As a biomedical graduate student or postdoctoral fellow, it’s easy to focus on your courses and your research. However, it’s also very important to spend time preparing for life after graduate school and your postdoctoral fellowship. We encourage you to intentionally protect time in your schedule to focus on your own career and professional development.
Annually, the Office of Research & Graduate Education in the UW School of Medicine hosts numerous seminars, workshops, and trainings to prepare you for a future career. These are advertised via the School of Medicine Events listserv, and when possible, recordings will be curated and shared on our website.
Below, you will find a curated list of resources to guide career pursuit (either inside or outside the academy), as well as a number of skills and techniques (e.g., informational interviewing, networking, mentoring, transferable skills, etc.) you’ll master as you prepare for interviews, and ultimately, as you advance as a professional scientist. We invite you to review these resources asynchronously and enact the ones that work best for you.
As a biomedical trainee, we know you are more than the success of your individual experiments. We hope you’ll utilize these resources to compliment your research training and successfully launch your career.
Career Exploration - Academic Careers
- UW Career & Internship Center
- Academic Career Readiness Assessment, UC San Francisco
- Faculty Job Search Prep Camp, Penn Career Center YouTube Series
- Science Careers
- Nature Careers
- Carpe Careers, Inside HigherEd
- Job Postings: Chronicle of Higher Education
- HigherEd Jobs
Non-Academic Careers
- UW Career & Internship Center
- Making Informed Decisions Program, UC San Francisco
- PhD Paths, Ashley, Stanford
- 12 Careers for PhD Life Scientists Outside of the Lab, BioSpace
- 15 Non-Academic PhD Jobs Worth Exploring, Listening
- Helping graduate students find alternative careers, UW Branching Points
- Top 8 skills for success in a biomedical science career, Northeastern University
- Transferable Skills, UW Graduate School
- PhD Pathways, Stanford University
Informational Interviewing
- UW Career & Internship Center
- A powerful career exploration tool for PhDs, University of Maryland
- Best Practices, University of Chicago
- UC Berkeley Career Engagement
- Yale Office of Career Strategy
- The importance of good eye contact during an interview – and how to nail it, The Muse
Networking
- Vault Guide to Networking, UW Career & Internship Center
- Networking tips for PhD students, PhD Academy
- Networking guide for PhDs who have no idea where to start ( … or how to start), Cheeky Scientist
- Harnessing the power of communities: career networking strategies for bioscience PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, FEMS Microbiology Letters
Career Consultants
- From PhD to Life, Jennifer Polk (See Alt-Ac university jobs)
- Fulcrum Point Career Solutions, Michael Matrone
- EduKatedSTEM, Kate Patterson (YouTube channel)
- STEM Career Services, Josh Henkin
- iBiology videos
- Larry McGrath
- The Recovering Academic, Joshua Dolezal
- Biotech Career coach, Ali Divan
- Alma.me coaching program
Individual Development Plan
- Planning your Path, UW Graduate School
- Creating an IDP: Making the most of your graduate & professional experience, UW School of Medicine
- myIDP, Science Careers
- ImaginePhD, Humanities and Social Sciences
- C.H.A.O.S., MIT
- Identify your strengths, UW Career & Internship Center
- Your IDP and Planning Meetings, Stanford University
- Reframing the IDP, Inside HigherEd
Mentoring
- Mentor Guidances, UW Graduate School
- Managing Up, UW Graduate School
- Getting the mentoring you need, Inside HigherEd
- Mentor Map, National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
- Compact between biomedical graduate students and their research advisors, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
- Compact between postdoctoral appointees and their mentors, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
- The ideal PhD mentor – a student’s perspective, Science
- MyMentor, National Research Mentor Network
- Mentoring in an era of uncertainty for Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed
- Holistic Mentorship, American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Today
- Maximizing mentoring relationships, WhenScienceSpeaks podcast
Writing Productivity
- Scholarly publishing & Open Access, UW Libraries
- Writing & Productivity, National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
- Tips for Improving your writing productivity, Medium
- The best practices for writing productivity, UCI Writing Center
- Dissertation/thesis accountability groups & writing buddies, Syracuse University
Grant Writing
- MyResearch Project Lifecycle, UW Office of Research
- The NIH Grants Process, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Preparing your proposal, National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Overview on grant writing for graduate student research, Current Protocols
- Introduction to Grant Writing, Purdue University
- Scientific Grant Writing: the complete pocket guide, University of Georgia
- Grant writing program for clinicians & junior faculty, UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS)
- Grant writing tips, UW Alacrity Center
- Sample applications & more, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
- Statistical Consulting for grant proposals, data visualization, and more, UW Department of Statistics and Biostatistics
Skill Building
- Teaching@UW, UW Center for Teaching & Learning
- Finding and Developing your teaching experience, UW Graduate School
- Science Teaching Experience Program for Upcoming PhDs, STEP-UP
- Dynamic public speaking specialization, UW Communications
- The STAR method of Interviewing, UW Career & Internship Center
- Web presence, LinkedIn
- Examples of strong scientific communication, XOXO
- 6 AI skills every entry-level worker should have, The Muse
- How to cope, Scientific American
- Getting beyond small talk, American Psychological Association
- The ART of Professionalism, Inside HigherEd
- Practical science communication strategies for graduate students, Conservation Biology
- Cultivating a sense of belonging for graduate students, Inside HigherEd
Getting Support
- PhD Toolkit, IThinkWell
- Graduate School Funding, UW Libraries
- UW Career & Internship Center
- UW Office of Graduate Student Success
- Center for International Relations & Cultural Leadership (CIRCLE)
- Work-life Balance, UW Graduate School
- Family & Child Support, UW WorkLife
- Time Management, UW Graduate School
- Engaging with your professional organization, Inside HigherEd
- 10 reasons you should join a professional organization in graduate school, Abound: Graduate School
Bill Mahoney, PhD serves as the Associate Dean for Research Education & Training in the Office of Research and Graduate Education (RGE) and an an Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, where he serves as the Director of the Molecular Medicine & Mechanisms of Disease (M3D) PhD Program.