Career Development Seminar

Animal & Poultry Science

OVC, University of Guelph
May 1, 2015

Career Planning for PhDs, Post Docs

and Early Career Scientists
Peggy A. Pritchard, Editor and Author
Success Strategies From Women in STEM: A Portable Mentor, 2nd Ed.
University of Guelph, Canada
ppritcha@uoguelph.ca

Queens University
Department of
Microbiology &
Immunology

Elsevier Academic
Press, 2006
Generously funded
by grants from the
Canadian Institutes
of Health Research

Peggy A. Pritchard
Research Librarian
University of Guelph

Christine S. Grant
Chemical and
Biomolecular
Engineer,
North Carolina State
University
2nd Edition. Elsevier, June 2015

STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

Outline
A. So, what can I do with a PhD in Science?
B. Managing your career in Science
1.
2.
3.
4.

Self awareness
Opportunity awareness
Decide and develop a plan
Implement plan and review periodically

C. Take control of the impact of your work

[if time]

Research

A. What Can I Do with a PhD in Science?

What are some research options?

Research

What if research isnt an option?

Research

now what?

There are MANY alternatives

PhD in
Science

Source: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2010/09/alternative-careers.html

B. Managing Your Career in Science

What is Career Management?

the lifelong process of managing
learning, work, leisure, and transitions
in order to move toward a personally
determined and evolving preferred
future.
National Steering Committee for Career Development
Guidelines and Standards, 2014

http://cccda.org/cccda/index.php/the-career-development-profession/what-is-career-development

Managing Your Career

A Four-Step Process

1.
2.
3.
4.

Develop self awareness

Become aware of opportunities
Decide and develop a plan
Implement plan, review periodically

myIDP.sciencecareers.org

Self Awareness
of scientific knowledge, skills, interests, values
myIDPs Assessment section

Scientific Knowledge
Research Skills
Communication
Professionalism
Management & Leadership
Responsible Conduct of Research
Career Planning

Self Awareness
of scientific knowledge, skills, interests, values
myIDPs Assessment section
Interests relating to
conducting research
analyzing data
thinking/writing about and
presenting science to colleagues
and/or non-specialist audiences
assessing business opportunities,
entrepreneurial ideas

Self Awareness
of scientific knowledge, skills, interests, values
myIDPs Assessment section

Helping others/society
Work environment e.g. pace,
degree of autonomy, competition
Intellectual challenge
Creativity vs predictability
Job security, benefits vs risk taking
Location, work-life balance

Opportunity Awareness
myIDPs Career Exploration section

There are > 60 difference career

paths within 20 different career
categories available to you as a
scientist
myIDP identifies the paths that
are the best fit for your skills,
interests, values

Decide & Develop a Plan

myIDPs Set Goals section

SMART long- and short-term goals for

1. Career advancement
2. Skills development
3. Project completion
i.e. Specific, Measureable, Action-oriented,
Realistic and Time-limited
mapped onto a 12-month planner

Implement Your Plan & Review

myIDPs Implement Plan section

stresses importance of mentoring

offers strategies for identifying
potential mentors & developing
relationships
Note: people can act as ROLE
MODELS without being mentors;
anti role models can teach us
how not to conduct our lives

C. Take Control of the Impact of Your Work

Acknowledgements

Emily S. Darling

K. Jane Burpee
Open Access and
Social Media
Research Librarian
U of Guelph, Canada

David H. Smith
Conservation Research
Fellow, Biology Dept,
U North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, USA
Emily & Jodie: Co-authors of
Ch.8 Strategically Using
Social Media, in Success
Strategies From Women in
STEM: A Portable Mentor

Jodie L. Rummer
Australian Research Council
Super Science Fellow,
ARC Centre of Excellence
for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University

Take Control of the Impact of Your Work

Publish in
quality sources...
avoid predatory
publishers

Distinguish
yourself: ORCid
and researcher
IDs

Understand
Impact Factor &
Alternative
Metrics

Choose
Negotiate your
author rights

Share your work

with the world
through

Open Access
options

Connect,
communicate &
collaborate
through social
media

Educate the
publicenhance
science literacy

Seek crowdsourced funding

Curate your
work in one
place

Track your
citations and
social media
influence

licensing

Keep your
contracts, preand post-prints

Adapted from: J. Burpee, March 2015

Q: What is social media?

vs. traditional media, one-way deliver

Adapted from J. Rummer, Feb. 2015

A: Web-based resources & platforms that expedite

conversations & allow people to generate
content & interactglobally

The stats are here

2014: 2.5 billion internet users (1/3 of world!)
1.8 billion people linked to social media
230 million active user accounts
Daily: 500 million tweets sent = 5,700 tweets per second
1 billion accounts
Daily: 665 million people check Facebook
259 million accounts
2 new people sign up every second

Sharing knowledge faster & further

than ever before
Adapted from J. Rummer, Feb. 2015

Q: So, WHY is it important to have a

positive online presence?
You will be Googled (e.g., by potential employers)

Citation metrics,
altmetric score
of recent article
published in
Nature

Contribute to dissemination of information

Increase potential for collaboration and even
crowd-sourced funding (see: www.KickStarter.com)

Adapted from J. Rummer, Feb. 2015

AltMetrics becoming more important

Connect, Communicate and

Collaborate through Social Media.
Track cutting-edge research in your field
Increase impact of your own research

Boost your visibility as a leader in your field

Learn about awards, grants, and
training opportunities
Identify new career
opportunities
Be seen by potential employers

Career

Adapted from J. Rummer, Feb. 2015

Build/maintain network of collaborators world-wide

Questions?

Peggy A. Pritchard University of Guelph, Canada ppritcha@uoguelph.ca

Success Strategies From Women in STEM: A Portable Mentor, 2nd Ed.

References and Recourses

Chapter 1
Career Management
Chapter 8
Strategically Using
Social Media
Emily S. Darling &
Jodie L. Rummer

Book forthcoming
June 2015

Adapted from J. Rummer, Feb. 2015

Peggy A. Pritchard

Science Careers Booklets

myIDP in
2014 edn

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/tools_tips/outreach/booklets

Science Careers 2014 Handbook

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/CareerHandbook_2014_web_x1a_OPT.
pdf

Bik, H. M., & Goldstein, M. C. An introduction to social media for scientists. PLoS
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Doyle, M. "Social media stats of 2013 (Infographic)." The Website Marketing Group
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Eysenbach, G. Can tweets predict citations? Metrics of social impact based on
Twitter and correlation with traditional metrics of scientific impact. Journal of
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Adapted from J. Rummer, Feb. 2015

References and Resources

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References and Resources

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