Lessons learned from our pre-conference workshops
By: Elisa Guma
Edits: Anne Billot, Beverly Setzer, Marianne Chapleau, Fanuel Muindi, Joseph B Keller, Vania Cao
As part of a lead up to this year’s hybrid Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) annual meeting, the Student and Postdoc Special Interest group (SP SIG) organized a series of workshops to provide trainees with resources for career development. As a group, we aim to cater to the variety of interests in our trainee community, both for those interested in pursuing an academic career, and those interested in moving outside of academia. In this blogpost, I will be highlighting the lessons learned from the workshop on Science Policy, Advocacy, and Communication. Our guest speakers included Dr. Joseph B Keller, Dr. Fanuel Muindi, and Dr. Vania Cao. While the workshop focused on careers outside of academia, much of the valuable advice shared by our speakers will be useful to all trainees as they prepare for the next phases of their professional journey.
Our three speakers each earned neuroscience focused doctoral degrees and followed “nonlinear” paths to get them where they are today. Although their paths are all quite different, there were a few common pieces of advice that transpired from their presentations. These include:
connecting with like minded peers (build your network),
embracing your passions (and do side projects),
“tell your negative committee to shut up”,
learning to manage your time, and honing your storytelling skills as discussed below.
People are important - build your network
All three of our speakers highlighted the importance of their connections with other people in their transition out of academia, especially those with people doing jobs they were interested in. For Dr. Keller, this was exemplified by his first job outside of academia, working as an Executive Search Consultant. Here he worked exclusively for nonprofit organizations in the fields of higher education, conservation and environment, associations, foundations, and biomedical research institutes. This gave him exposure to people with a number of different career paths, which helped him realize that individuals doing work he was interested in had a science policy background, motivating his desire to transition into that field. In Dr. Cao’s case, her connection came through academia, from her PhD studies. The startup she joined for her first non-academic job following her doctoral studies manufactured the equipment she used during her PhD, giving her a connection to the company. She encourages trainees to talk with people who are doing things that interest them, even if they do not necessarily want a job in their field. The more people you know, the more people can give you advice, and connect you with others. Dr. Muindi explains that a huge part of his success was the ability to ask for help and connect with others to overcome hurdles. A great way to connect with other like-minded individuals is to pursue your passions and interests, which ties into the following recommendations.
2. Follow your passions and do the side things
Dr. Keller’s first foray into science policy was as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation. Here, he was able to integrate his passions for computational neuroscience and science policy by working on interdisciplinary neuroscience competitions, and expand to programs focused on fairness in AI. Additionally, he helped launch a National AI Research Institutes Program, which is now in its third year of operation. By following his interests, he was able to put together many interdisciplinary institutions funded by large organizations.
Dr. Muindi is the founder and chief resident of the Science Advocacy Institute (SAi), which he founded while completing his postdoctoral studies at MIT. He explains that the questions that drove him transitioned from those centered around mechanisms and brain circuits driving behaviour, to the broader mechanisms driving science. To pursue this interest, he started to write down his ideas, which eventually turned into articles, and publications, one of which he co-authored with Dr. Keller outlining the resources available to trainees pursuing non-academic career paths. Eventually, he built enough momentum to launch SAi, an incubator and launchpad that provides access to mentorship, community, training, funding, and more, for individuals seeking to launch informal science engagement programs, apps, events, etc. If this is something that might interest you, consider applying for their fellowship program that they host once a year in the fall.
Dr. Cao is a senior marketing manager at Natera, a biotechnology company, but as her “side-gig” she coaches graduate students and postdocs who are making the transition outside of academia. During her graduate studies, she pursued writing opportunities on topics spanning women in science, tenure, electric cars, and more. These writing samples served her in the job search process as proof that she could write outside of scientific manuscripts. Both Dr. Muindi and Dr. Cao reminded us that these things are best taken one step at a time; however, you have the power to engage in interests outside of your primary job. This is another excellent way to grow your network, because if you do something you enjoy, you are likely to meet people that have the same interests, and from there your network can grow.
3. Tell your negative committee to shut up
“Tell the negative committee to shut up: the committee is no longer in charge, I am”. Dr. Muindi encourages all of us to not let our doubts interfere with our success, as outlined further in his article. It is easy to doubt oneself, particularly when making the difficult transition to a new career, or simply starting a new project. The best way forward is to do the thing that your “negative committee” is telling you you can’t do, and prove them wrong!
4. Learn to manage your time
One important thing to keep in mind when deciding to pursue your interests and hobbies, particularly if those are outside of your main job, is that you have to be good at time management. Dr. Muindi and Dr. Cao both have side gigs that they pursue on evenings and weekends, outside of their regular work hours. They recommend slowly chipping away at the work that interests you, and work on things when you have the time. Additionally, ensure that you do communicate with your supervisor or boss and that it does not interfere with your full time role. It is important to maintain good relationships.
6. Hone your storytelling skills
Science communication may be appealing to many of us, but it is a rather vague term, and does not obviously equate to a specific type of job. Dr. Cao recommends identifying what you are specifically passionate about communication, and who might benefit from those skills: industry, government, startups, etc. Once you identify these two elements, it can be easier to hone your writing and oral skills to help you reach your goals. Science policy may be a natural application of science communication skills. Dr. Keller reminds us that much of science policy relies on good storytelling. Indeed, many agencies cannot ask government agencies for money themselves, so they rely on science policy advocates, like Dr. Keller.
If you are inspired to learn more after reading this blog post, you can watch the full recording of the workshop at this link. Additionally, Drs. Keller, Muindi, and Cao are on LinkedIn (profiles linked above). If you are hoping to learn more about non-academic career paths, we also hosted a workshop featuring Dr. Bas Neggers, founder of BrainScienceTools, and Dr. Maarten Verslouis at Phillips. They discussed their transition from academia to industry. The full recording can be found here. In addition to the alternative career workshops, we hosted a Career Development Workshop in Mandarin geared towards the academia-inclined trainees featuring Dr. Ting Xu, senior research scientists at the Child Mind Institute, Dr. Xiang-Zhen Kong, professor at Zhejiang University, and Dr. Di Fu, a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences & University of Hamburg. If you missed this workshop and it piques your interest, you can check out the recording here.