Most Popular Resources in "Essential Skills"
» Most popular resources on the site
» Most popular resources in "Essential Skills"
» Return to "Essential Skills"
» Most popular resources in "Essential Skills"
» Return to "Essential Skills"
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The Real Science Crisis: Bleak Prospects for Young Researchers
- Chronicle of Higher Education , September 2007. "[F]or many of today's graduate students, the future could not look much bleaker. They see long periods of training, a shortage of academic jobs, and intense competition for research grants looming ahead of them. 'They get a sense that this is a really frustrating career path,' says Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. So although the operating assumption among many academic leaders is that the nation needs more scientists, some of brightest students in the country are demoralized and bypassing scientific careers."
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After the Offer, Before the Deal: Negotiating A First Academic Job
- By Chris M. Golde, Academe , January-February 1999. " What is a fair salary? Can I ask for moving expenses? When can faculty members negotiate reductions in their teaching loads? These are the kinds of questions graduate faculty often hear from their students who have just been offered academic jobs. Besides training young scholars as teachers and researchers, we also mentor them in their search for jobs. As a result, we're expected to know the answers to such questions. In this article, I offer suggestions to the just-appointed faculty member who seeks to be a savvy participant in negotiating the terms of a first job. "
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How to Succeed in Graduate School: A Guide for Students and Advisors
- by Marie desJardins. " This paper attempts to raise some issues that are important for graduate students to be successful and to get as much out of the process as possible, and for advisors who wish to help their students be successful. The intent is not to provide prescriptive advice -- no formulas for finishing a thesis or twelve-step programs for becoming a better advisor are given -- but to raise awareness on both sides of the advisor-student relationship as to what the expectations are and should be for this relationship, what a graduate student should expect to accomplish, common problems, and where to go if the advisor is not forthcoming. "
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Negotiating: Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?
- ScienceCareers.org "Whether you're a fresh Ph.D. searching for a lab in which to do a postdoc, or you're trying to land a junior faculty position and create your own lab, negotiations are crucial in developing your scientific career. Reaching satisfying compromises with the head of a lab or the department chair requires first-rate communication and social skills. Professional bargaining, for example, could win you promises of more start-up funds, additional space, or extra equipment. At the postdoctoral level, good negotiating may mean you wind up taking away part (or all!) of your project when it's time to leave. But negotiating doesn't start and end at interviews: Interacting with an employer, department chair, or lab director takes place throughout your research career."
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How to write a great research paper
- Great advice from Simon Peyton Jones at Microsoft Research.
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Negotiating Your First Academic Job Offer
- by Margaret L. Newhouse. " Many first-time academic job candidates assume that, once they receive a job offer, their arduous search is over. In fact, no matter how delighted you are with an offer, it is wise to view it as part of the last stage of the process -- the negotiation stage -- even if you ultimately decide not to negotiate anything. This pamphlet offers some general principles and advice on negotiating academic job offers, particularly initial ones. "
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Getting Grants
- "At the present time, US funding is frequently below 10% for a given grant program. Today, more than ever, we need all the help we can get in writing successful grant proposals. We hope you find these rules useful in reaching your research career goals."
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Nine Key Negotiating Points
- "Laurie Weingart, a negotiations expert and behavioral analyst, provides advice on nine issues that should be addressed when negotiating a junior faculty position."
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The Noel Smith-Wenkle Salary Negotiation Method
- "Salary negotiation is something at which hiring managers are usually a lot more proficient than the people they hire. In the interest of leveling the playing field, here is a method for salary negotiation that has worked for me and many others."
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The "Right" Postdoc Mentor
- by Robert J. Dooling. "What should a new trainee look for in identifying a postdoc mentor?"
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Choosing a Thesis Lab
- "A thesis lab is a place that you will spend much of the next several years of your life. The work you do in your thesis lab will influence the work you do in the rest of your career. The recommendation you receive from your thesis advisor will determine what options will be open to you after you receive your degree. Choosing your thesis lab is an important decision, so take it seriously and make it carefully."
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Negotiating Offers for Faculty Positions
- A guide from the UNC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.
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Giving a Job Talk in the Sciences
- " As a doctoral student or postdoc seeking a professorship, your academic job talk may well be the most important presentation you will ever give. An excellent talk can get you the job, while a poor one will almost surely eliminate you from contention. "
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Academic Scientists at Work: Negotiating a Faculty Position
- ScienceCareers.org "Negotiating a job is similar to playing a hand of poker: the stronger your hand - your credentials - the more you can demand. The trick is to know what aspects of the position are negotiable and what the limits are; otherwise, you may find that the offer has folded. This article will discuss the issues at stake in academic science research positions and offer some suggestions on how you could approach your own negotiations so that you get the job you want and the start-up package you need."
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Negotiation Skills for Women in Science
- "Economist Linda Babcock performed a comprehensive study of the starting salaries of students graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with master's degrees (2003). She found that students who had negotiated (most of them men) were able to increase their starting salaries by an average of 7.4% or $4,053 - almost the exact difference she found between men's and women's average starting pay. Through a series of similar experiments, Babcock found that in general, women tend to be less likely to initiate negotiations, more apprehensive about negotiating, and more pessimistic about their own worth."
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How to Write a Grant Application
- courtesy of the National Institutes of Health
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Communication Styles
- by Search Masters International recruiter Dave Jensen. " Your ability to understand the chemistry at work in relationships with your colleagues will allow you to make the slight change of approach that might be necessary for good communication. "
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When hard work doesn't pay: In some high-pressure labs, training is an afterthought
- US News & World Report , March 29, 1999. The report card on graduate doctoral programs in research universities, part of the annual ranking of graduate schools, is less than glowing.
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Choosing The Right Research Adviser
- by Richard Reis. "This month, I want to explore the other side of this research coin -- how to go about finding the right adviser -- an issue that is important not just in the sciences but in the humanities and social sciences as well."
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Oral Presentation Skills
- by Search Masters International Recruiter Dave Jensen. " Speaking before an audience offers a great opportunity to convey your thoughts; to teach, to convince, to enlighten. The skills required here are basically the same regardless of whether you are delivering a research paper to several hundred scientists at a national meeting, or presenting your proposed budget to a small group of senior executives. Oral presentation skills are one of the best " career enhancers " that you can add to your collection of marketable qualities. Because of this, we'd like to offer you a collection of ideas on how to improve your personal presentation style and effectiveness in front of a group. "
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Rules for a perfect math job talk
- by Eugene Lerman at UIUC. Useful advice on how to give a successful job talk at a research university.
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Women and Minorities Negotiating Salaries
- "The objective of this article is to heighten awareness for women and minorities about the effect of starting salary on career earnings and the materials available for assessing your potential employer. The bottom line is that a low starting salary will haunt you throughout your academic career."
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The PhD-Doctor: Planning and Time Management
- ScienceCareers "Writing a dissertation is such a daunting task that many PhD students do not dare to really face up to it and instead keep pushing the work further ahead of them. At the start of your project it seems as if there is an infinite amount of time to get the work done, but after a year and a half most of you will be confronted with a nagging nervousness having discovered that so much still needs to be done in so little time. In this contribution I will provide some tools that will help you to get your dissertation finished in a timely manner."
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How to Get the Mentoring You Want: A Guide for Graduate Students at a Diverse University
- The Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan created this resource in response to numerous discussions with graduate students and faculty in various disciplines at the University of Michigan over a period of two years. It provides advice on establishing mentoring relationships based on mutual understanding and realistic expectations. It also features summaries of the challenges that face historically underrepresented and other student groups, as well as observations and suggestions for the ways faculty and students can address those challenges.
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Proposal Writing: Stages and Strategies with Examples
- Adapted for use from instructional materials prepared by the National Council of University Research Administrators and the Society for Research Administrators.
