Networking in science writing/editing

I’d like to piggyback here on CAE’s excellent, excellent post on networking.
Professional societies in your field of interest can offer invaluable opportunities for networking. If you are interested in scientific writing and editing, there are three organizations you should know about:

National Association of Science Writers (NASW)

American Medical Writers’ Association (AMWA)

Council of Science Editors (CSE)

All three associations offer a wealth of online information. There are listserves or discussion groups that offer the opportunity to virtually network with other writers and editors. There are online job boards, and web space to advertise your own services. Perhaps best of all, there are opportunities for face-to-face networking at national meetings, chapter meetings, and educational workshops.

Unfortunately, I do not belong to any local chapter of any of these associations. These are all U.S. organiations, with chapters near major metropolitan areas. I live in something of a Midwestern backwater, and the nearest chapter of AMWA is a five-hour drive from me. However, if you *do* live near a local chapter, attending local meetings is great way to learn more about these fields and make local contacts. I know one science writer who told me that attending local chapter meetings of NASW brought her invaluable contacts, and mentors who helped her learn the ropes of science journalism.

And as an illustration of how useful networking within these professional societies can be, I am going to reference this post I saw recently in the ScienceCareers discussion forum.

The original comment was posted at http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/tools_resources/forum/view?id=44147. But I am copying the post in full here, because it is just that good (hope that’s okay. Someone let me know if it isn’t)

From a ScienceCareers poster going by the name of “Wes”:

Hello everyone, Just as a little background I've been reading and posting on this forum as a grad student and postdoc for a couple of years now. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do after graduate school, so I decided to take a postdoc at a prestigious University in one of the biotech hotbed areas of the country, in hopes of networking and landing a position outside of academia. I had read many of Dave's posts regarding "networking" and how invaluable this technique could be for meeting individuals outside of academia who may aid in your job search. At first, I was stubborn and didn't may much attention to these comments. So I applied to a bunch of companies online and either never heard back or received the wonderful automated generic response of "Thank you for applying but we have received more qualified applications". After a brief stint of frustration, anger, and even lashing out at someone on this forum who was already in an industry position, I decided it was time to take a more assert approach. Now this was not an easy step, no one I knew from my graduate school days or from my postdoc lab had EVER networked outside of academia, and had either no ambitions to look outside the Ivory Tower or had no idea how to go about it (or they were just too scared to try). The only information I was equipped with to start networking I found on this forum. After reading 'alternative careers for scientists' books and websites, I decided that medical writing appealed to me. I still get to think, read, and write about science without having the pressure of obtaining grants and performing bench work. But, how do I find such a job? After reading on this forum that websites existed for science professionals to network within a specific region, I found such a website for my area. There was an online calender of events, one of which was a talk given by a nobel prize winning molecular biologist which happened to be sponsored by the local AMWA chapter. I signed up to attend the talk and discovered there was an hour long networking session before the talk began. I was alone in a foreign world outside of my comfort zone. I didn't know anyone, but decided to just walk up to someone who looked friendly enough and began talking. Just small talk at first... "How are you? What do you do? Where to do work?" etc. After speaking with a few individuals, the approach became easier and by the end of the session I had 4 business cards and few names. A few days later I contacted the individuals via email and 3 out of 4 responded. I'll skip the details, but after retooling my CV to a resume and listing my transferable skills, I landed a couple of interviews. One interview went very well and I received a verbal offer, but after waiting a few months for the official offer, I was about to give up. Luckily, I was still attending monthly AMWA meetings and met another individual who was very open to talking about my interests in medical writing. So again, I applied directly to the director of her company and received an interview within a week. A few days after the interview I received an offer and I accepted. Now I have a whole new challenge of adjusting to a desk job in an entirely foreign environment, but I feel the first and most difficult step is complete. Basically, I'm writing this to share with those disgruntled postdocs that while the job searching process is not easy, and many bumps in the road will frustrate you even more, perseverance and networking is the key. Don't give up and eventually the combination of luck, timing, and hard work will come together and bless you with a real job. Good luck and happy hunting!

Now isn’t that a story to inspire and warm the heart?

*Note: I think all the professional societies I’ve mentioned have discounted membership fees for students.

*Note: The job board at the CSE website is open access (you don’t need to be a member to see it), and I actually got my second science editing gig by responding to an advertisement on that job site.

If it's Pittsburgh, it must be Wednesday

Well, I guess it's my turn to do the introduction thing. As a preface, let me say that not only is this my first post on this blog, it's also my first post ever, on any blog, anywhere. Yes, I'm a noob. Please educate me on blog-iquette (woohoo! I coined a word!) as necessary.

So, the short life story: I have a Ph.D. in geochemistry, which I earned in 2005 from Cornell University. (My mother was very proud.) Before that, I got a B.S. in geology from the University of Delaware.

About two-thirds of the way through graduate school, I became aware (thanks to a long series of unpleasant events that I won't detail here) that I had, in fact, very little interest in becoming a professor or researcher--at least in geochemistry. (For the record, 2/3 of the way through is a VERY bad time to figure this out. It's far enough in that it's silly to change direction, especially if you have funding; and it's far enough from the end that you have the prospect of a year and a half of not really enjoying what you're doing to comfort you at night. I don't recommend it.) I thought what I actually wanted to do was teach high school. I had become involved in several outreach/teaching activities as a grad student, and they had gotten me into classrooms and in front of kids, and I really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, this was also right around the time that the No Child Left Behind act was starting to bare its teeth, and I didn't think I'd be able to get a teaching job without certification. And getting certification either meant paying for another 2-3 years of graduate school, or committing to teach for 3-4 years in a high-need public school while also working 25 hours a week earning my degree. Neither of these options appealed to me, so I started exploring other options.

As you might imagine, I had a rather hard time exploring those avenues. The university career services center was--to put it politely--less than useful for someone not seeking a job in business, marketing (no offense, CAE), or industrial research. My advisor was, if not negative, definitely not particularly helpful. So I turned to the Internet. (Where else?)

I started looking for jobs with museums, universities, textbook companies, pretty much anything that would let me do pre-college education without state certification. I sent out the requisite million resumes. The only response I got was from an educational content developer. They offered me a job as a science editor, and as I had at that point been looking for a job for a year or so and had had not so much as a nibble from anywhere else, I took the job. Three years later, I am still here.

The company I work for is a vendor. That means that other companies hire us to do work for them. Most of the companies we work for are educational publishers of some kind; almost all focus on the K-12 market. We've done work for the big basal publishers, and also for lots of smaller companies. We do all sorts of products, from text books to teacher guides to lab manuals to high-stakes tests and test prep. Our company works in all disciplines; I work in the science department. The department is currently quite small, so we all pretty much have to do everything; although my degree is in Earth science, last week I was writing life science questions, and this week I'm working on a teacher guide for physics.

If there is one thing I can say about my job, it is that it is never predictable. This is, I think, a function both of the type of company I work for and of the type of work I do. Because we work entirely on contract, we are never really sure how much work we will have in the future; therefore, things tend to swing from feast to famine with alarming rapidity (although, because NCLB's science requirements are now coming into effect, it's been more in the "feast" mode lately). And because I'm one of only a few editors in the department, I'm never really sure what I'm going to be doing next.

I'd say the job has its ups and downs. I'm fairly confident now that, although I enjoy the work, this particular industry is not a great fit for me. I think my first instincts in grad school--that I'd like to work in informal education, such as in a museum--were probably right; I'm currently keeping my eyes and ears open for other job options.

I guess that's about it (you should see the LONG life story...) for my background. Looking forward to your comments...

(And for those of you questioning the title: Yes, I live in Pittsburgh. Yins should visit, n'at.)