Finding a Career Entry That Suits You - Part II

With far fewer academic positions available than there are people with PhDs, the traditional path from student to postdoc to professor is no longer the norm. But besides that, there are many reasons why you might want to leave academia. Maybe you want a more secure job, want to get in contact with clients, or just don't like research anymore. Luckily, there are more jobs out there than you might realize! The process of job hunting can be confusing and intimidating. This collection of tips will help you to identify your strengths and the industry you want to move into and finally find a career entry that fits your interests.

Where can I get insights into specific positions?
We all know former lab members or fellow students who have moved on to non-academic careers. Ask them what they do now, if they are happy, and what kind of additional qualifications they had, suggests career coach Ulrike Schneeberg (http://deinemonster.de/), whom I met last year at a career day organized by the FU in Dahlem.
Job shadowing is also a great opportunity to find out if a job will suit you. Some universities offer programs, but you can as well just ask your acquaintances who work in a job you would like to get to know better. If you are eager and self-confident, you can also directly contact companies; it will for sure make a good impression. If you are about to graduate, do not cancel your studentship just yet: companies prefer to give away internships to students than to recent-graduates.

How do I get familiar with the job lingo?
Online job portals will help you figure out what names the jobs have and what specific skills are listed for the different job titles.
Check the job descriptions of your networking contacts and contact those whose job descriptions sound interesting to you. Most people are happy to report about their job and how they got there. Reach out to people in different jobs, ask if you could meet them for a coffee to ask career questions or interview them for a few minutes on the phone. I can personally report that it is incredibly helpful to get some inside information.

Do I have the right skills?
Browse through job offers and carefully read the descriptions. Ask yourself if you have the essential qualifications. If not, what could you do to gain additional expertise? Maybe you can join a project from a befriended lab, or take a course at your university or online while finishing your degree? However, don’t let the lists of desired skills intimidate you. Most employers are open for applicants who do not have a final degree that exactly matches the industrial sector or job opening if the application is convincing.

How do I structure my job search?
Career coach Ulrike Schneeberg suggests making a timeline to structure your job hunt efficiently. For example: by the end of next month you should have interviewed five people with jobs that sound interesting. Upon completion, reflect if your view has changed and eventually schedule another round of browsing job options and setting up informational interviews. Then narrow your career options down to a few choices that align best with your skills and interests. Having completed this step, it makes sense to start writing your resume, CV and parts of a cover letter tailored to the specific positions and industry. This is a very crucial step - take your time and go over it several times. Show them to your friends and colleagues (maybe even to this person who holds your dream job). Some applications may require references; ask your supervisors early enough if they would be willing to write you a recommendation letter. Most of the time they will be happy to do so, but won’t have much time. In this case, draft a reference yourself, so your referee will only need to edit and update it.

How do I get the attention of prospect employers?
Tell your friends and colleagues that you are looking for a new job. This will increase the likelihood of being offered a position which is not on the public market.
At career fairs, you can get directly in contact with recruitment managers. If you make a good impression and give them your contact detail, you are already one step closer to your dream job.
According to recruiting managers, it is highly recommended to participate in online job portals. More and more companies follow the trend to search suitable candidates themselves or work with recruiting agencies. If you want to be found, make sure to include the right buzzwords in your profile.

Where do I find job adverts?
Most companies advertise their openings online. The biggest resources are LinkedIn (for the international job search), Xing (the most important platform in Germany) and Indeed, but don’t forget to check out more local portals and those specific to the sector you are looking at, such as yourfirm, jobmehappy, jobworld.de, or stepstone.
However, also check out individual company homepages, as not all openings are shared in online job portals. Interestingly, many small- and medium-sized businesses still advertise in print media. Thus getting a copy of your local newspaper might be a good idea as well.
A great resource are also Laborjournal, academics, duz wissenschaftskarriere, Science Jobs DE, Sci-Tec Career, and Wila Bonn. Those looking for international jobs, will find interesting job offers at Science Careers and Naturejobs.

Where do I get information about prospect employers?
Always use more than one source: the company webpage, press releases, social media and rating portals such as glassdoor or kununu. Also check whether local and/or daily news reported about the companies you are interested in. If you want to move into the biotech scene, you should definitely check out labiotech.eu. The different pieces of information will help you to shape an image of the company. Ideal would be if you could talk to current or former employees. This is possible at career fairs or by directly contacting employees.

Where can I get help?
A very helpful tool is the “individual development plan” from science careers. You may also get help from your university. Charité students may contact the stud-hotline@charite.de to get career advice, even after completion of studies. For students enrolled at the Humboldt University, these links might be helpful (http://bit.ly/2E7bMFU , http://bit.ly/2BMLjLW) and you can also attend their events even after you graduated. There are also many helpful events organized by the Agentur für Arbeit. If you are looking for individual help, I can recommend to meet with a career coach. And stay tuned for the new Career Development Program for Berlin Neuroscience graduate students, currently being developed by SPARK with the help of MedNeuro students!
Get in touch with recruitment agencies specific for the sector you want to move into. Generally their services are free of charge for the job seeker and they have a genuine interest to get you a position because they will be paid by the companies upon success. Furthermore, recruitment agencies have a great portfolio of companies, you might not be aware of.

We wish you all the best!
Let us know your career stories, so we can help future graduates to smoothly transition into their first positions!

by Claudia Willmes, PhD Alumna, AG Eickholt / AG Schmitz
This article originally appeared March 2018, in Beauty and the Brain , Vol 11 - Issue 01

Finding a Career Entry That Suits You - Part I

With far fewer academic positions available than there are people with PhDs, the traditional path from student to postdoc to professor is no longer the norm. But besides that, there are many reasons why you might want to leave academia. Maybe you want a more secure job, want to get in contact with clients, or just don't like research anymore. Luckily, there are more jobs out there than you might realize! The process of job hunting can be confusing and intimidating. This collection of tips will help you to identify your strengths and the industry you want to move into and finally find a career entry that fits your interests.

How do I start?
The most important building block for a successful career is to be honest in defining your interests and strengths. The first question should be: do I want to apply for jobs in a technical, creative or management sector? But don’t build up too much pressure: you don’t have to make the perfect decision. A career is a path that arises from many decisions. Of course, the first job sets the direction, but you can always transition to another position. Especially when looking for your first "real world job", you might need to compromise on one or two things.

Where can I get inspiration?
Use conferences, social events, career fairs, meet-ups and career talks to question others about their work and explore the realities of these possibilities. A great opportunity to get in touch with scientists working outside of academia is the Career Development Seminar every second Wednesday at noon in the CCO Auditorium. Find people with a similar academic background who share your view on life and ask them about their careers. You might not only get inspired but also make important contacts. Even getting to know what you don't like will shape your idea of what you might want to do.
Think outside the box: scientists are not only needed in science but also in jobs like consulting, the public sector, non-profit organizations, management, communication, and many more. There are plenty reports from scientists that escaped academia on Science, Nature and Reddit.
Reflect when you read advertisements in newspapers or scientific journals: why were you attracted to this advertisement? Could you imagine working for this company or in this sector?

What are my strengths?
Pinpoint moments when you really enjoyed or really didn’t enjoy doing something, instead of trying to imagine what you would enjoy doing, because a lot of things aren’t what they seem to be. Find out what you are good at by asking yourself “what do people ask me to help them with?”. Ask people around you what you are good at and what they think is special about you. Consider also your life beyond the lab and think about your strengths outside of your field of study.

What are my interests?
Maybe you are graduating in neuroscience, but you have always been attracted by nutrition science, or you are more interested in the bigger picture of science - all this is worth considering. Only if your career satisfies your interests, will it make you happy. Figure out what it is that drives you. Think about moments when you were really happy, inspired or content with what you were doing.

What is important to me?
Consider what is important to you and prioritize. This might be the work environment, career perspectives within a company, working hours, the salary, or additional benefits. Make sure your prospect job fits your lifestyle and incorporates your personal life plan. If you want kids and would like to take a break from work, would this be compatible with the career aspired to? Do you want to stay in this city or are you willing to relocate? Can you commit to a job that needs a lot of traveling or working on the weekends? Do you want to work in a highly competitive environment? Answering these questions will help you to further narrow down career options.

stay tuned for Part II : Everything from getting familiar with the job lingo, structuring your job search, and where to get further information

By Claudia Willmes, PhD Alumna AG Eickholt / AG Schmitz
This article originally appeared March 2018, in Beauty and the Brain , Vol 11 - Issue 01

Funding Landscape in Germany: The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG)

The mission of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, as defined in the first article of its statutes, is to serve all branches of science and the humanities by funding research projects and facilitating cooperation among researchers. It devotes particular attention to the education and advancement of young researchers and promotes equality between men and women in the scientific and academic communities. 

 

The DFG advises parliaments and public authorities on scientific matters and fosters relations with the private sector and between scientists and academics at home and abroad. This mission corresponds with the DFG's strategic orientation towards interdisciplinarity and networking, promoting young researchers and internationalization. As the self-governing body of German science and research, the DFG fulfills its central responsibility of funding research in all branches of science and the humanities.

 

Mission of the DFG
The DFG funds research at the European level on the basis of scientific competition. To this end, and to promote cross-border scientific cooperation, the DFG has established numerous bilateral and European programs. This requires sustainable networks which the DFG has been building in Europe for a long time. The European Liaison Office of the German Research Organisations (KoWi), which provides information and advice on EU funding opportunities for scientists and scientific organisations, is particularly important in this respect. It is supported by the DFG as a central research facility.
The honorary members of the review boards and the scientific members of its statutory bodies are elected by the research community. Scientists and academics hold a majority on all decision-making bodies. The DFG is an association under private law, just as it was when it was first founded in 1920 as the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, the legal predecessor to the present-day organization. The fact that Germany's federal and state governments now provide the DFG with an annual budget of over 2 billion Euro to fund research in all disciplines clearly shows the trust they place in the principle of self-government in science and research.
To carry out its mission the DFG receives budgetary resources from the federal government (67 %) and the 16 states (32 %) as well as from EU funds and private benefactors. The Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany also provides an annual financial contribution to the DFG. Recognizing that modern research requires medium-term planning security, the federal and state governments have continually increased the DFG budget over recent years.

Routes to Scientific Independence
The promotion of young researchers is recognized as a priority task in the statutes of the DFG. Approximately two-thirds of all program funding is used to pay fellowships and the salaries of research assistants. On average, the DFG funds 20,000 project staff every year, the majority of whom are either working towards their doctorate or in the postdoctoral phase.
The DFG offers young scientists and academics suitable funding opportunities at every stage of their postgraduate research career. These support measures are modular in structure and thus form a "funding chain", which extends over the entire qualification period from completion of a university degree to a professorial appointment.

Research Funding by the DFG
The freedom of science and research, which is essential to the work of the DFG, is accompanied by the equally important element of competition between researchers and between their institutions. Each research funding proposal passes through a peer review process to determine its quality. The DFG currently funds approximately 22,000 research projects each year. These come from all areas of science and the humanities and involve a variety of programs. There are no priorities funding areas but rather the science driven process of a bottom-up proposal process.
Essentially, the DFG offers two forms of research funding: first, the funding of individual research projects, and second, of coordinated, collaborative research programs which serve to build capacities at host institutions, i.e. the universities. Certain features apply to all programs: Funding in all programs is granted solely on the basis of proposals sent to the DFG. Responsibility for the proposed project and its subsequent realization rests solely with the project leader.
In the review process, firstly, honorary peer reviewers assess all the proposals which the DFG receives to determine whether they meet the funding criteria. In all programs, it is the reviewers' decision that forms the basis for the funding decision. The DFG's Head Office selects the reviewers. The final evaluation and quality assurance of the proposal is done by a member of the review board. The key criteria in all funding decisions are the applicants' qualifications and the scientific quality and degree of originality of the projects submitted.

Taking all the programmes together, more than 17 000 proposals were evaluated by 12 400 reviewers - around 2 700 of whom came from abroad. A positive decision was reached in ~10 200 cases. Source: DFG

Thus, the DFG review boards are an important body in the decision-making process on DFG grants. Their members not only evaluate grant proposals according to scientific criteria, but advise the DFG on strategic issues, suggest innovations in the funding system, and are especially committed to early-career support for researchers. In November 2011, the DFG holds new elections to select volunteer scientists and academics to serve on its review boards. All scientists, who have completed a doctorate and conduct academic research, during the election period, at a German institution that is an established DFG voting centre, are eligible to vote in the review board election.
The final funding decisions are made by either the Joint Committee or the Grants Committees which it appoints. Researchers and representatives of the federal and state governments serve on these committees.
 

Further Reading: www.dfg.de/en/dfg_profile

By Cornelia Pretzer, DFG Public Relations
This article originally appeared 2011 in CNS Volume 4, Issue 4, Funding in Science
 

Writing Successful Grant Applications

A conversation with Dr. Christina Schütte on practical advice, pitfalls and what makes a successful grant.

MC: Christina Schütte, you have been advising many researchers and laboratories in their search for funding over the past 7 years. You have also participated in the evaluation of grant applications for various funding agencies. What do you think makes a successful grant application?
CS: The first thing that comes to mind is clear aims. There is no such thing as a successful scientific project that does not know where it is going. Every project must have a clear topic and a detailed plan for its execution. The topic should be very specific and clearly limited. One cannot solve all questions using every available method in one project. The execution of the project should be clearly stated and planned. Mentioning what could go wrong and how problems will be addressed is also a plus. Accessibility is also extremely important. Careful attention should be paid to the fact that reviewers are possibly not absolute specialists. Too specific scientific jargon should be avoided and the project should be well integrated in the current socio-economic context.

A large part of your activity also consists of training researchers in grant writing. Could you reveal to us a couple of your tips? Do you have specific guidelines while writing a grant application?
It is important to understand the process of grant application and evaluation as a whole. My first advice is always to start by reading the guidelines for applicants and those given to the reviewers, if they are provided. It is important to imagine what one would expect as a reviewer of the project. The next step is to clearly define your aims and make an outline. Then comes the hard work: writing. Finally, it is always advisable to have others read your work, ideally someone who is not directly from your field: a colleague from the department or a fellow student is always a good person to ask.

Christina Schütte obtained a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Bonn in 1999. She followed this up with a postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurobiology at the Max Plank Institute for Biophysical chemistry in Göttingen from 2000 to 2003. In 2004, she founded ProSciencia with her associate Hans-Wilhelm Berghoff in order to help individuals, laboratories and companies in getting funds and managing projects.

What are the major pitfalls when writing a grant application?
I can see two major caveats often found in many applications: On the one hand, we have projects that are too vague, that try to tackle big questions but fail to define a clear plan. This type of mistake is often found in projects written by early career applicants. Another pitfall is to get too technical, use jargon and fail to capture the attention of the reader with an easily understandable problem. The lack of structure in the text is also clearly a killer for any application. There is nothing more difficult to read than long blocks of text over pages of technical descriptions.
Applicants often neglect skills they sometimes do not even realize they have. Some funding programs encourage applicants to provide details about themselves, like describing their leadership qualities. Applicants, in particular at the early stage of their career, often disregard this step. This is a mistake.

Do you know what applicants tend to find difficult while writing their application?
Writing is hard work and is often underestimated. What I can see in my classes is that first-time applicants in particular have a hard time clearly writing down their plans. Lots of them also tend to underestimate the time required to write their applications and achieve certain goals.

Prosciencia is a consulting company providing communication services to companies, scientists, researchers and start-ups of the technological sector. Today, about half of their activity is centred on training workshops. For instance, Prosciencia provides four highly attended two-days training sessions at Humboldt Graduate School per year. Contact information can be found at http://www.prosciencia.eu

What are the odds for a PhD student or a postdoc to find their own funding solution in Germany?
I could not answer this question precisely, but information is generally available on funding agencies website. I know for example that the DFG's standard "Sachbeihilfe" has been known to fund up to 50 % of applicants. After the recent crisis, Germany has been betting on research and funding for basic research has increased. This situation has made Germany a very attractive country, as the situation in neighbouring countries tends to be much harder.
The research policy in Germany can nowadays be considered a bottom-up approach. It is relatively easy to start a project on any topic, provided one is able to propose a clear plan.

In addition to this bottom-up approach you mentioned, do general science policies decide on what type of research and which science field is funded?
Of course, like in most countries, research policies are decided by politics. These decisions are taken through very long processes whereby expert researchers are regularly consulted about the "hot topics" in their field. Ministries and foundations are always listening to the experts (i.e. researchers) and make calls for projects in particularly promising fields. Researchers can actively participate in these processes by signing up to news services, for example, at the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) or at the national contact points (NCP) for EU funding. (mc)
 
More information:
"Sachbeihilfe": http://www.dfg.de/foerderung/programme/einzelfoerderung/sachbeihilfe/index.html
CORDIS: http://cordis.europa.eu/news/home_en.html

Interview by Maximilien Chaumon,
This article originally appeared 2011 in CNS Volume 4, Issue 4, Funding in Science