More than ever, I feel that the story of my generation of scientists is one of a migration out of academia and into different avenues where those scientific skills can be put to fresh use. It’s an adventure, a leap, a journey, and one that Jess tells better than most. This posting not only contains some great reflections on the jobseeking process for academics striking out into the private sector, but also has some super nuggets of practical advice.
Career
The magic of MedComms: an EMBL Careers Webinar
Medical Communications (MedComms) might just be the best industry career option out there for scientists who most enjoy the writing/communicating/organising parts of the job, and on 22nd November 2024 the EMBL Fellows’ Careers Service hosted a webinar about it. The panel members were:
- Lucija Fleisinger, Medical Writer, Oxford PharmaGenesis, UK
- Laura McMahon, Senior Scientific Director and Team Lead, Envision Pharma Group, Scotland
- Brooke Morriswood, Manager, Scientific Services, Ashfield MedComms GmbH, Germany
Follow the money
I’m less than a year into my new scientific career in the private sector, and the biggest difference with academia is already clear: it’s the money.
But not, as you might think, in terms of salary…
Continue readingOnly in the abstract
I do miss academia, but only in the abstract.
Continue reading2023: TIR’s year in review
MySciMoment – Ko-Fan Chen 陳克帆
Ko-Fan Chen is a lecturer in Neurogenetics at the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester (UK). He also runs a research lab to understand sleep. Here, he describes the moment ( his #MySciMoment) that set him on the path to a research career in academia.
Continue readingShutting up shop (a short guide on how NOT to start a research group)
In January 2023, I resigned from my position at the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Würzburg. Here are some of the things that I think I should have done differently when I moved there in 2015 to start my junior research group.
Continue readingNo regrets (a salute to all my students)
I might be leaving academia, but I’ve no regrets about staying as long as I did.
Continue readingChanging Lanes
So, now it’s public – in January I wrote to my head of department to say I was resigning from all positions I hold at the University of Würzburg – group leader in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, manager of the Germany-wide research focus network on “Physics of Parasitism”, and designated successor as student coordinator for the Faculty of Biology.
I’m leaving academia.
Continue reading
Total Internal Reflection 