Fellows Career Workshops: Life After NIH

Here are two more workshops for fellows who are setting their sights on post-postdoctoral life.

Monday, April 22: Negotiating a Job Offer, 8:30–11:30 a.m., and, again, from 1:30–3:30 p.m. Participants will learn to identify and discuss key issues such as salary and start-up funds with potential employers, as well as how to obtain a desirable employment package and the resources required to be successful in a new job.

Monday, May 13: Advancing Your Career, 8:30–11:30 a.m. This workshop addresses the basics of employee promotions and strategies for success in the workplace (academia and industry). Participants will learn to hone hiring, supervisory, and mentoring skills. There are also break-out sessions on conflict management and a mock tenure review.

Workshops will be held in Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10) and are open to all fellows at NIH. There is no pre-registration, but seating is limited and available first-come, first-seated.

The workshops are sponsored by the NIH Fellows Committee, the Office of Education, and the Office of Research on Women’s Health. For more info, e-mail Debbie Cohen or Margaret Mentink-Kane or call (301) 594-2345.

Where the Jobs Are

Networking is a key to finding job opportunities. It can provide preliminary information about a particular company, agency, or university. It can point to new career directions. Fellows are typically at a point in their careers when it is both most critical to network and most difficult to find the time.

For this reason, Christine Brennan, NINDS, and Yvonne Szymko, NIDCD, created JobNet.

The original idea was to establish an alumni database through which former NIH fellows with established careers could provide advice exclusively to current fellows. The JobNet database has recently been expanded to include career contacts from all backgrounds; however, it still can be viewed only from within NIH.

Volunteer contacts have information on research and nonresearch careers, in fields as diverse as scientific writing, regulatory affairs, teaching, signal transduction, immunology, and bioinformatics. They often have positions available at their facilities and are eager to hear from NIH fellows.

Fellows can visit the JobNet site to view the current career contact listings; scientists in permanent positions can complete a form to volunteer as a career contact. Members of the NIH Fellows’ Committee maintain the site by advertising, recruiting volunteers, and periodically updating the site. Fellows interested in helping maintain or adding to this resource can e-mail Diane Lawrence or Joanna Kirman.

Fellows Sought To Help Organize FARE 2003 Competition . . . .

Once again, the Fellows committee (FELCOM) is scouting for fellows to run this year’s Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE)—FELCOM’s yearly abstracts competition.

Fellows who take on this task will work hardest in May and early June, when the competition and judging take place, but will be devoting time from March, when the planning begins, through September, when the awards ceremony takes place.

If interested, e-mail here.

. . . . and To Compete

Fellows interested in entering the FARE competition are invited to submit their application, including abstract, electronically from May 1–31.

Winners receive $1,000 for travel to present their research at a scientific meeting. Abstracts are judged on the basis of scientific merit, originality, and experimental design. The travel award must be used between Oct. 1, 2002, and Sept. 30, 2003.

The competition is open to postdoctoral IRTAs, untenured visiting fellows, and other fellows with fewer than five years of total postdoc experience at NIH, as well as doctoral candidates doing dissertation research at NIH.