Career transitions are bound to happen as your professional and personal needs and interests evolve. Personally, I’ve made four moves, switching cities and states, titles, and responsibilities each time.
I know that just thinking about making a change can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be.
To help me process my decisions, I considered the various factors and questions listed below.
Why make a transition?
- Collaborations
- Family matters
- Local lifestyle: professional and personal
- Local scientific environment
- Personal advancement
How do you make a transition? Ask yourself:
- What’s missing for you?
- Where is that gap, and how important is it?
- What networks can you tap?
- What job ads can create leads? Visit SfN’s NeuroJobs site as well as other resources such as Science and Nature.
- What information can you access?
What’s important in a transition if you're:
- An assistant professor? Do you need tenure? Will you move to associate professor? Will the new place have tenure?
- An associate professor? Are you aiming for full professor?
- A full professor? Do you want to make a lateral transition? Do you want to become a chair, director, or chief?
What are current and future opportunities in the field?
- Over the next 10 years, many faculty members in research-intensive and teaching institutions will retire.
- Funding will likely remain competitive.
- The biotech and pharmaceutical industries and journalism and editing fields are growing career path options beyond the bench.
- Administrative elements to consider include positions opening at your institution and funding available from grant and science agencies.
How should you prepare?
- Read the advertisement and understand the job requirements.
- Tailor your CV or resume to that job.
- Rework research pages (keep them short).
- Make your cover letter short and highlight what you’ve done that’s relevant to the specific job.
- Do online research on the institution, such as a university, company, department, or institute, and do the same for the people you will meet with, including a search on PubMed.
What can you expect? Figure out:
- The details of the position and environment, including who will be your direct supervisor
- If the chair and dean will be there in five years
- How supportive the employer is of basic and translational research
- How supportive the employer is of basic research in your research area
- How long the employer will be committed to research and drug development on a particular disease
- The morale within the department and the morale within the entire institution
- How you will articulate why the employer should choose you and why you want this job
Do you want this new job?
- Is the new job a promotion?
- If you’re giving something up, are the benefits worth it?
- Will this transition work for your personal life?
What is important to consider when negotiating your move?
- Equipment
- Collaborators
- New team members
- Downtime for the lab, publications, and other professional interests
- Resources to rebuild and improve your situation
Adapted from the presentation, "Midcareer Transitions: How Does It Work?” by Wendy Macklin, PhD.
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