This document discusses the variety of career paths available after obtaining a PhD in science. It begins by noting that most PhD students do not become professors, and then profiles several individuals with science PhDs working in diverse fields like science writing, education, publishing, nonprofit work, and industry. The document emphasizes that career paths are not fixed and individuals can change direction or combine roles. It encourages exploring opportunities like blogs, teaching, or volunteering to expand skills and networks for diverse post-PhD careers. The overall message is that many options exist beyond the traditional academic research path.

1. You're all different:
Creating your own
career
Eva Amsen
@easternblot
Naturejobs Career Expo
19 September 2013
PhotobyJamesCridlandhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/18378655@N00/613445810/

2. After a science PhD
...but who are
these people?
FromtheRoyalSocietyreport“TheScientificCentury”

3. Some people with science
PhDs
They're
everywhere!

4. Post-PhD careers
Even though all professors have been PhD students, most
PhD students will not become professors.
Where do they end up?
Science writing, industry, patent law, medicine, teaching,
media and arts, startup companies, museums, humanities,
academic publishing, consulting, policy etc.

5. Eva Amsen

PhD in Biochemistry

Freelance writing (started
during PhD, via blogs)

Community Manager for the
Node, a site for developmental
biologists (Development)

Outreach Director for
F1000Research, a new journal
that does open, post-
publication peer review.

6. THE PUBLICATION PROCESS
•F1000Research articles are published online after an in-house pre-refereeing
check, on average, within 6 working days.
•Peer review and revisions are carried out publicly.
•Articles with sufficient positive referee reports are indexed in PubMed.

7. Combining degree and other things
For some jobs, the things you do on the side matter as well.
– Teaching
– Blogging
– Volunteer work
– Student societies
– Public engagement activities

8. Nicole Husain

PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology

Let's Talk Science - Coordinator
of Partnership Program (during
PhD)

Director of Operations at
Spongelab Interactive
(educational games)

9. Christine Buske

PhD in Behavioural
Neuroscience

Freelance writing and
consulting (during PhD)

“Papers Genius”

Marketing Manager for
Papers

10. Joe Hanson

PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology

It's Okay To Be Smart - Tumblr
blog (during PhD)

Internship at Wired

YouTube channel with PBS
Digital Studios.

11. Social media and careers
“I think [having a blog] gave me a unique
edge over other candidates.”
- Pete Etchells, lecturer in biological
psychology and Guardian blogger
“Among other reasons, the project
leaders chose me as editor because I
have a blog where I wrote about bad
health news.”
- Marcus Anhauser, science journalist and
editor of Medien-Doktor.de

12. Science on Twitter
#njce13

13. So, do I need to do all that?
Only join Twitter or start a blog if you want to or think it's
useful for you.
Likewise, for many jobs you don't need to do a postdoc,
unless you think it's useful for you.
People who say that you need to do X for your career,
often did X themselves.

14. Petra de Kruijf

PhD Molecular Pharmacology

Biochemical Project Leader at
Sanquin
– Blood transfusion
medicine and
immunology research
company.
– Work: e.g. Writing
research protocols as
well as process
validation protocols and
reports; Determine
product impact.

15. Erika Cule

PhD Statistical Genetics (after
degrees in Biochemistry and
Bioinformatics)

Principal Statistician at GSK
– Advise lab-based
scientists on statistics.
– Perform analysis and
explain results to
scientists.
– Provide support for
experimental methods.

16. PhD skills
PhD is experience, not just means to an end.
It's not always about the degree.

17. Lou Woodley

PhD in Gene Expression and
Microbiology (not finished)

Co-founder and Managing
Editor of BlueSci (during PhD)

Graduate intern at Nature
Publishing Group

Communities Specialist at
Nature Publishing Group

18. Bora Zivkovic

PhD in Animal Behaviour (not
finished)

Science blogger

Online community manager at
PLOS

Blog Editor and Community
Manager at Scientific American

19. It's okay to change your mind

20. Alasdair Allan

PhD Astrophysics

Academia:
– Programmer
– Lecturer
– Senior Research Fellow

Independent/freelance:
– Consulting, writing, editing,
startup CTO
“You don't have to settle for doing one thing at a time.”

21. Cameron Neylon

PhD Chemistry

Lecturer

Senior Scientist for the Science and
Technology Facilities Council

Open Access advocate

Advocacy Director at PLOS

22. Ben Lillie

PhD in Physics

Postdoc

Contributing Editor TED

Co-founder and Director of Story
Collider

23. Kara Cerveny

Science teacher

PhD in Cell Biology and
Biochemistry

Postdoc

Scientific Editor at Cell

Assistant Professor of Biology at
Reed College

24. You can't control everything
PhotobyJasonVarneyforTheScientist,
2006

25. Douglas Prasher
PhD in Biochemistry
Cloned the gene for GFP
Didn't get tenure, left academia
Laid off from industry job in 2006
due to funding cuts
Found job as shuttle bus driver for
a car company
Did not receive the 2008 Nobel
Prize for the discovery of GFP
Now works as research scientist
for Roger Tsien (who did win the
Nobel Prize for GFP)
Full story:
http://bit.ly/PrasherArticle
Discover Magazine, 2011

26. Jenny Rohn

PhD in Microbiology

Postdoc → Lab disbanded

Industry → Company went
bankrupt

Wrote a novel...

Career in publishing

Now back in academia, in a
series of short contracts http://bit.ly/JennyRohnCareer

27. There is no fixed path
PhotobyJimmyGuanohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spaghetti-Junction-Crop.jpg

28. Ethan Perlstein

PhD in Molecular and Cellular
Biology

Postdoc at Broad Institute

Fellow at Princeton

Crowdfunded a research
project

Independent scientist

29. Anne Osterrieder

PhD in Plant Cell Biology

Postdoc

Plant Cell Biology blog

Research and Science
Communication Fellow at
Oxford Brookes University

30. Your future job might not exist yet!
Our current jobs didn't exist when we started our PhDs!

31. Varsha Khodiyar

PhD in Molecular Biology

Human gene nomenclature
advisor

Cardiovascular Gene
Ontology Annotator

Lecturer in Bioinformatics and
Gene Ontology

Editorial biocurator at
F1000Research (Curation
and maintenance of data
included with articles)

32. FromtheRoyalSocietyreport“TheScientificCentury”
It’s more
complicated!

33. ACTUAL
PEOPLE

34. Personal science career stories
In progress:
Online collection of personal
science career stories

36. “At a conference the most important things happen in the
coffee break. (…) The most important things happen in
interstitial spaces, they happen in between, and they
happen when we least expect it.”
-Hans Ulrich Obrist (art curator)
http://edge.org/conversation/a-rule-of-the-game

37. Thanks & Contact info
Thanks to
Nicole Husain, Christine Buske, Joe Hanson, Pete Etchells, Marcus
Anhauser, Petra de Kruijf, Erika Cule, Lou Woodley, Bora Zivkovic,
Alasdair Allan, Cameron Neylon, Ben Lillie, Kara Cerveny, Jenny
Rohn, Ethan Perlstein, Anne Osterrieder and Varsha Khodiyar
for their input.
Most of them are on Twitter! Find them here:
http://bit.ly/njce13list
eva.amsen@gmail.com
Twitter: @easternblot