In any career transition, it’s important to keep in mind the work-life balance that you will (or won’t) have with your potential employer. In addition to your home life, work-life balance is associated with stress levels and the quality of the relationship that you have with your boss. While some work-life factors are self-determined and can be changed during the quest for it, many are directly influenced by workplace culture and policies.

An NPA Gender Summit session titled ‘Skills, Strategies, and Lessons on Postdoc Career Advancement’ was led by HERC Training and Development Director, Jessica Wise, and featured three speakers. The goals of the session, were for each attendee to think strategically about their spheres of influence and plan what their careers are going to look like, at the individual, community, and institutional levels.

Mentoring relationships are particularly important for job transitions. While it’s true that advisors may also provide some of these functions, according to Dr. Beronda Montgomery, the key difference between an advisor and a mentor is the specificity of the advice for you.

Dear Research Mentor, I’m writing to you on behalf of your trainees (postdocs and graduate students) who aren’t interested in a “traditional” academic career; whether they know it yet or not.

To better understand the consensus of graduate education reforms and move forward in redefining the academic ecosystem, this blog will summarize findings of the two reports, note their strengths, and identify next steps to adapt the future of graduate education in microbiology.

Here is a suggested framework that divides professional development in higher education into three broad areas of focus: the basics of professionalism, improving current weaknesses, and planning for the future.