The EMBO Meeting 2013

Yesterday’s Career Day at The EMBO Meeting 2013 offered a mix of sessions to boost the participants’ chances of finding the ideal job

Saturday was Career Day at The EMBO Meeting featuring four hands-on workshops, a working lunch and mentoring sessions for almost 150 participants, mostly PhD students and postdocs. Writing job applications, improving networking skills and publishing papers were the most popular sessions on this busy day – before the actual conference kicked off with Kai Simon’s opening lecture and welcome drinks attended by more than a thousand participants.

New for 2013 was the workshop Effective networking for researchers headed by Sarah Blackford, head of Education and Public Affairs at the Society for Experimental Biology in Lancaster, UK. “Today, the majority of people secure their jobs through networking so it is an important skill for the professional development,” explains the trainer. 37 young scientists registered for this session to learn how to increase their networking confidence and how to make the most of events such as scientific conferences. Conveniently, they also got a chance to meet at least a dozen of fellow delegates before the meeting started. “Do not stay on your own or within your own group throughout the whole conference. You have to make an effort and speak to other people even if you are an introverted type of a person,” advises Sarah.

In the How to get you paper published workshop, EMBO editors Thomas Lemberger and Karin Dumstrei each gave a talk about how to compose well-structured and straight forward manuscripts and also what ethical issues should be considered when submitting a scientific paper to a journal. According to their tips, each participant received an abstract and was expected to point out its strengths and weaknesses – including the title, which is often key for raising interest of the editor, reviewer and later on the reader. EMBO Molecular Medicine editor Céline Carret and EMBO head of publications Bernd Pulverer gave insight into the day-to-day life of a scientific editor and the character of the job. During an informal lunch session participants were invited to ask questions about both – the editorial process and the job.  “More and more young scientists are interested in career paths away from the bench,” says Céline.

The full-day Job Applications workshop was fully booked in advance – as in previous years. To prepare for it, participants were asked to send in a mock job application and CV that were commented and revised during the workshop. Particularly well received was the practical advice such as to always have an up-to-date CV ready and to engage in extracurricular activities. In mock job interviews two participants were “grilled” with detailed questions about why they apply for this job. Checking the potential employer's “about us” website is not enough to give convincing answers, was the bottom line of the interview training.

The workshop was complemented by a career options lunch with nine speakers highlighting alternative career paths such as industry, scientific publishing or technology transfer.