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Career Guides

Up to Career Guide for Scientists

Online and in print advice on achieving career success in the sciences.

Career Guides: Books
Strategies for Career Success
Essential Skills



Career Development Manual
An award-winning comprehensive career planning guide from the University of Waterloo.
Your Professional Preparation Strategy
Extended excerpt from Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering by Richard M. Reis, Stanford University.
Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty
A very impressive and comprehensive lab management manual put out by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
What They Don't Teach You in Grad School -- Part III
By David E. Drew and Paul Gray. "In this piece, we turn to the career path — tenure, academic ranks,and department chairs."
The Assistant Professor's Guide to the Galaxy
George Beckey's guide to survival and success in academia.
What They Don't Teach You in Graduate School - Part IV
By Paul Gray and David E. Drew. "In our first three lists of tips for an academic career, we covered finishing the dissertation and finding the first job, offered an overview of various academic responsibilities, and described career paths. In our final installment, we turn to life an academic."
Brown University Graduate School Career Services
An excellent site with links and articles for surviving graduate school and for finding a job (both academic and non-academic careers are well-covered). Kudos to Brown for providing career services targeted to graduate students.
Careers in Oceanography, Marine Science & Marine Biology
This career directory links to resources in oceanography, marine science, and marine biology. It is divided into two sections: general guides for oceanography and marine science and guides for marine biology, marine mammals, zoos and aquariums.
Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond
A useful guide for students and junior faculty courtesy of the National Academy of Sciences.
Bio.com Career Discussion Forum
"This forum was designed to help you in your career development. Intended as a medium to explore and exchange information, we hope this forum offers you a resource to get the answers you need. Job search advice from your peers — and from our moderator, a veteran in the life sciences work place."
Tomorrow's Professor Listserv
"Sent biweekly to over 1,200 graduate students, postdocs, and beginning faculty in science and engineering at U.S. and Canadian universities. It is very helpful to those individuals interested in preparing for, finding, and succeeding at academic careers in science and engineering."
Street Savvy Science, Chapter 1: Science IS Different
This article is an introduction to an ongoing, online book, with a lot of interesting material about how science careers work in industry. Written by David G. Jensen, who also writes for the AAAS NextWave.
Street Savvy Science, Chapter 2: Rules Clash and Burn
"Sometimes a rule from the university will clash with one from industry. Consider Michael’s example of Research = Experiments + Publications. Would you land a job at top-tier biotech company if you went to an interview espousing this as a guiding rule for your career? Not likely. In industry it looks like this: Research=Experiments+Products."
Street Savvy Science, Chapter 4: Evidence of Productivity: The Cover Letter
"Many people believe that the cover letter is a throwaway, and that the resume or CV attached is what counts. While it is entirely true that the resume has to be well written and have good content, the cover letter's job is to point to the key selling points, and to make it more specific to that reader. Just like the cover of a magazine."
Scientific Career Transitions
A program funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to help scientists and engineers, post-docs, post-post docs, and pre-docs whose careers are at a crossroads. Distance career counseling and distance assessment are available at affordable fees. Contact: Dr. Stephen Rosen, 212-397-1021.
ScienceCareers.org: Tooling Up
Tooling Up, the ScienceCareers column on career advice.
Careers in Anthropology
Careers advice for anthropologists at every degree level, both in and outside of academia, with links to the web sites of hiring organizations.
Street Savvy Science, Chapter 3: The Single Hottest Job Three Years From Now
"'My career decisions were made based on a solid analysis. Sure, I love both computers and biology, so bioinformatics was a natural for me. But I investigated three different areas that I could have specialized in, as there were many doors open for me at the time,' she said. As I read over her CV, I could see that she had made a diversion a couple of years ago. She had gone back to school for another two years, in order to add a Computer Science degree to her mix. Now, with several degrees under her belt and still without any company experience, she had found that the bioinformatics job market wasn’t as strong as she had been promised."
Ph.D. Career Resources
Re-envisioning the Ph.D., a Pew-funded project dealing with change in doctoral education, has just posted Ph.D. Career Resource pages, a collection of resources that address preparation for a variety of paths. These pages include links to articles, discussion groups, organizations, websites, and other sources devoted to the professional development of doctoral students, both during their graduate studies and beyond.