Are you nervous not to find a job? Does the insecurity nearly kill you? Are you sending out hundreds of applications without success? Stop wasting your time and change your approach. Intelligent job search and application costs time and effort but has a much higher chance of success.
Choosing the right place for a position as a PhD student, postdoc, or professor is always a critical career decision. Spontaneous advice from colleagues mostly tends towards big universities. However, there are good arguments for choosing small universities.
You see these big science stars who publish in Nature and Science. They have huge grants, a massive machinery of high-class technology, and a big team of highly ambitious postdocs and PhD students who hope to publish in Nature or Science. However, you are not like that. How do you handle feelings of inferiority when you compare yourself to these science stars? And how do you become better anyway?
Making a career in science is the result of careful planning, making many complex decisions, luck, and regular course corrections over a longer period (I presume 5 to 10 years on average). To find your dream job in science, you have to invest quite a lot of thinking and work. Finf here eight tips will bring you much closer to your dream job in science.
Interestingly, most young and often more mature researchers can not easily define what “a successful career in science” means. This question is highly relevant – for example, when looking for a new position, joining a scientific community, or hiring staff members. What is your idea of a successful career in science?
When discussing success in science, there is a vast number of success parameters that are mostly incompatible with each other. I have listed below – in random order – several success indicators in science that may help characterize a person, a group, or an institution as “successful in science.”
There are many science job websites where scientists can upload their CVs to find a job. Thus, should you create and upload several professional CVs on these job websites?
Probably not!
Young scientists often get the advice that they *must* work abroad for several years to pursue a career in science. However, is this really true? There are multiple arguments for and against this often-heard advice.
Many young scientists fear that they are not investing enough in their scientific career, however, it is often not clear what exactly they should do and how important different aspects are such as publications, grants, teaching, mobility, technical skills and just being a good scientist. Find some directions here.
Everybody will tell you that going to a famous university is essential for a successful career in science. Important arguments are the network you build (for example, via alum associations), the excellent infrastructure, and the great scientists you might connect with. However, is it real – or is it a myth?