Special Interest

Visa Processes for PhDs can be complicated - luckily, contributing author Arunundoy Sur, PhD, can break it down for you. I started applying for jobs early. I was preparing to graduate, and I felt lucky to receive some positive responses right away. In a very short period of time, I…

Isaiah Hankel, PhD, discusses the global reaction to the coronavirus and how it demonstrates that industry needs PhDs more than ever. The need for scientists is rising, and it’s rising fast. With the recent outbreak of the “coronavirus,” media have reported all kinds of information, not all of it true…

Contributing Author: Joydeep Pal, PhD I kissed academia goodbye, and I didn’t look back. In a sense, this was my very first move as an entrepreneur. I ventured into the unknown world of industry, where results--not theory--are king. But I didn’t jump straight into my role as a CEO. I…

Contributing Author: Isaiah Hankel, Ph.D. I shoved my way into the single-person bathroom. Then I locked the door and shed a solitary tear. It was the first time my graduate advisor had yelled at me - in front of the entire lab, no less! I only cried a little, but…

Contributing Author: Mitali Patil, Ph.D. I was feeling extremely anxious. As I conducted my PhD thesis research, life seemed overloaded with worries. Other PhDs know how much work goes into getting their degrees. One thing was for sure: I didn’t need more stress on top of such a heavy academic…

Contributing Author: Mary Truscott, PhD The “two-body problem” means compromise — plain and simple. The name of this problem is a bit of an inside joke. Essentially, classical mechanics acknowledges a two-body problem when certain obstacles impede the prediction of motion for two massive objects. The career version is far…

Contributing Author: Elliott J. Brecht, PhD No one was reading my CV. I was just about to graduate, but I wasn’t pushing forward toward industry. Instead, I was focused on completing my dissertation. Don’t get me wrong - I was out there slinging applications left and right, and I lost…

Written By: Surayya Taranum, Ph.D. I was about to finish my postdoc soon, my project was nearly complete. I had submitted my research manuscript for publication; it was accepted after some revisions. I was going to have a great closure to my academic career, something from which a lot of…

Contributing Author: Aditya Sharma, Ph.D. I had finally had enough. I could no longer justify the pay I was receiving as a postdoc, and it became very clear to me that I would never become a professor. The system had strung me along far enough. It was time for a…

Contributing Author: Karthik Pandalaneni, Ph.D. I recently transitioned into a food company as a Global Food Scientist in my area of expertise. I planned ahead and started my job hunt 4 months before my graduation. Throughout my job search I had many rejections. These rejections came as a result of…

Written By: Cathy Sorbara, Ph.D. When I finished my PhD I had no idea how things worked outside academia. As a PhD student, I always thought I would become a professor, so I had focused all my energy on learning everything about academia. But, when I realized that I wanted…

 Written By: Isaiah Hankel, Ph.D. I was in my fifth year of graduate school, trying to decide what I was going to do when I finally graduated. I was looking at postdocs in the U.S., and I thought, okay, according to the NIH guidelines I'll make $45,000 per year,…

Written By: Aditya Sharma, Ph.D. I was torn between wanting to stay in academia and wanting to get a job in industry. I loved academia. I loved the university setting and the culture of the university. But I knew the facts. I knew that postdocs are vastly underpaid. I knew…

Written By: Jeanette McConnell, Ph.D. Right after I submitted my PhD, I got a job at a large-chain coffee shop. Needless to say, I had lost sight of my value, and had no idea what I wanted to do. But, I couldn’t afford to be unemployed. So, I took the…

Written By: Arunodoy Sur, Ph.D. When I was a PhD student, all that mattered to me was that my experiments went well and that I got my research published. That was it. Research outside of my field, or outside of my university, did not matter to me. And, the academic…

Written by: Jeanette McConnell, Ph.D. I had been in school my whole life. Academia was all I knew. I mean — sure, I’d had a few odd jobs but nothing that anyone would call a “real job”. And then, the day came when I finished my PhD and I knew…