism
• Technical Writing
• Research Administration
• Technology Transfer
• Patent Law
• Investment Analysis
• Management Consulting

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Scientific Super Heroesare needed to solve
Depression
Poverty

• Avian Flu

Alzheimer's disease
Cancer
HIV
Obesity epidemic
Global Warming
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Scientific Super Heroes

• Great Science

• Great Career

To empower your scientific career, consider the
qualities that comprise both great science and a
great career
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• Qualities of Great Science

• Impact
• Pioneering
• Insightful
• Creative
• Opens new directions for future studies
• Intellectually satisfying

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• Qualities of a Great Career

• Challenging
• Impact
• Builds upon experience
• Flexible
• Source of enjoyment
• Dynamic

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So how might a fledgling scientific Super Hero
combineGreat Science with a Great Career?
Idealistic, impractical.
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Job Description of a Scientific Super Hero

• Wanted
• A highly motivated, self-directed, high
  integrity individual passionate about biomedical
  research.
• This individual requires very little sleep,
  is willing to work long hours to complete complex
  experiments, and is willing to accept limited pay
  while in training.
• Willing to work with others to achieve
• research objectives (teamwork essential) and
• communicate results in both written and
• oral forms.
• Can climb tall buildings in a single leap.

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Why Academia?

• Passion for education
• Passion for independent research (achieving an
  intellectual depth within a field)
• Desire for flexibility
• Commitment to furthering knowledge
• Desire to do something new/different (charting
  your own course)
• Perverse desire to get told you are not good
  enough (by reviewers, advisors, committee
  members) on a regular basis

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HOW Academia? Start with a Plan A (but always be
willing to change it)- switch to Plan B!

• Graduate Student/PDF
• (Highly motivated but clueless!)
• What interests you the most?
• What do you want out of your career?
• Where do you want to be?
• -What kind of institution do you want to work in?
• What kind of job do you want to have
• (how much ambition?)

When do I start? NOW!
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Planning Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Highly motivated

• Passionate
• with a feeling for the work
• -willing to drive the work at the expense of
  other things
• -willing to stretch your intellect

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Planning Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Independent

• - Accepts responsibility and ownership
• Understands one cant do everything
• - comfort in the drivers seat
• The Buck stops here!

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Planning Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Focused

• - Intense and self-directed
• Capable of prioritizing
• Can get inside the heart of a problem

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Planning Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Honest and Fair

• - High standards of professional integrity
• can take/give criticism constructively
• Can take the higher ground

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Planning Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Determined

-Not willing to accept current limitations -Willin
g to persevere to reach goals -demand excellence
of yourself and others -VERY strong backbone and
VERY thick-skinned
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Nothing in this world can take the place of
persistence. Talent will not nothing is more
common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not unrewarded genius is almost a
proverb. Education will not the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and determination
alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has
solved and always will solve the problems of the
human race Calvin Coolidge
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Empowering Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Collaborative

-Values team work -Works well with
others -Willing (Happy!) to share credit
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Empowering Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Effective Communicator

-Communicates the results of research in a
scholarly and professional manner -Equally good
at writing and talking -can be concise and simple
in communication (KISS principle)
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Empowering Your Scientific Career

• Characteristic
• Calculated Risk Taker

- Willing to try to leap tall buildings with the
correct equipment and rehearsals -Willing to
listen to advice! -Willing to seize opportunities
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Do you Have the Right Stuff?

• Highly motivated
• Independent
• Focused
• Honest and Fair
• Determined (stubborn! Persistent!)
• Collaborative
• Effective Communicator
• Calculated risk taker
• Capable of learning by your mistakes!
• Can take brutal criticism
• GREAT sense of humour!

If not, academic Science will be hard for you
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With great powers, comes great responsibility

• Spiderman (and others)

Responsibility to yourself, your family and your
scientific community to plan your journey
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So youve just received a phone call from Donald
Trump
Youve been hired to produce a new TV series..
The Apprentice New PI! (Reality Television meets
Scientific Career Survival)
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As the producer, what new knowledge and
expertisewould be helpful to ensure a
successful transitionfrom trainee to
independent investigator?
The Apprentice New PI!
What skills are needed for a career in
science and what challenges might help provide
experience
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1 Networking

• Issue
• It is important to develop a wide range of
  individuals to assist you with finding resources,
  information and serve as trusted colleagues

• Challenge
• Create a plan for
• You/your team to network
• with senior colleagues
• and peers
• (local committees, conferences, professional
  societies, the web)

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Networking to Create a Personal Support Team
Main Mentor (supervisor?)
Cheer Leader
Me (ntee)
Experts
Political Strategist
Role Models
Learning partners
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2 Mentoring

• Issue
• Good mentoring can be the single difference
  between success and failure

• Challenge
• Identify and develop a plan for you to be
  mentored in your institution and outside of your
  current institution

• How do I find a Mentor?
• - Institutional programs
• professional society programs
• Your friends/colleagues

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Mentors
Mentors can be the key to your career success
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Mentors

• A mentor can
• Provide you with
• seasoned advice (career/science decisions)
• Keep you on track
• Provide you with
• confidence (emotional support)
• Assist you with
• networking (career opportunities)

-BUT THEY CANT GIVE YOU ESSENTIAL SOCIAL OR
INTELLECTUAL SKILLS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE
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NAS embraced Concept of Mentors
Advisers people with career experience willing
to share their knowledge Supporters people who
give emotional and moral encouragement and teach
you emotional intelligence Tutors people who
teach, and give specific feedback on ones
performance Masters trainers of apprentices -
setting the bar for problem solving Sponsors
sources of info and aid about development
opportunities Models setting the bar for
identity, of the kind of person one would like to
be as an academic scientist
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Mentoring and Mental Health
There are some very special challenges for
certain students/PDFs and some student/PDF
adviser pairings. We all need to note, keep an
eye on others, and take some responsibility here!
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You Gotta Know How to Write Good!
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3 Peer-reviewed Publications

• Issue
• Research is not complete until published in a
  peer-reviewed journal. High quality papers help
  to establish one as an expert in a scientific
  field

• Challenge
• Find papers you really like, and papers you
  really, really dont.
• - learn what makes a good paper flow
• - learn the process to publish high impact
• - high/low impact - what is the difference?
• - are you willing to take the risk to aim high?

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4 Peer-reviewed Grants

• Challenge
• You/your team will develop a hypothesis and a
  series of specific aims for a pilot research
  award proposal
• How do you formulate a research question?
• How do you articulate your research problem?
  
• How do you approach a literature review?
• How do you use your literature review to build
  the structure of your argument?

• Issue
• Research can not be performed without money.
  Money relies on successful peer review. Selling
  your story is critical! Grant writing is
  cathartic, inspiring and painful
• (BUT NOT AS PAINFUL AS WHAT COMES NEXT!)

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What Youve got coming!
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Strategy Attend workshops to learn about grant
writing
http//www.med.ubc.ca/research/grant_administratio
n_development/Research_Grant_Mentorship.htm
- Hit the web (lots of sites to help templates,
advice from agencies) - Closely examine grant
applications from successful grantees - Have
experienced grantees (reviewers) critique your
application - Be willing to change yourself, your
projects, your career.
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UnderstandSome of the people reviewing your
grants will be complete Idiots!!!
I dont understand why the applicant is
proposing a new proteomic approach to identify
novel secreted factors that stimulate this extent
of regeneration, when they could simply assay
all the known trophic factors
This proposal could generate data that would
provide a breakthrough in the field. Then again,
the data could be uninterpretable
The approaches are innovative and build on
previous expertise this lab has applied to other
questions this is both a strength and a
weakness.
This grant is clearly written, highly innovative
and has the potential to have a high impact on
the field of CNS regeneration, if I only believed
the cells they are working with are actually
olfactory ensheathing cells
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1999Dr. Roskams seems to be the Don Quixote of
science
Impractical, idealistic
2006Dr. Roskams is an outstanding investigator
recognized internationally for her work in the
developing nervous system, especially her studies
of the cellular interactions that regulate the
cell dynamics so critical for producing and
maintaining a functional olfactory epithelium.
She has a passion for this area of research
necessary to drive the conceptual innovation and
ground-breaking approaches exemplified in this
proposal. Only a few other investigators around
the world are studying in-depth aspects of the
same questions posed here and none match the
qualifications of Dr. Roskams for pursuing these
questions.
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5 Manage Resources

• Challenge
• You/Your team must manage a budget of 200,000
  and complete a research project, including hiring
  and training of laboratory personnel in a 3-year
  time frame

• Issue
• Execution of research projects requires planning
  for human resources (people hiring and
  management), time management (juggling,
  prioritizing) and fiscal responsibility
  (book-keeping)

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6 Team Work

• Issue
• Collaboration and teams of investigators from
  multiple disciplines is required for many
  advances in biomedical research

• Challenge
• The contacts you make now you will carry with
  you. Talk to others in your lab/adjacent labs to
  learn new areas or techniques.
• - (Conferences!).
• - The interface between disciplines is the future
  of scientific research

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Strategy Identify resources to help you learn
how to manage a research project www.hhmi.org/
Labmanagement - At the Helm (CSHL) - CIHR New
PI Workshops
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7 Leadership

• Issue
• Leading a research program requires vision and
  skills to engage others in your passion for
  biomedical research

• Challenge
• Take a leadership position in your home
  institution to improve communication of
  scientific research or collaboration in your
  community
• (how comfortable are you doing this?)

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LEADERSHIP My team is in place how do I
maintain my perfect little lab world?
Get OUT THERE! You are the role model and
motivator -assess individual needs and adjust
your supervision accordingly This is YOUR LAB
You must provide a philosophical and practical
framework for the lab to grow into. Decide what
type of lab culture you want (format for lab
notebooks? Flexible hours? Music?) Communicatio
n is key have group meetings, no matter how
painful. Demonstrate by example that honesty,
integrity, courtesy and professionalism are part
of your lab philosophy Learn from watching how
do other successful scientists manage their
labs, their lives, negotiate jobs, the
tenure-and-promotion process? ASK THEM!!!! Be a
good colleague cultivate scientific
collaborations and relationships (networking
again!)
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8 Other Career Options

• Issue
• Multiple career options are available for
  todays biomedical investigator

• Challenge
• -Try other careers on for size (mentally)
• - Research what each entails (network! Use your
  mentors!)
• - Make a list of what you do or dont want in the
  future. What best fits?
• - Work on planning your career moves to achieve
  that, whilst keeping options open

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Strategy Encourage career exploration to
prepare for the future
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9 Professional Development

• Issue
• Career success requires many professional skills
  that are beyond the bench and/or bedside
  techniques

• Challenge
• Your must develop a list of interpersonal skills
  required for success (see earlier!) and find how
  to receive training to improve your confidence
  with these skills
• (choice of graduate/PDF lab, Dept of your first
  position)

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10 Personal Development

• Challenge
• - prioritize what you want the most and when
• work with your partner to plan careers ahead
• Children? When? Where? How?
• Balance (hobbies!) in the face of single-minded
  career dedication (single being the operative
  term)

• Issue
• Life success requires dedication, sacrifice,
  compromise and planning ahead (and a partner
  willing to understand your career demands and
  work with you)

IF you want to excel, you cant have it all!
(Sorry! The Rolling Stones were right..)
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The Apprentice The Next PI

• 1 Networking
• 2 Mentoring
• 3 Writing (Grants and papers)
• 4 Research Ideas
• 5 Manage Resources
• 6 Team Work/collaboration
• 7 Career Options
• 8 Professional Development
• 9 Leadership
• 10 Personal Development

The same characteristics that make you successful
in business make you successful in science!
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So, I have what it takes! Now what do I do?
ASSOCIATE YOURSELF WITH GREATNESS!

• - Find the SMARTEST people to work for in the
  BEST institutions (do your background research)
• Find the NICEST people to work for (do your
  background Research)
• Find the labs asking the questions that
  fascinate you the most AND develop your skill-set
  (be AMBITIOUS)
• - Find people who are ambitious (track record)
• - Find people who are good mentors (track record)
• Find people who are well-funded
• Find people who are good collaborators (opens up
  your network and expertise)
• Find someone you get along with!!

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What if I mess up (bad experience)?

• - Talk to mentors to help plan an exit strategy
• - Rely on your network to discuss it
• - WORK HARD at what you are doing (youre going
  to need letters of ref from someone!)
• Many people do gt 1 PDF
• What happened wont shape your future, but how
  you handle it, and how productive you become
  afterwards, definitely will
• Try to maintain your sense of self
• Consider whether you contributed to the
  situation (learn from it!)

There are always graceful ways out (without
giving up)
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What if I dont Have What it Takes?

• Assess strengths, weaknesses and choose alternate
  path - there are many valuable ones (listed
  earlier)!
• Choose to operate at a less intense level in
  Science
• Choose to work within a team that values you and
  allows you room to grow
• Choose to step back and reassess what you really
  DO want (is it your ideal or someone elses?)
• Dont throw away your experience - your journey
  is unique and others have much to learn from you
• Network! BUG YOUR MENTORS! NETWORK!

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A Special Challenge Women Scientists

• At some point, you will be discriminated against
  (jobs, grants, speaking at conferences).
  Sometimes it is not obvious,sometimes it is by
  other women, but it is always there. MEN Take
  Note!
• At some point, you will realize you are not in
  the old boys club, but the young girls club is
  WAY better dressed!
• ALWAYS, there will be extra demands on your time
  (tokens on committees, female students looking
  for guidance, not to mention children....) CHOOSE
  WISELY!
• At some point you will decide either to quit or
  do something about making it better. I recommend
  the latter! We have so much to offer science, and
  we deserve it!

The good news is, we are superb multi-taskers,
intuitive, collaborative, and usually
non-threatening to alpha males (who usually like
to collaborate with us)
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Balancing Career and Family

• An understanding partner makes all the
  difference in your success
• There is no ideal time for pregnancy if you
  are a woman. If you want to have children in your
  life, just do it and youll prioritize and figure
  out how to balance and achieve. If you wait for
  an ideal time, youll lose out.
• If you are a man, you still have to work with
  your partner to achieve your own balance (not
  produce a single parent with spouse)
• Find a work environment (as a grad student, PDF,
  Jr faculty) that is supportive of your home
  demands and will still support your career
• Find an Institution that has official policies on
  tenure clock stoppage, parental leave, great
  daycare, sympathetic leadership
• (Good News CANADA/UBC is a far better place to
  be for these issues)

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Applying for Positions

• What do you want out of your career
  (teaching/research)?
• Where do you want to be (geographically)?(public
  schools? Lifestyle? Money?)
• -What kind of institution do you want to work in
  (UBC? Saskatoon? Harvard?)
• What kind of job do you want to have (PI, Res
  Assoc, Teaching?)
• How much ambition do you have?
• -What is your timeline? How flexible is this?
  When will you pull the plug?

• -Get Your CV Together
• Formulate your Research Plan (discuss with your
  advisor)
• -Line up your letters of reference (carefully)
• Use your network/mentors to find out whos
  recruiting
• Scan every hiring website and apply for jobs that
  are even close (dont limit yourself)
• Accept interviews (even if they are in
  less-than-favored locations) practice makes
  perfect

What is your Plan B?
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What We Look for in Job Searches
Publications At least two first authorships in
high impact journals (Cell Press, Nature group)
as PDF (16 authors dont count!) (Has this person
learned how to aim high and achieve it?) Grants
Evidence of Independent funding and
awards (competitiveness, track record, ability to
attract external funds -gt will be around for a
while and not be a liability) Letters VERY
Important. Address all characteristics covered
earlier (Does this person have what it takes?
Team player? Would I trust them? Would I want
them to be my colleague/collaborator?) Research
Plan What I plan on researching for the next
5-10 yrs (Can they articulate their research plan
or did their previous advisor write their
fellowship? Do their future interests compliment
ours? Are they thinking outside the box? Are they
doing the same thing as their advisor/previous
graduates of that lab? Can we learn from them?
What will/can they teach?)
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What if I get a Job Offer?
NEGOTIATIABLE ISSUES -Salary -Teaching
duties/timing -Space -Start-Up -Core support
(Admin?) -Core support (equipment) -Moving
costs -Housing allowances
What is Fair? -What do you reasonably
need? (network/mentors will help) -Approach Sr
colleagues and ask! -Talk with recent hires and
ask! -Dont believe everything youre told by
chairs or Deans! - Dont ask for more than you
reasonably need to get going!
Then, make friends in your new world as fast as
you can!!!
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We Work in a Whole New World
Your role in charting your training/career is
HUGE!

• What characteristics we need to be Superhero
  Scientists
• How we acquire those characteristics/training
  that arent innate
• How to use our self-learning to decide the best
  career path
• How to network and find people (mentors) to help
  train us
• How we decide to find our way to do Good science
  Vs. GREAT Science
• How to plan ahead and set reasonable expectations
  (ourselves and others)
• How to try to find balance (Career SuccessLife
  Success Happiness)
• Academic Science is now a Social Endeavour -
  teamwork is essential
• How to deal with disappointment (assemble your
  support network)
• How to MOVE ON, be a Mentor and help the next
  generation do all of this!!

IT TAKES A VILLAGE!
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Get Help Everywhere You Can!!
HHMIpublications(http//www.hhmi.org/resources/sc
ientists.html) including Making the Right Moves
CSHL Manuals At the Helm (for you!), At the
Bench (for new lab people)
National Academy of Sciences publications
(http//lab.nap.edu/) including Adviser,
Teacher, Role Model, Friend On Being a Mentor to
Students in Science and Engineering Careers in
Science and EngineeringA Student Planning Guide
to Grad School and Beyond On Being a
ScientistResponsible Conduct in Research, Second
Edition Beyond Bias and Barriers Fulfilling the
Potential of Women in Academic Science and
Engineering
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I DID!
People Who Shared Slides with Me Brenda Andrews,
Gabrielle Boullianne (U of T), Joan Lakoski (VP
Academic, U. Pitt), CSHL Press.
People Who believe(d) in Me My support Network -
FAMILY (Phil Hieter) and kids (Breeshey and
Dylan) Science FRIENDS - Margarete Heck (Univ of
Edinburgh), Marie Filbin (NYU), Mary Lucero (U.
Utah), Freda Miller (Univ of Toronto), Maria
Klawe (ex-UBC, now Harvey Mudd President), Lynn
Raymond (UBC), Diane Snow (U. Kentucky), Linda
Barlow (U. Colorado)
People Who have Inspired (Mentored) Me Mary
Bunge (Miami), Michael Smith (formerly UBC), Rick
Huganir and David Linden (JHU), David Danner
(NIH), Shirley Tighlman (Princeton), Wolf
Tetzlaff, Vanessa Auld, Linda Matsuuchi, Tim
OConnor, Phil Hieter, Bill Milsom (UBC), Jerry
Silver (Case Western), Charlie Greer (Yale),
Indira Samarakasera (formerly UBC)
People Who Collaborate(d) with Me Don Nicholson
(Merck), Wolf Tetzlaff, Os Steward (UC Irvine),
Mark Tuszynski (UCSD), Marie Filbin, Gord Fishell
(NYU), Jane Johnson (U. Texas), Nat Heintz and
Todd Anthony (Rockefeller),Mary Lucero (Utah),
Frank Margolis (U. Maryland), etc..
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People Who Put Up with Me!
(and also inspire me)