DAVID IS A HUMAN RESOURCE EXECUTIVE IN THE AREAS OF TALENT RETENTION, ACQUISITION & DEVELOPMENT PREVIOUS COLUMNS Most of us go to college with the idea of working for someone else, usually in academia, industry, or government. But a rather different--and increasingly viable--option is to become a consultant. Today, many financially challenged corporations and universities are not hiring permanent...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX In Canada the environmental consulting industry has many facets. They range from university faculty doing part-time consulting to scientists working for environmental science companies. Consultants can also be scientists working for environmental engineering firms and legal, accounting, and management consulting firms through to individuals with science training working ...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX A graduate of the Universities of Pisa and Copenhagen, Dr. De Filippo is an experienced atomic physicist and researcher who, after an extensive review of his career prospects, decided to move into the world of management consulting. I always wanted to be a scientist. So, it is not too surprising that during my physics studies I intended to remain in research in a univers...
Consultancy. A word much bandied about and a bit of a mystery. What is it that consultants DO exactly? Next Wave has asked a number of consultants to give us some insight into their jobs, and we're publishing their stories in this, our occasional series. We hope that by the end of the series, you'll have a much better idea of just how varied both the world of consulting and the lives of individua...
Pia Götze (pictured left), 31 years old, has a PhD in chemistry. She has been with the Boston Consulting Group ( BCG) for more than 4 years now. Interviewed by Next Wave Germany Editor Eick von Ruschkowski, she discussed her career transition from chemistry into the consulting business. Read this article in German. Next Wave: Tell us about your academic background. Götze: After completing seconda...
Briefcases. Credit: Kelly B For students who did manage to find an assignment, the program "has been a real professional experience." --Djimila Canet. Nicolas Bozon may still be in the final year of his Ph.D., but he already has experience as an industry consultant and good employment prospects at a start-up company. Bozon, an applied mathematician at the Agricultural and Environmental Engineerin...
You don't have to enroll in an M.B.A. program to reap some of its benefits. In this month's column, Peter Fiske discusses some of the strategies science and engineering Ph.D.s and postdocs can use to get the most from the business school at their university.
Nearly a third of all Ph.D. graduates decide to switch from careers in the lab to careers in business, law, journalism, or teaching. Many of these "alternative" careers are, in fact, still highly scientific. Yet making the move from a lab to an office is a daunting task that rarely is easy to accomplish or prepare for. Alternative career moves require not only finding the right job, environment, ...
Aristotle believed that scholars shoulder a dual burden: They must strive to understand their specific discipline and also be skilled at communicating their knowledge to the public. Otherwise, instead of enriching society, the fruits of their labor will wither like unharvested grapes. But University of Texas (UT), Austin, communication professor and associate dean Rick Cherwitz thinks the modern ...
If you have decided that your scientific expertise may be of value to the wider world outside academia, it is not enough to simply hang out a shingle and expect it to come to you. Any first-year MBA knows that the success or failure of a business usually hinges on the amount and quality of the thought that goes into planning its launch. As Part II of this series shows, developing a detailed strat...
Cynthia Robbins-Roth's life has eerily mirrored the life of the biotech industry. She began her career as one of Genentech's first research scientists. Later, in the late 1980s and 1990s, she became a leading industry consultant and media voice. Then, in 2001, at the peak of her career, she crashed--literally. Robbins-Roth was injured in a plane crash, creating a personal crisis that more than ma...
By day, Lynda Williams teaches physics at Santa Rosa Junior College in California. On weekends, audiences laugh at "Carbon Is a Girl's Best Friend" and other technology songs she writes and performs as "The Physics Chanteuse." Like Williams, science faculty can transform their training and expertise into stimulating new professional activities, well beyond their job descriptions. While the respon...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX Even as a graduate student, I had a fondness for the bottom line. A postdoc friend from those days would joke that I was too practical to be a real scientist. It didn't come as a surprise to most people when, shortly after receiving my Ph.D., I accepted a position as an investment analyst with RA Capital Associates. As is the case for most scientists who find a way into ...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX Gillian Sebestyen made the transition from experimental psychology to the world of business without writing a single job application. Taking a temp job put her in the right place for her skills to be recognised, and to land a job in consultancy. When we hear the word 'consulting', most of us think of businessmen in suits who prepare strategy and schedules for big busines...
W hether it is a time of boom or bust, the key to the survival of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies is to place successful products on the marketplace. Project managers are becoming an increasingly integral part of that strategy. So, how can scientists help fill this niche in the job market? In this two-part series, we?ll hear from a scientist turned entrepreneur about the ins and outs o...
The postacademic future loomed ahead of me. And although leaving the bench after 5 years took tremendous courage, I knew it was the right decision. Indeed, the position I've held for the past 1.5 years at a small software company called LabVelocity has led to tremendous personal and professional growth. At times I've felt almost euphoric about starting anew and exploring the life sciences outside...
December 20, 2002 (Volume 298, Number 5602) diamond.gif Budget Woes Next Wave investigates the effect of a frozen education and research budget on Germany?s scientists. diamond.gif Are Postdocs Employees? Postdocs and the Law, Part3 Institutions and funding agencies classify postdocs in any number of ways. But what does case law say about employee status for postdocs? diamond.gif Juggling Work an...
