As: Absence may delay your home credits from being awarded, thus slowing program completion and graduation.  If these, and/or financial adjustments, are immaterial to you, by all means experience someplace new.

GS1 Career Opportunities, similar to Twitter/#PhDLife 

As: Jot down and taxonomize questions that others ask in group meetings and talks.   Ask your advisor and university learning center for tips and practice sessions.  Consult Anatomy of a Research Report.

As: Just as musicians often perform songs from the past, a gold mine of scientific inspiration is research literature of 1-2 generations ago, when pioneers in your field identified then-insoluble, now-soluble questions.  Today’s open questions are also reviewed in talks and literature; always have a notebook at hand for active listening and reading.   Chat with vendors at conferences.  Their livelihood depends on knowing the field’s current and future directions, and on building solution technologies.

As:  Some advisors send students to meetings in their stead; compliment and direct questions to students or postdocs during their own talks; alert them to fellowships, jobs, and prizes; and make calls on their behalf in addition to writing strong letters of recommendation.   Many other PIs take a “sink or swim on your own” policy.  Check with group postdocs to find out where your PI sits on this continuum.

As: Write, write, write, write, write.  Meet with your advisor to plan out possible publications a year in advance.  ARR will help you to become speedy and competent in producing research reports.

As: Yes indeed.  Networking is fundamentally what conferences are about.  Information transfer is most efficient via print, not in person.  In contrast, forming an opinion of, knowledge of, or an acquaintance with colleagues is best achieved directly, face to face.

As: If your goal is an independent career, it’s beneficial, on the whole, to launch it as soon as you can, at a workplace that will enable and encourage it.  If students there are knowledgeable, well trained, and imaginative; and if resources suffice, you will be fortunate.   Regrettably these three contributors to success do not always or automatically coexist, necessitating a weighed choice.

As:  As a postdoc, your attention will be directed to learning novel techniques and technologies, writing an article or two, drafting job proposals, applying/interviewing for positions, and equipping/staffing your future lab, to name a few concerns.  If, amid these, you are also able to prove yourself as the head of a small group, more power to you. This funding is typically limited to one, possibly two, students, making the group small and more or less manageable.

As: You cannot count on a straightforward answer to such an inquiry.  As you can imagine, some behind the scenes issues, such as fierce arguments, aren’t generally aired with candidates.  Still, you have a right to the question and some form of answer.  For best likelihood of honesty, we suggest asking at a point of relative informality such as dinner, the close of the interview day, or at a final group interview if there is one.

As: Anatomy of a Research Report is a sentence-by-sentence checklist for scientific communication, both written and verbal.  It articulates the purpose of each sentence of a research report, providing not only examples from various disciplines but specific vocabulary to use or avoid.   When new persons start a project in your group, use ARR to guide an introduction to their project and to point out what lies ahead.  Later on, group members preparing presentations or papers may use ARR to check and correct these before they reach your own desk.  This represents a considerable savings in time and effort for you.

As: Student recruitment days usually proceed on Science Slam-like lines. Prospects gather at a specific place, day, and time, and, In brief sessions ranging from 10-20 minutes depending on the number of presenters involved, receive accounts of departmental research. Again as in Science Slams, the most successful presentations tell a rousing, even suspenseful story that incorporates clear scientific and social purpose, state of the art graphics and animations, and manipulable or take home props. Visibly show excitement and keenness about your research program.

As: Two job markets exist in parallel: the visible one that manifests on career sites and job boards, and a shadow counterpart that head hunts within relationship webs. Unsurprisingly, the most prized positions usually surface among the latter. To access the shadow market, the postdoc, and/or you on her behalf, must know colleagues at many universities very well, and vice versa.