Career resources for early career researchers
A collection of career resources collected for early career researchers as part of our 2023 COLDEX Career October event. These resources are geared towards those with a geoscience, science communication, or complementary STEM background. Please note: this is a list of potential resources and not meant to be an endorsement by COLDEX.
Faculty Positions
Alternative Academic Positions
General Career Guidance
Geoscience Resources on Opportunities in the Workforce (GROW)
Collection of resources for non-academia careers for individuals with a geoscience degree. Check out the Career Profiles section to learn more about different career paths of individuals featured. All career paths are organized by job sectors.
Polar Science Early Career Community Office: Polar Careers Outside Academia
Conversations with individuals who have polar science-related degrees and currently work in jobs outside academia. Check back for more conversations!
Earth Science Women’s Network “ES_Jobs” listserv
Sign up to receive emails to your inbox for student positions, postdoctoral positions, and staff/faculty/full-time professional positions in the broad Earth sciences.
Geoscience Online Learning Initiative
A collection of asynchronous courses offered through the American Geosciences Institute. They are offered through the Open edX platform and provide a diverse array of really specific science courses to jobs/career advice, all geared towards the geoscience and geoscience communication field.
“Science Sims” is part of the InterSECT Job Simulations tool and provides a number of case studies with real tasks that are associated with actually DOING the different jobs scientists might fill. There’s also a “Humanities Sim” section as well as lots of other resources like this “Self-Reflection Guide”.
Many STEM opportunities for undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and even faculty/administrators. “Pathways to Science” allows you to search for opportunities for non-US Citizens along with a number of other important categories (such as “short term” or “long term” funding as well as “portable” funding that can be taken to different institutions).
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Mentoring Program
Find one-time mentorship or year-long mentoring groups. There are also possibilities to find in-person mentoring during the AGU Fall Meeting, for example.
Industry Positions
Beyond the Professoriate teaches early career researchers how to translate your skills (both “hard” and “soft”) for careers outside academia. I encourage you to check it out, regardless of the career path you are thinking of right now. The full resource is behind a paywall, but many COLDEX institutions do have a subscription (scroll down to current subscribers).
Tips for using LinkedIn to find jobs
Most of the tips below are from “Top 9 Tips for Supercharging Your LinkedIn Profile”
Have your colleagues write you recommendations (“a few nice remarks”) to add to your profile and write recommendations for them
Use ChatGPT to come up with relevant keywords for your specific field () - keywords are super important in helping recruiters find you
Publish articles that highlight your expertise and experiences on LinkedIn, these get shared with your Network. What a great way to frame yourself as a leader in specific topics (and pretty cool if others then share your work). Note, these aren’t scientific articles but rather more informal pieces that showcase your skills AND communication ability.
Respond to recruiter messages because then it highlights you as “highly responsive” for other recruiters, which makes you easier to findMost of the advice above came from
Ise LinkedIn to search for jobs (and set up a really specific job alert that will be sent to your inbox).
Check out this webinar from “Beyond the Professoriate” for more great advice!
Talking to exhibitors at national conferences and meetings
This article from Cheeky Scientist is really helpful: “Two PhDs Go To A Conference. One Gets Hired. Here’s How.” You can also typically find a list or dashboard of exhibitors that will be at a conference so that you can plan ahead of time. For example, here’s the dashboard from the 2023 American Geophysical Union fall meeting.
Científico Latino: Consulting Preparation Program
Offers practical guidance to help STEM grad students or postdocs, particularly for those from underrepresented backgrounds, pursue jobs in consulting.
A free training and job placement event for those who are members of SACNAS. Specifically will focus on finding STEM careers in industry and government.
This is a collaborative, community-organized list of TT (tenure track)/Permanent, NTT (non tenure track) faculty jobs in Earth Science. You can add a job you find using the “Add a job here” link at the top. A new spreadsheet will be available in late summer of each year.
HigherEdJobs.com and InsideHigherEd.com
HigherEdJobs is an important jobs database focused on higher education jobs. Posted here are TT and NTT faculty jobs and administrative jobs (both full and part time). There are also postdoc positions and researcher positions.
Here is the link for Geology, Earth Science, and Oceanography jobs
Here is the link for Communications jobs.
Don’t forget to also NOT use those categories above and just enter search terms into the search bar…that’s where you get the really interesting jobs that might not fit nicely into a category. You can set up a job search agent that will email you when relevant jobs are posted. Also, HigherEdJobs has a DUAL CAREER search tool. Check out the advice section from InsideHigherEd.com. You can also search for jobs on InsideHigherEd.
This website is run by a former R1 faculty member who is now an academic career coach (she also provides services related to transitioning out of academia). The blog and book provide somewhat harsh (but realistic) advice about pursuing a tenure track faculty position.
The Hiring Process from the Other Side
Berkeley has a really great site focused on academic job searches, including this specific article providing a “behind the scenes” look at the academic hiring process.
Blog with numerous resources to understanding the pathways folks can take from the PhD to non-academic careers, including to a non-teaching/research centered university job (“alt-ac”). Also check out the following specific blog posts: “Where Else do PhDs Work at Universities? An Alt-Ac List” , “Where to look for alt-ac PhDs at universities”, “Transition Q&A” series.
University Cooperative Extensions
Cooperative extensions are at every US land-grant university as well as land-grant HBCUs and tribal colleges, meaning every state has at least one! You can check out the list of cooperative extensions here. If you are curious about the jobs out there, check out this list of extension services jobs in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Academic Careers You May Not Have Considered”
Nice reflection, opinion article by David McDonald through Inside Higher Ed.
National Association of Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Ed
National organization for those who work in careers that support students through a “student affairs” department.
National Organization of Research Development Professionals
National organization for those who work in research development.
Career Profile: Dr. Danielle Whittaker, COLDEX Managing Director
To help fix the lack of information out there for alternative academic careers, our very own Danielle Whittaker was nice enough to answer some questions about her own career path and some of the skills she honed during her PhD and postdoc that made her skilled at managing large research projects.
Government/policy/museum positions
Website to search for and apply for United States government positions. Be sure to check out the suggestions for creating your resume for federal jobs, which must be created and tailored in a specific way to the posted job.
“6 Truths about PhD Government Jobs”
Article written by Chris Cornthwaite, a former Canadian government researcher, describing the similarities between government and academic careers.
Panel discussion featuring scientists working at US National Laboratories, hosted by the American Geophysical Union.
Discussion about the opportunities for non-US Citizens to work in the US, including at US National Laboratories. Hosted by the American Physical Society
Featured Profile of a Museum Scientist
Profile of museum scientist Dr. Lucia Burgio, hosted through the Royal Society of Chemistry. Find out more about what the day-to-day tasks of a museum scientist can be.
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program: American Museum of Natural History
Propose a postdoctoral research project in collaboration with a scientist at the American Museum of Natural History.
Summer undergraduate research opportunities in Astrophysics and Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program
Fellowships available for graduate students, predoctoral students, postdoctoral, and senior researchers to conduct research and use the resources of and work with mentors and collaborators at the Smithsonian Institution.
Featured Profile of a Museum Collections Curator
Job and career journey profile of Dr. Glenn Storrs, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and Associate Vice President for Science & Research at Cincinnati Museum Center.
Featured profile of Museum Education and Outreach Director
Job and career journey profile of Dr. Lisa White, Director of Education and Outreach at the University of California Museum of Paleontology at UC Berkeley.
“13 things you need to know to kick start your science policy career”
LinkedIn opinion article written by Beth Thompson with excellent advice and information about pursuing a science policy career.
“What does a career in science policy look like?”
Profiles and interviews from science policy experts through the University of California San Francisco Office of Career and Professional Development.
Geological Society of America (GSA) Science Policy Fellowship
The fellowship is open to GSA members who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. A Ph.D. at the time of appointment or a master’s degree in engineering plus five years of professional experience is required. See the application for 2024 here.
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Congressional Science Fellow
The AGU Congressional Science Fellowship program places highly qualified and accomplished scientists, engineers, and other professionals in the office of an individual member of Congress or on a committee for a one-year assignment. Open to all applicants with a PhD degree in geosciences.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): Science & Technology Policy Fellowship
Year long experience in Washington, DC to work with a governmental organization through applying to one of the three branches of the US Federal Government system.
Broad list of US Science and Technology Policy Fellowships
Collected by the Johns Hopkins Science Policy and Diplomacy Group
List of National Lab/Federal Government Postdocs and other term position programs:
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
Pacific Northwest National Lab
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Laboratories Consortium Website
Consortium website for all US National Laboratories.
US Department of Energy: Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI)
Internships for undergrads and recent graduates (up to 2 years after graduation) as part of the US Department of Energy.
Program that connects science researchers to decision-makers interested in using NASA Earth Observing products. You work in a team of 4 - 5 participants over a 10-week period to advise decision makers using available NASA data. This program is open to anyone over the age of 18, including early career and transitioning career professionals.
Information from the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators about career pathways and trainings for scientific illustrators.
Do you have any resources or other updates to add to this list?
Email COLDEX Director for Education Kristen Rahilly with suggestions.