The young investigators' science blog
Achieving a PhD is great. But which career will we want to pursue afterwards? Many of us may ask questions like this – mostly with the conclusion that there are a lot of opportunities. However, do we truly know plenty enough about the requirements, different daily routines and career perspectives to make such an important and extensive decision? While some of us decide to continue … Continue reading Get involved – “juFORUM goes job”!
Is this job a perfect match? Our author, Klara, studied Molecular Biomedicine at different Universities across Germany. After her PhD at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Bonn she went for an internship in the Inhouse Consulting Department of a major pharmaceutical company. To explore other strategy consulting opportunities she joined an external consultancy firm. Here, our former colleague explains how she ended up in … Continue reading Consulting – Curious minds with business sense wanted
It’s a widespread cliché that scientists wear glasses, coats, and beards (sorry, Ladies!) and like to spend their whole time in darkened laboratories. Even though this species of scientists might still exist, the modern example of researchers is more extroverted than ever – thanks to Twitter, Facebook and Co. The internet – and social media in particular – might not be the source of all … Continue reading Let’s talk about… science communication!
“Studying biology should be considered a hobby”, that is what a speaker humorously mentioned at a job talk hosted by the Bonner Forum Biomedicine last year. The speaker, who had a PhD in biology and successfully worked in industry for two decades, did not intend to say that studying biology is easy, but she pointed out that there are simply too many students for too … Continue reading Pride and Prejudice – or: How to deal with the employment office
As the wine and the cheese were getting low, and the candles were burning down I was learning more and more about my friend’s (who wished to remain anonymous) half-year-long experience as a consultant in a company specializing in business consultancy in the health care field. Her job is to collect information (internet search, phone calls, field visits etc.) about a given health care topic. … Continue reading How a snail became a lion – Interview about PhD and industry experience
This week we got the exclusive chance to interview Dr. Catherine Drescher, Cluster Manager of the ImmunoSensation Cluster. Catherine studied Molecular Biomedicine in Bonn and did her PhD at the Institute of Experimental Immunology. There, she worked on immune tolerance in the kidney and cross-priming of cytotoxic T cells. After one year as a postdoc, Catherine switched into Science Management and became Manager in the … Continue reading Science Management – Be involved in decisions to shape future science
We had recently started talking to people who are scientists by training and successfully launched their careers after finishing their studies. Here, we mostly got our hands on fellow scientists who managed to gain foothold in industry, which is why it was about time to recall that the rocky road of academia might also be an alluring prospect. When hunting for potential new interview partners, … Continue reading Science and the City
To give insight into different career paths the BFB (Bonner Forum für Biomedizin organizes dinners with different guests from industry as well as academia. This time we met Prof. Dr Hanno Wild who works as a Senior Vice President for Bayer in a nice Italian restaurant. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Bayer is well known to be a huge employer operating in crop science, animal health as … Continue reading BFB Dinner: Working in industry, what to look for when choosing your future company, and the current situation on the crop market
Choosing to study biology is a decision made out of passion. Unfortunately, considering the job market today, passion sounds pretty romantic. As Master’s or PhD students we work really hard to set up experiments and to get our work done whilst constantly trying to improve ourselves and become the scientists that we have always wanted to be. Whenever people ask what I am doing, they … Continue reading When the road gets rough… – From studying to applying to finally finding a job that suits you
Well, probably we will be… brilliant but crazy (just kidding) scientists. At least that is what the statistics show. But we also have a good chance of exploring other options. According to Paula Stephan from Harvard, 48% of the proud PhD title holders stay in academia, 23% go to industry, 9% work for the government, 11% do something else (?), and 10 % do not … Continue reading What will we do after our PhD?!?