photos by Mary Dominiecki & Sherri Meyer

What Works Workshop: Power Up Your Career Today!
Sherri Meyer, Ph.D., Cephalon, Inc., & Renee Balliet, Ph.D., Thomas Jefferson University

Power Up Your Career Today, organized by AWIS-PHL as an Association for Women in Science (AWIS) regional meeting, was held at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 14, 2009.  The meeting, part of the What Works Workshop series, began with registration, networking, and continental breakfast.  Opening remarks by Kristy Shuda McGuire (AWIS-PHL president) and Mary Dominiecki (chair of the AWIS-PHL Organizing Committee), were followed by a plenary session on "Networking 101," led by Katherine McCarthy and Lorraine Flick from Impact Training Partners. In a group exercise each attendee noted what she is passionate about in her personal life, work environment, and science. Then the audience was divided randomly into smaller groups to compare interests. The point of this exercise was to highlight that you can discuss topics beyond science while networking, and you may find many common areas of interest. It is important to try to make a connection on any level because connections are important to establishing relationships. After an initial contact, an email follow-up should be sent; this could be an article that might be of interest to the contact. The ultimate goal of networking is to maintain a relationship through continued interactions. Another essential for successful networking is to have a short career description, the so-called “elevator speech.”   For example: I do xxx with yyy so that z occurs.

There were four breakout sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon with three to five choices in each session dealing with topics such as leadership, career skills, mentoring, entrepreneuship, and work-life balance. These sessions were led by individuals with varied backgrounds ranging from the self-employed to those with jobs in industry or academia.
(For details see the program at http://www.awisphl.org/Workshop Agenda 11-09.pdf.)

Some highlights include:

• To LEAD is to produce change and movement (asks what & why; works ON the system), whereas to MANAGE is to produce order and consistency (asks how & when; works IN the system). Managing and leading activities can overlap because both are centered on influencing a group of individuals to attain a goal, so becoming a leader-manager is an option.
• In considering a career move, ask someone already in that role for an informational interview.  Request a defined (not too long) amount of time, prepare questions ahead of time (relevant questions such as the skills necessary for this position or career field and how they were developed); do not ask for a job, and always write a thank you note afterwards.
• LinkedIn has become the "go to" site for recruiters, with 22% of hiring managers using social networking sites to research job candidates (you can also use them to research companies and interviewers).
• With the potential for many types of scientific careers, different paths should be researched based on personal strengths and preferences (many online sites will help guide this process).
• Career transitions are challenging and exciting, but never lose focus of what is important during this time.

Between the morning and afternoon breakout sessions, there was a networking luncheon, followed by a panel discussion about careers other than bench science. Panelists included Diana Shineman (Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation), Meg Baker (Johnson & Johnson), Dale Hartupee (Drug Discovery and Development, Pharmaceutical Project Management), Jeannie Rojas (Centyrix) and Carl Clay (AstraZeneca). The audience asked questions such as how one goes about getting a specific job, what type of additional training is recommended/required, and what the work environment is like. The panelists were also asked to discuss their work load, pay, and overall job satisfaction. Carl Clay (medical writing) recommended the American Medical Writers Association for further information on that career. Dale Hartupee (project management) and Jeannie Rojas (business development) compared and contrasted their types of jobs highlighting personal traits which make them better suited for their position compared to other careers. Diana Shineman (non-profit) explained how she went directly from graduate school to working for a non-profit organization and Meg Baker (patent law) shared her career path, which led to her current position in patent law. One overriding theme for landing the job you want was to first figure out what your strengths are, what your career objective is and then persist in making it happen.

The program concluded with a raffle for several books and vendor t-shirts, followed by hors d'oeuvres and another opportunity to network. Overall this event was a great success. The topics discussed at the sessions provided valuable information for all those who attended but what really made this event special was the people. It is not often one comes into contact with so many science professionals from varied backgrounds and at different stages in their career who are willing to share their experiences. Thank you to everyone who made this event a success!