All posts by Janhavi Damani

PhD candidate | Integrative & Biomedical Physiology
Alumni Spotlight

Dr. Colleen McSweeney, Senior Scientific Consultant at Noldus Information Technology, Inc.

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We interviewed Dr. Colleen McSweeney about her experiences during graduate school at Penn State. Here, she shares her opinions and advice on how to be successful during and after graduate school.

About Colleen McSweeney, PhD

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Colleen McSweeney obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience here at Penn State in 2017. As a part of Dr. Yingwei Mao’s lab, she investigated the role of RBM8a in neurogenesis, neurodevelopment, and psychiatric disease. Dr. McSweeney is now a Senior Scientific Consultant at Noldus Information Technology, Inc., where she consults with scientists to provide them with solutions for their behavioral research needs. Thus, she serves as a liaison between company staff and clients to help create complete lab solutions.

What motivated you to choose your PhD program at Penn State? 

A couple of reasons. First, Penn State has a very collaborative environment, and the program and students have the type of culture I was looking for. I also wanted to do research on neuropsychiatric disease, and Penn State had quite a few labs that worked in that area.

How did your PhD training prepare you for your current job position? 

My PhD training taught me how to ask scientific questions, think critically, juggle multiple projects, and communicate science effectively. In my current job, I have to talk with scientists daily, communicate with them to understand their needs, and think critically to propose a solution that can help them better their science. These were skills I was able to hone in different ways at Penn State (lab, seminar groups, HGSAC, etc.)

What is something surprising that you learned about yourself during your graduate training? 

I learned that I was very good managing collaborations and projects. I didn’t need to be the smartest or most experienced person in the room to be effective. Instead, I just needed to find the best way to be able to help scientists communicate with each other and determine what needed to be done.

Describe a setback you experienced during graduate school. How did you overcome the setback and what did you learn from it? 

During my third year, my project got scooped by a lab at a different institution. It was gut-wrenching, and I didn’t know what to do. I was eventually able to pivot and take my research in a slightly different direction, and still utilize a lot of my data. There are several labs studying the same thing, and if you are on the right path, there is a good chance someone else is on it, too—which is good! You want your science to be replicable. Even if this results in someone beating you to publication, it isn’t the end of the world. Publish your data confirming their results, then add on some new data that expands the topic a bit further. There is so much unknown in science, and it is so important for labs to replicate data. Even being scooped can be a good thing!

What advice you think is the most valuable for someone who is:

Applying for graduate school: Your goal for graduate school is to acquire the tools that allow you to think critically as a scientist, as well as learn some new methods. You don’t actually need to be researching a topic you plan to research for your entire life. Focus on schools and labs that will give you the techniques to succeed, even if they are applied to a topic that you are less interested in. Once you graduate, if you stay in academia, you can research exactly what you want. Or maybe you can take the tools you learned on the way and apply it to something totally different!

Starting graduate school: Don’t get stressed by failure early on. I think the majority of my data in my thesis was generated in my last two years. For your first couple years, just focus on learning all you can, and making all the mistakes! Mistakes are how you learn and are essential to your development. You will be surprised how quickly you can generate data in your last two years.

Finishing graduate school: As you finish up your degree, look ahead and think about what career you want to pursue. It’s also okay to not know and to pursue multiple paths at the same time! I didn’t know exactly where I would end up until I accepted a job (in a type of role I didn’t really know even existed). Success after graduate school also requires so many skills other than the research methods you use. Take time to pursue extracurricular activities that can help develop your interpersonal skills, as they are crucial to success!

Interview by Janhavi Damani

Career Feature

Dr. Rasika Hudlikar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the NIH

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We invited Dr. Rasika Hudlikar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD to tell us about her career as a postdoctoral researcher. Here, Dr. Hudlikar talks about some responsibilities and expectations from her job and offers some advice to those who are interested in pursuing a career in research at the NIH.

About Rasika Hudlikar, Ph.D.

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Rasika Hudlikar, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH working with diverse team that conducts clinical and translational projects in the area of lung cancer research. Her applied research spans the fields of microbiology, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, and in vitro and in vivo oncology. Alongside her multifaceted role as a postdoctoral research fellow at the NCI, Rasika is an editorial member and reviewer for multiple scientific publishing houses and a freelance science writer.

How did you get your current job? Describe the path to your current position.

I obtained my BS and MS degrees in Microbiology. I pursued my Ph.D. in Life Science (Cancer Biology) at The Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in Mumbai, India. After obtaining my doctoral degree, I began to explore postdoctoral research opportunities, as I was primarily inclined towards conducting research in the field of disease biology. Although I received multiple offers, I decided to take up my first career opportunity as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in a lab where my current research interests aligned with ongoing projects and provided me with opportunities to incorporate new techniques in lung cancer research. After serving 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers, my interests leaned toward application-oriented and patient-based projects. This led me to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, where I have been working since the last 6 months with a diverse research team, comprising head and associate surgeons, bioinformaticians, and senior scientists to conduct research aimed at understanding the complexity of lung cancer, particularly from a clinical standpoint.

 What is a usual day/week at your job position?

My day primarily involves conducting research/benchwork that consists of designing and performing experiments for both independent and collaborative research projects. I’ve listed three most important tasks in addition to my daily research activities:

  • Presenting/discussing research articles
  • Staying up to date with the latest publications in the research field
  • Discussing potential research ideas with my own team as well as with other clinicians at NCI.

My other research activities involve attending scientific conferences to present our work, collaborating with scientists and clinicians in the US, as well as facilitating international research collaborations to promote diversity from various ethnic backgrounds, which is a crucial aspect of scientific research. One of the ultimate goals of our research group is to disseminate the results of our work to the scientific community by publishing our findings in reputed international journals. As a postdoctoral fellow at NIH, we are always encouraged to actively participate in professional development activities outside the lab, for example attending seminars, colloquiums involving career and personal development, including CV/resume writing, job applications, preparing for the interview process, etc. The NIH provides an amazing opportunity for postdocs to acquire various skills, including mentoring students, judging poster presentations at conferences, and preparing candidates for taking up future career endeavors.

From your experience, what does a company/institution look for in candidates applying to your job position?

I believe that dedication to research is an extremely important aspect of working at the NIH. My background in cancer research spans a broad range of experiences, including working with in vitro model systems, experimental animal studies, and human tissue samples, all of which strengthened my application for a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH. From my experience, research institutions also look for candidates who are eager to take on completely new research projects with a diverse soft skillset, including quick learning ability, teamwork, collaborating, and multitasking! Furthermore, developing strong communication skills is an important aspect in postdoctoral research as most work responsibilities involve meeting with a diverse team, including surgeons, bioinformaticians, and global research collaborators where one is expected to not only explain the research with clarity but also understand the challenges at their respective ends. Overall, horizontal learning allowed me to focus on improving my research expertise, whereas vertical learning enabled me to put that knowledge into practice.

What skills have made you and others in your field successful? Were there any unexpected skills that you needed to learn?

Looking back, my career path involved a series of stepping stones, starting from conducting research involving handling organisms at a microscopic scale during my graduate studies in microbiology, to handling organisms at a macroscopic scale, with mice during my doctoral research to understand the complexity of diseases. The research experience I obtained during my Ph.D. was the primary step in learning the basic nuances in the research process, which involves 4 major steps: designing, executing, interpreting/analyzing, and troubleshooting experiments. To accomplish these steps, my mentors taught me in detail about how to dive into research literature to understand potential challenges and research gaps and troubleshoot experiments. After receiving my Ph.D., I began my journey as a postdoctoral fellow in the US with a diverse research culture, and it was thrilling to apply my knowledge/skills to understand different challenges in the field! Although postdoctoral research involves mentorship, I learned to how to independently conceptualize my own project, design the required experiments, conduct experiments, as well as troubleshooting them. My role as a postdoctoral fellow also gave me an amazing opportunity to mentor both Ph.D. candidates and undergraduate students with their research and thesis progress. Another important aspect of my career trajectory was my role in actively participating in professional development research opportunities, which included grant writing and evaluation, reviewing original research articles and literature reviews, as well as writing book chapters, and other university-related volunteering opportunities.

What advice do you have for current graduate students looking into work in this job position?

Learn, learn… and keep learning! Never ever give up on learning new things every day, let it be a new research paper, new techniques, new soft skills, or even new software/websites for analysis of your data. When I observe the working styles of well-renowned scientists, I noticed that the one thing common among all of them is that they never stop learning! Actively build your networking skills and stay up to date with the latest publications in your research lab as well as peers in your research field. Finally, I also suggest exploring traditional as well as non-traditional career paths associated in the STEM career to make this path more enjoying and fun!

The views expressed in this article belong to the authors and not the organization, its affiliates, or employers.

Interview by Janhavi Damani

Career Feature

Insights on Working in the Scholarly Publishing Industry

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We invited Candice Judith Dcosta to tell us about her career in the scholarly publishing industry. Here, Candice talks about some responsibilities and expectations from her job and offers some advice to those who are interested in pursuing a career in the copyediting realm of the publishing industry.

About Candice Judith Dcosta, MSc, ELS

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Candice Judith Dcosta is the Head of Copyediting Services at JMIR Publications, an open access digital health science publisher in Toronto, Canada. Her academic background includes bachelor’s and master’s degrees in life sciences and multifaceted roles in the scholarly publishing industry. She is a leader and mentor, a published author, and a certified editor (Board of Editors in Life Sciences). At work, Candice enjoys coaching and training new employees and loves working on collaborative group projects. Outside of work, Candice loves spending time with her family, Netflixing, and drinking loads of coffee!

How did you get your current job? Describe the path to your current position.

My career spans a decade of varied roles in the scholarly publishing industry. I started my journey with biomedical editing in a scholarly publishing agency, where a combination of my background in life sciences and expertise in the English language served as a great foundation for the field. Owing to my inherent people and organizational skills, I progressed into management roles within a few years. For the next 5 years, I worked with several medical editing companies on a freelance basis while pursuing a master’s degree in life sciences, a research stint at a virology institute, and other academic interests. Soon after, I was offered an opportunity at an open-access digital health science publisher in Toronto, Canada. Over the past few years, I have been the Head of Copyediting at the organization; here, I manage a group of 20+ in-house and external copyeditors while overseeing the day-to-day copyediting operations for the organization.

What is a usual day/week at your job position?

My week typically involves an assortment of tasks; I’ve noted a few important ones below:

  • managing my team,
  • training and coaching copyeditors,
  • communicating with authors through our customer support desk or directly via email,
  • overseeing assignment of incoming manuscripts,
  • coordinating between departments to ensure smooth flow of manuscripts,
  • planning capacity and growth for the department,
  • scoping and implementing new projects,
  • troubleshooting technical problems with our technology team,
  • maintaining and updating the company’s Knowledge Base,
  • helping other departments in new ventures and projects, and
  • attending meetings with my team and senior management.

From your experience, what does a company/institution look for in candidates applying to your job position?

For a managerial role within the Copyediting sphere, prior copyediting experience of biomedical journal articles is essential (at least 3-5 years). As my role is a management position, previous management of external and/or internal teams is an asset. Progression into this position would ideally be gradual, from copyeditor to team lead to manager (possibly a few more steps in between). An organization would also look for several soft skills, as these would be required for anyone assuming a leadership role. Another important aspect to consider is the candidate’s academic background. A subject area match is important for specialist/substantiative editing. For example, a candidate applying for a medical editing position should have undertaken some coursework in biomedical sciences as part of their academic background. This will ensure that the candidate understands the content assigned for editing and can easily pick up any unfamiliar concepts within the subject area.

What skills have made you and others in your field successful? Were there any unexpected skills that you needed to learn?

From my experience working with effective leaders, I can tell you that leaders have an arsenal of skills at their disposal, ones they’ve learned and accrued throughout their career. They usually lead intuitively with what feels most appropriate for the situation. A leader’s skills are a result of their knowledge and life’s experiences and those are highly subjective. In my field, most leaders have long-standing experience in the publishing industry and broadly understand most parts of the business. It is important that seasoned leaders constantly learn and grow as the field and technology continue to advance. At the other end of the spectrum, I have also witnessed people who are born leaders, who have a knack for leadership and can ace any leadership role with limited knowledge of the field. In my opinion, becoming a leader depends on how well you’re able to present yourself (your skills and knowledge) and how open you are to learning. One may have expertise in the field, but every new organization, every new role, presents new information and new challenges—one’s success depends on how quickly they are able to grasp the newness, adapt to the changes, and contribute to the organization’s goals. I believe good leaders put their faith in their people, providing minimum oversight and maximum support for their employees to do their best work. Some of the best leaders I know are realistic, supportive, and encouraging. As a leader, me motto is to lead with empathy, and it has served me well. I must mention that I have had the good fortune of working with some of the most talented, brilliant people in the industry, which has made my career very fulfilling.

Every new role brought some unexpected challenges and required quick learning, be it with new software or processes or people. A large part of one’s success in this industry depends on how well they can manage pressure, adapt to change, and learn on the go.

What advice do you have for current graduate students looking into work in this job position?

Historically, there hasn’t been much information available on career paths or job options in the copyediting realm of the publishing industry, but there are many relevant jobs available, and you don’t always require formal training to break into the field. It is important to invest some time on building your portfolio before you start the job hunt, and I’d like to give you a few pointers on how you could prepare for it while still studying:

  • Get involved in editorial boards of your university’s magazines or newsletters. This is a good starting point to showcase your understanding of editorial work, and you could also highlight some soft skills gained from the experience.
  • Get your hands on any copyediting opportunities, even if it is proofreading a friend’s thesis. If it is an unofficial stint, you can still include it in your cover letter!
  • Take courses in publishing/academic writing and editing if you have the option. These don’t strictly have to be done through formal education and they don’t have to be expensive; free massive open online courses (MOOCs) count too.
  • Create a LinkedIn account and connect with people working in publishing organizations. There are plenty of tips for professional networking online on websites like LinkedIn and Indeed. If you’re interested in scholarly publishing, look up the employees of such publishers and introduce yourself. If you’re not sure what work you specifically want to do in publishing, connect with them nonetheless and ask if they’d be open to a chat to enlighten you on the subject. Most often, they’d be happy to lend their expertise. That way, when the time comes for you to begin your job hunt, you’ll have your connections ready to go. Once you have built those useful connections in the industry, reach out to them when you are ready to apply and express your interest in the field; inquire about any available opportunities. You could also go the other way around—find relevant opportunities in an organization and then reach out to your contacts for a referral.
  • Become members of professional publishing societies like the Society of Scholarly Publishing (SSP), Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE), and Council of Science Editors (CSE). These societies host many networking events and have their own job boards. Most of these societies also have special student membership rates, which are a fraction of their regular membership fees. They also conduct mentorship programs to help groom early career professionals and guide their career development in the field. Once you become a member of such a society, explore their benefits thoroughly and take advantage of their offerings.
  • Maintain an active, updated CV always and keep a digital copy handy. You never know when or with whom you may need to share it.
  • Don’t leave any typos in your CV! Proofread your CV at least twice and run spell checks on it. Language expertise and attention to detail are primary skills hiring managers will look for in these roles; a copyediting expert will evaluate the language presented in your CV too, to sniff out these skills.

Organizations are always on the lookout for recent graduates with potential. With a little bit of relevant experience, you can break into the field and chart your career path from there. I’d like to note here that scholarly publishers are not the only organizations that employ copyeditors. Some other types of organizations that have extensive scope for (copy)editing are (medical) communication agencies, universities, publishing vendors, pharmaceutical companies, banks, and tech companies, amongst others. Some companies also offer special programs for recent graduates where they provide intensive on-the-job training. In addition, copyediting can also be performed on contract/freelance basis while you are still at university or on a break.

Coming to the CV, a recent graduate should highlight a few core skills for copyediting positions in their CV (pick all that apply):

  • English language expertise
  • any writing/editing experience
  • ability to provide constructive feedback
  • academic background match
  • expertise with MS Office (specifically MS Word, or other editing software)
  • familiarity with style guides
  • ability to work with new/proprietary software
  • keen interest in learning the work

A hiring manager would also look for certain soft skills in an applicant, including time management, attention to detail, written and oral communication skills, organizational skills, and adaptability. These are standard skills required in the publishing industry, and any student who has had to work on assignments/presentations or held a part-time job would be able to speak to at least some of them. Because an applicant may not have all the skills required for the job, the application should be supplemented with a strong cover letter showing interest in the role and potential to learn and fill any gaps. Hiring managers are aware that recent graduates may not have all the skills required for the role, so they often look for potential that will allow a candidate to grow into an asset to the company. Copyediting is a skill that can be taught if you have fluent English language skills. So, upsell the skills you have and highlight what you are capable of in your cover letter. Lay out a couple of examples of instances where you have exercised the relevant skills and tie it into a neat package demonstrating how you can meet and even surpass expectations. Extra brownie points for reading up on an organization beforehand and addressing their mission or goals in your cover letter.

As we approach the end of this article, I’d like to leave you with a few thoughts: As a graduate student, you have many valuable skills and experiences to offer any employer. Present yourself confidently—that’s half the battle won! And remind yourself that everyone starts somewhere, so why not here?

Now, if you’ve made it to the end and you’d like to test that pesky attention to detail skill…did you spot the typo left in this article?

Interview by Janhavi Damani

Alumni Spotlight

Dr. Zhi Chai, Postdoctoral Fellow at ISMMS

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We interviewed Dr. Zhi Chai about his experience during graduate school at Penn State. Here, he shares his opinions and advice on how to be successful during and after graduate school.

About Zhi Chai

ZhiChai_Sinai | LinkedIn | ORCID

Zhi obtained a Ph.D. in Integrative and Biomedical Physiology at Penn State in 2019. He is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Judy Cho Laboratory, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where their research broadly focuses on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Zhi conducts genetic, molecular, and genomic studies on large collections of research specimens, including mice, zebrafish, and humans using the BioMe® BioBank Program to investigate the pathology of ulcerative colitis and detect potential drug targets. Outside of research, Zhi loves cooking, mixology, and caring for his pet turtles and fish.

What motivated you to choose your Ph.D. program at Penn State?

During my undergraduate studies in China, my research area was primarily focused in the field of ruminant nutrition. When applying to Ph.D. Programs at Penn State, I planned to switch gears a bit and explore research focusing on human health and nutrition. After contacting several Penn State Alumni, I discovered that I was interested in working with faculty at the Integrative and Biomedical Physiology Program, an Intercollege Graduate Degree Program that is a part of the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences umbrella. Faculty members residing under the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences are from various departments, such as Animal Science, Nutritional Sciences, and Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. I contacted several faculty members from these departments; although, they were not taking new students at that time, they provided me with the opportunity to rotate at their lab! Therefore, the offer from the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Physiology was a perfect fit for me, compared to two offers from other schools I got in the meantime.

How did your Ph.D. training prepare you for your current job position?

In addition to essential research skills (critical thinking, rigorous logic, scientific communication, etc.) that most peers develop and acquire from Ph.D. programs, I was fortunate to be immersed in an interdisciplinary environment (Nutritional Sciences, Immunology, and Bioinformatics), which helped me to be resourceful, always ready to learn new things, and to never be afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone to disseminate research among varied fields! My current position as a postdoctoral fellow requires both wet and dry lab skills. To be more specific, the project that I’m working on requires experience with rodent models, performing and interpreting -omics data (single cell RNAseq, and ATAC-seq), as well as communicating with bioinformaticians in the group, all of which were core skillsets I gained during my Ph.D. at Penn State. I’m very grateful for the friends and colleagues from bioinformatics at Penn State, and among the courses I took, STAT 555 widened my horizon to the world of bioinformatics. Last not but the least, I’m also thankful for the encouragement and support from the T32 Training Grant (Physiological Adaptations to Stress) and Dr. Ross (my Ph.D. advisor), under her visionary leadership, patience, and trust, gave me confidence to design and execute an interdisciplinary project.

What is something surprising that you learned about yourself during your Ph.D.?

I was surprised by the power of maintaining a schedule book. I had some down times during my Ph.D. career due to time management issues, which affected my motivation and productivity. I had some counseling for a while, and since then, I began to actively set executable and time-bounded goals (SMART goals). I gradually realized that writing down these goals in my schedule book was actually the first step for me to estimate the amount of time I needed to dedicate to each task. This helped me overcome my concerns on not completing all my tasks in my schedule book on time.

Describe a setback you experienced. How did you overcome and learn from it?

The setback was lack of productivity and the resulting low motivation. I overcame this setback by improving my time management skills, through which I learned the importance of setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.

What advice do you think is the most valuable for someone who is:

  • Applying for graduate school. Use as many resources (e.g. networking with alumni and senior students, information interviews, masters programs, summer internships, volunteer work, or rotations) to understand the detailed process behind applying to grad school, the research field you’re interested in, and possible career paths that you can take.
  • Starting graduate school. Attend conferences as early as possible during your graduate studies. I now regret postponing my first conference for years because I wanted to perfect the project I was working on. However, now I don’t think there would ever be a “perfect” project! Even if you only have a vignette of preliminary data, it shouldn’t be the excuse for missing the benefit of your very first conference. A conference can be regarded as a motivation, reward, or a milestone. I feel it is especially crucial to get feedback as an early-career researcher, as opposed to working behind closed doors. Conferences not only widen one’s vision on how other research groups tackle the same problem, but are also great opportunities for networking. Keep visioning the career trajectory, and seek resources to develop skillsets according to that career plan.
  • Finishing graduate school. It’s been only a few years since I finished graduate school, but I’d like to share a few practical tips/suggestions:
  1. Use platforms/search engines (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, hercjobs.org) to assist your job search, with the understanding that different recruiters may have their own preference where to post their job ads.
  2. Follow your dream labs on LinkedIn or Twitter; there might be some “surprise” job ads.
  3. Job Boards of academic journals (such as Cell, Nature, and Science), the national society/association that you’re interested in, and various institutions (such as Harvard University-Office for Postdoctoral fellows; Stanford-Office of Postdoctoral Affairs)
  4. Actively network at conferences! Participating in leadership committees helps build these skills. While reading research articles, if you come across PI’s you’re interested in working with, reach out to them using contact information on their lab homepage or department websites.

Interview by Janhavi Damani