Developing the Skills to Pay the Bills

Career Story Blog Post By Benson Cheng, PhD, Investment Analyst at Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)

Whether you are a PhD student or post doc, you know that the journey to a faculty position can be long and arduous. This can be due to a 24/7 schedule, constant nagging from PI’s to publish, or that overwhelming feeling where you don’t know how to interpret data because you are “literally the first person in human history to make this observation.” However, many factors in the past decade have made the elusive tenured-track position evermore difficult to attain, if not impossible. Now, you likely suffer from a major case of imposter syndrome and you don’t know what to do with a PhD. REAL TALK. 

Not to worry, science nerds. I graduated from UR with a PhD in 2015, so I am adequately familiar with how soon-to-be PhDs feel. I will discuss the skills I intentionally gained in my early career that allowed me to break away from academia and into my current role as a manager of the only research lab in the sky, the US National Lab on the International Space Station. As the great DJ Khaled wisely put it, focusing on developing these skills are the “MAJOR KEYS” to building your early career.

Come chat with me May 17 at noon in the Natapow Conference Room (1-9545).

Tracey Baas | 5/6/2016

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