Women in Biology
The Internet Launch Pages

Careers and Planning

Do you know what you want to do when you grow up? Here are some general resources to help you figure out which track you want to pursue. Interior pages will help with specifics for academic and non-academic (inaccurately called "alternative") careers, as well as what you do once you get there.

General information

  • Networking for dummies: No matter what you do, your future depends on relationships with other people.
  • How to do what you love.
  • Phds.Org is continually updated and offers an extensive, ever-expanding collection of relevant links for science PhDs--everything from finding jobs to science funding.
  • Congratulations, Doctor, Now what?: comments on the 1998 Trends in Life science report (see above). Requires free password.
  • Plugging the academic pipeline: making informed decisions about your career path.
  • What's wrong with academe?
  • Report from the ASCB member survey about the time to PhD and career patterns of members, which also suggests a glut of PhDs in biology....
  • ...but that depends on how you look at it. For the positive spin on the Trends... and ASCB reports, see this opinion from The Scientist.
  • This is the syllabus of an interesting class on "survival skills for a research career" from U. Iowa.
  • The end of the academic affair: a woman scientist tries to figure out what to do when the academic offers don't come. "Any remaining hope I had for an academic career is fading. I am geographically limited in my career search and I am unwilling to be a second-class citizen/postdoc for much longer."
  • Out of the lab and into the marketplace, from Nature
  • Why won't she behave?, or, the value of the permanent postdoc.
  • A career planning center from the National Academy
  • Science magazine's Next Wave, an "electronic network for the next generation of scientists". Lots of information here about nuts and bolts of science careers, targeted at, but not limited to, senior grad students and postdocs. Includes sections on finding a job, as well as career transitions out of academe, postdoc and faculty issues and much more. Password required, but free. Updated frequently. recommended.
  • CV posting site from Science. This can be accessed by biotech/pharma companies.
  • Opportunties in Europe for early career women
  • The Scientist's Lifeboat, figuring out what to do. Rather cynical viewpoint.
  • Careers in biology provides links to sites around the internet. Aimed at college students.
  • Opportunities for Women in Biomedical Careers
  • Careers in national laboratories
  • Young Scientists Network Archive. Although aimed more at physical scientists, this is one of the original sites addressing the perceived PhD glut in academic research.
  • Network of Emerging Scientistsprovides a discussion list and a number of other resources.
  • Bioplanet: The bioinformatics home page. Includes career info and job listings for this new discipline.
  • Resources for women in mathematical biology
  • Online career sites run by different universities can be helpful. This list was assembled by The Chronicle.
  • Career strategy columns from ASCB WICB committee cover diverse topics from asking for a raise, to online communities.
  • Career site from U. Arizona has transcripts from career discussions with a huge variety of scientists. Excellent resource. recommended

    Finding a job: links and listings