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Planning your career:
get ahead in Metabolomics by
getting started!
EMN speakers:
Domenica Berardi
Thomas Vial
Aleš Kvasnička
Millena Barros Santos
Silvia Radenkovic
Simone Zuffa
Breanna Dixon
Panelists:
Natasa Giallourou
Emma Schymanski
Tomáš Pluskal
Ian Castro-Gamboa
Pieter Dorrestein
Download the slides here
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Is this your first time to the Early-career Members Network workshop?
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Early-career Members Network (EMN)
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Established in 2013, EMN aims to support early-career researchers (ECRs) in metabolomics by fostering communication, collaboration, opportunities, developmental learning, and professional growth within the Metabolomics Society.
EMN Reception and QUIZ night
Tuesday at 7pm
EMN Booth
Main Exhibition Hall
Workshop objectives
Section 1 - Stepping into your future career: planning and seeking skills
Identification of skill sets and improving them by practical strategies
Exploring career options for making an informed career decision
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Section 2 - How to effectively communicate your skills and experience on your CV and motivation letter
Learning strategies of self-promotion
How to prepare your CV
Section 3 - Discussion with panelists from academia and/or industry
Sharing experiences and learning from the career path
Acknowledging and reflecting on the challenges faced by underrepresented groups
▪ Providing a comprehensive background on strategies for skills identification and development
▪ Effectively communicate your skills and experience on your CV and motivation letter
Where would you like to work?
Industry or Academia?
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Section 1:�“Stepping into your future career: planning and seeking skills”
Providing a comprehensive background on effective strategies for skills identification and development
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What do you think is the most important skill for a employer?
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What do you think is the most important skill for an employer?
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What do you think is the most important skill for an employer?
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What do you think is the most important skill for a employer?
STEM study, UK, 2023 The employability skills science graduates need
88% of employers
→ communication in the top 3
Top 5 Non-Technical Skills Scientists Need to Succeed in Industry
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Different types of skills
Skill: ability or expertise to perform a specific task or activity effectively. It involves the acquisition of knowledge, practical know-how, and proficiency through training, practice, or experience.
Soft skills
Emotional intelligence, communication, adaptability.
Hard skills
Specific, teachable, measurable, job-specific abilities.
Transferable skills
Applicable across different jobs and industries.
Personal skills
Individual's innate abilities and character traits.
Knowledge-based skills
Acquired through learning & education.
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The (almost) most important skill
ECRs generally work on specific projects
→ Experts in their field
… but have limited number of technical skills to offer an employer.
Employers are (the most) interested in Transferable Skills learned during graduate studies and PhD
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Other important skills
Employed PhDs rated importance of skills for their current role
Top 5:
1- Time management
2- Written communication
3- Gather / interpret information
4- Problem solving / decision making
5- Oral communication
Sinche et al, 2017, PLoS ONE
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Do you know your own skills?
How do you identify your skills?
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STARR method: evaluate & present your skills
Situation - the situation you had to deal with
Task - the task you were given to do
Action - the action you took
Result - what happened as a result of your action
Reflection - what you learned from the experience
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STARR method: evaluate & present your skills
Situation -
Task -
Action -
Result -
Reflection -
In addition to my postdoc project: wish to develop science education and teaching skills.
With an educational organisation: present the concept of an epidemic to middle school students and to model the propagation of the disease.
I've created workshops, games and presented films to teach scientific concepts and let the students create an epidemic.
After 6 months, with a writer: students invented a story, produced a booklet describing the epidemic with all the scientific concepts they learned.
I learnt how to:
Practice the STARR Method
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STARR method: evaluate & present your skills
Situation - the situation you had to deal with
Task - the task you were given to do
Action - the action you took
Result - what happened as a result of your action
Reflection - what you learned from the experience
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Diversity of the Hard and Soft skills in 2024
Resources
Hard and Soft skills
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How to improve your skills?
1- Set goals�(set smaller time-oriented goals, self-reports)
2- Seek mentorship
3- Get feedback on your work�(MetSoc Forum, peer review of preprints)
4- Always try to improve�(free courses, tutorials, webinars)
Questions?
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Section 2:�How to effectively communicate your skills and experience on your CV and motivation letter
This is advice but at the end you get to make your own decision on how the document will look like (No two documents will look alike).
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DISCLAIMER
First step: Where will I go?
Job search:
Searching for positions
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How senior MetSoc members find candidates
Job search:
Searching for candidates
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First step: Important aspects when looking for a position
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https://www.hoganassessments.com/blog/the-perfect-job/
1st
2nd
First step: Reach out to a potential employer
Being thoughtful and strategic about reaching out to a recruiter is critical to your success in the job search process.
- Be specific, not general = prepare a different email for each position
- Show evidence of research
- Keep it simple
- Respect the relationship
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EXAMPLE
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-reach-out-to-a-recruiter#How%20to%20contact%20a%20recruiter
When applying for a job in academia do you send a CV or a Resume?
Do you know the difference between a CV or Resume?
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CV vs. Resume
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| CV | RESUME |
PURPOSE | Ongoing full professional and education history | Targeted marketing tool (summary of experiences and skills) |
CONTENT | A wide range of professional accomplishments and activities (e.g. publications) | Succinct and relevant to the position (no publications) |
LENGTH | No limit | 1 to 2 pages |
CV/Resume
Who is reading your CV/resume? How do you need to alter your CV/resume depending on who is reading it?
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How do you set up a CV/Resume?
MUST
Contact information
Education
Experience
Always for a Resume not CV:
Summary of qualifications
CV
Teaching/mentoring
Leadership experience
Grant support
Honors and awards
Professional memberships: e.g. EMN
Presentations - Oral & Posters
Publications
Patents/Inventions
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Setting up a CV/Resume
MUST
Contact information
Education
Experience
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https://icc.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk2236/files/local_resources/resume-samples/cv-science.pdf
Setting up a resume
Always for a Resume (not a CV):
Summary of qualifications
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https://icc.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk2236/files/local_resources/resume-samples/postdoc.pdf
(Metabolomics) skills and techniques
E.g. - Biochemistry: protein purification, western blotting, …
- Analytical: biomarker identification, pharmacokinetics, annotation,...
- Instrumentation:
Mass spectrometry (MS)
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
- Software: data processing, statistical, graphical, programming languages
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Don’t use abbreviations! E.g. LC-MS, PCR
Questions?
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Research skills and techniques
What expert MetSoc members look for …
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When hiring do you have a preference for the expertise or the personality fit?
Transferable skills to highlight on your CV
Skills often gained in research are:
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Transferable skills to highlight on your CV
Skills often gained in research are:
Examples:
Helped troubleshoot faulty processes and implement solutions, established a method for …
Worked with external universities and companies spanning multiple countries which yielded # papers/patents, tools, …
# students successfully defended their thesis under my supervision and won # prizes…
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As an exercise: Ask yourself
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Setting up a cover letter
Introduce yourself
How you found the job?
Why this job? Why you? Why them?
Focus on two or three relevant qualifications from the position description
List skills, goals, evidence
Interest in an interview
Follow-up
Thank them
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Useful resources here
Employers use cover letters to…
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How do you prepare a cover letter?
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Can ChatGPT help us?
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Can ChatGPT help us? Why are you against?
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"It rarely reflects the candidate's true communication abilities, and this comes out in the interview."
"CV is fine, but for a cover letter I would like to see the candidates personal motivation for wanting to join our lab and to assess their writing skills. Its hard to ascertain a potential trainees passion/intellect/writing ability if AI generated."
"Use of Chat GPT is fine as long as it is acknowledged and used as a scaffold for a more refined and personalised output."
"If I wanted to know about the quality of a computer, I would ask chatGPT, but I want to know about the candidate."
"People are losing the ability to express themselves and communicate. AI tools are very interesting, if used appropriately, but they cannot replace critical thinking, synthesis capacity, and humanity in people. In my opinion, these three points are fundamental for a professional profile, which in addition to developing a good work, needs to interact and exchange knowledge with other human beings."
Do you have any advice for ECRs applying for jobs within the metabolomics field?
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"Be succinct and clear in your application. If there are selection criteria, make sure to explicitly address them in your application."
"Motivation letter should start with an executive summary and the letter must be written with the lab in mind to work in. Generic letters are less likely to get very far."
"Motivation and curiosity of ECRs are the most important point for me."
"Like for any other job it is essential that we feel the candidate looked into the position deeply, also looking at papers from the group beyond what is in the job offer. We expect people to come as they are and don't hesitate to ask questions during interview. Finally, I think that "modern" metabolomics require computational skills (not necessarily advanced but at least being able to launch scripts)."
"If there is a lab you are particularly interested in I would contact the lab early (6 months) before graduating or preparing to move postdoc position, as funding is often the primary issue when a PI makes a hiring decision.
Another tip is to use your network to help make an introduction to a PI/hiring committee. Perhaps attending a talk that person is giving, or even someone from their department/school is giving. Reaching out by email or on linkedin for an informational interview."
"Never underestimate yourself! And apply to positions even if you have the feeling you are not the "perfect fit", we never find the perfect fit."
Final statements
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https://www.training.nih.gov/career-services/readiness-exploration/
https://oitecareersblog.od.nih.gov
Questions?
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How can I improve my chances at a good career in metabolomics?
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Resources for ECRs in Metabolomics
Data analysis Online course
MOOC
Programming (R, Python,…)
Metabolomics Courses
EMBL
Birmingham Training Center
Workshop
Self-taught resources
Metabolomics Society
GitHub
FiehnLab
OMICtools
Data archives & resources
Metabolights
Metabolomics Workbench
GNPS, TMIC
Massbank
PRIMe
Building your CV
Academic writing
Online presence
Metabolomics jobs
Link to resources
Mentorship
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Womxn in Metabolomics (WomiX) Mentorship Program
Females in Mass Spectrometry (FeMS)
Mentorship Program
Sci.STEPS
A mentoring program for scientists
JOINING THE EMN!
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EMN Resources
- Webinars on metabolomics
- Networking events
- International affiliations
- EMN Travel Bursary Award
- ECR voices
- …
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Questions?
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Section 3:�Discussion with panelists: Sharing experiences and learning from the career path of professionals working in academia and/or industry
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