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Environmental Factor, April 2010, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Biomedical Career Fair Coming April 30

By Laura Hall
April 2010

The Career Fair gives trainees a chance to meet and talk with former NIEHS postdocs and young investigators about how they navigated the sometimes choppy waters between training and career. Shown above, left to right, are attendees of the 2008 fair, former postdocs Monty Hughes, Ph.D., and Joel Meyer, Ph.D., with ONES awardee Patricia Opresko, Ph.D. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Between sessions, attendees have opportunities to visit vendor displays. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Wherever it happens, one of the most important advantages of the NIEHS Biomedical Career Fair is facilitated networking. Duke University Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate Ravi Metlapally, Ph.D., left, talked with a representative of the biotech company Athenix during last year's fair. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Registration(http://tools.niehs.nih.gov/conferences/dir/careerfair/index.cfm?do=registration.participant) for NIEHS and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) postdoctoral fellows began March 19 for the 13^th Annual NIEHS Biomedical Career Fair(http://tools.niehs.nih.gov/conferences/dir/careerfair/) to be held at the EPA conference facility on April 30. Registration for NIEHS and EPA fellows, attendees from elsewhere, and exhibitors is free:

• Postdoctoral fellows from nearby universities can start registering two weeks prior to the event
• NIEHS Trainees Assembly (NTA) invites exhibitors from local companies, organizations, and colleges to register(http://tools.niehs.nih.gov/conferences/dir/careerfair/index.cfm?do=registration.exhibitor) at any time up to April 17

The career fair is a one-day event where postdoctoral fellows and advanced graduate students can develop job hunting skills in workshops, network with company representatives, and learn about science career opportunities to help in planning their future careers. Members of the NIEHS Trainees Assembly, an organization of non-tenure, non-permanent scientists training at the Institute together with fellows from EPA plan and organize the event with help from NIEHS.

Raj Gosavi, Ph.D., co-chair of the NIEHS Career Fair Committee, and NIEHS Deputy Scientific Director William Schrader, Ph.D., will present welcome and opening remarks. David G. Jensen, founder and managing director of CareerTrax, Inc., will give the keynote address, "Street Savvy Science: Aligning Your Career Goals with Job Market Realities."

According to past attendees, the career fair can help with finding future jobs and honing job-hunting skills. "I really enjoyed last year's career fair and found the seminar on writing a resume for a non-academic job very helpful," said Ashley Godfrey, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis.

Postdoctoral Fellow Corinne Zeller-Knuth, Ph.D., introduced herself to one of the panelists during the 2007 career fair, which led to her first job teaching at a college. "While I've decided that a teaching intensive career isn't for me and have returned to the NIEHS for postdoctoral training, it was a great experience and the career fair was essential in the process," said Zeller-Knuth.

(Laura Hall is a biologist in the NIEHS Laboratory of Toxicology and Pharmacology currently on detail as a writer for the Environmental Factor.)

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