I’ve reached the stage of my career where I’ve been invited to give “career retrospective talks” to grad students and post-docs at academic institutions. It’s been an interesting and enjoyable experience meeting a new generation of young scientists and hearing what’s on their minds.
After delivering my seminar and sharing lots of stories and advice, the discussion quickly turns to jobs: what’s available out there, and how do you get one? Future employment is a big concern among this group. Only 15 percent of grad students and post-docs will ever land a traditional tenure-track academic position at a research university. With federal cutbacks in the funding of National Institutes of Health grants and the elimination of large numbers of R&D jobs in biotech/pharma, there appears to be a job squeeze at present in both academia and industry.
