Careers advice for research scientists

(Knock-knock) Alternative Scientist?
(Knock-knock) Alternative Scientist?
(Knock-knock) Alternative Scientist?

Just in case anyone's still reading, I recently came across some articles and resources that may be of interest:

• from Nature Jobs, an interview with Sarah Blackford, author of "Career Planning for Research Bioscientists" (Wiley-Blackwell) about her own career path;
•  from Science Careers, a new booklet titled "Career Trends: Industry or Academia: Where do I fit in?" (you may need to be logged into the account to access that link);
• fnd from my own blog, a list of resources I've put together for my department's trainees (writing, presentations, outreach, academic and alternative career sites etc) - please feel free to add your own suggestions!

Thanks, and may 2013 bring all of you exciting new challenges, whatever career path you've chosen!

Careers in Clinical Laboratory Science

Received the following in an email today:

When you're looking to move up the career ladder, look to ASCP's Online Career Center. It's the place where you'll find hundreds of jobs with top employers in your field.

Recruiters from top laboratories and hospitals like ARUP, Abbott, Roche, The Johns Hopkins, Beckman Coulter, Spectrum Labs, Cleveland Clinic, and many local facilities are there looking for you.

Start your search for the best job today at: www.ascp.org/careercenter

Cool site for alternative careers: Biocareers.

Check out Biocareers for a wealth of information on an impressive array of alternative science careers.  The job boards are restricted to affiliated universities, but the career articles are free!

Call for posts! Call for ideas and suggestions!

Nearly two years ago (and I can't believe it's been that long!) a blogger named Mad Hatter hatched the idea for this site.  Since then, we've had some great posts on a variety of topics--non-tenure track positions in academia, government positions, marketing, scientific writing and editing.  We've had discussions on career angst, offered support and personal stories, and listed job opportunites and links to resources and news.

But the well is running dry.

Our regular group of contributors has done a great job (if I do say so myself), but we have only so much knowledge and experience.  Posts here have been slanted toward our particular fields, but are light in others. And as for myself, I think I've said pretty much all I have to say on my own foray into an alternative career (at least for now!)

So I would love to hear from new voices.  I'd love to hear about areas we haven't yet delved into.  Personally, I'd love to hear from those who've used their scientific training to find careers in public policy, patent law, technology transfer, regulatory affairs and consulting.  A commenter here recently asked a questions about the field of scientific illustration.  I know nothing about that field. But I would love to learn.

So this post is a call to our readers:  we want to hear from you!  Do you have something to say? If you would like to be a guest poster or contributor, e-mail me at sneakycat@gmail.com.

Perhaps you don't have a full-length blog post in mind, but you have a tip on a new job opening or a link to a really cool science career site (no SPAM, relevant sites only)? Again,  leave a comment or e-mail at sneakycat@gmail.com.

What do you want this website to be? Ideas? Suggestions? What do you want to see here? Leave a comment or e-mail!

We look forward to hearing from you.

Link to a perspective on leaving the bench

I just read this beautiful post on leaving the research bench by Ian Brooks, "Meandering Scholar" at Nature Network.

Go read. He doesn't hide the pain and turmoil he felt in leaving the standard career track, but it seems that he has found his own happy ending.