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Microbiology Career Ideas & Resources

Many students feel uninformed about potential careers available to a person with a Ph.D. in Microbiology. We want to provide information to promote consideration of potential careers available to students. This page is targeted specifically toward microbiology graduate students. Beginning students can also learn about potential careers and contemplate steps to prepare themselves during their Ph.D. (e.g., job-shadowing). Advanced students can network and formulate concrete career plans.

Quick links to Information:

Possible Career Areas:

Academic
Industry/Business
State/Federal Government & granting institutions
Writing/media
Law
Clinical

Campus Career Resources

Online Career Resources

Career & Job sites
Advice & Graduate School sites

v Academic
Ø Roles
- § Professor
- § Research Scientist/Lab manager
- § Administrator
- § Lab instructor
- § Teacher
- § Postdoc
Ø Settings
- § Research university or college like UW-Madison
- § University or college where teaching is emphasized
- § Community college, technical college, or prep school
v Industry/Business
Ø Roles
- § Research & Development
- § Production/scale-up
- § Quality Control
- § Project Manager
- § Administration
- § Consultant (corporate or independent)
- § Sales representative
- § Marketing
- § Start new business
Ø Settings
- § Large pharmaceutical & bioscience corporations
- § Small bioscience corporations
- § Start-up biotechs
v State/Federal Government &granting institutions
Ø Roles
- § Research
- § Administration
Ø Settings
- § State Lab of Hygiene
- § State Crime Lab
- § Environmental Protection Agency
- § National Institutes of Health
- § Department of Energy
- § National Science Foundation
- § United States Department of Agriculture
- § Food & Drug Administration
v Writing/media
Ø Roles
- § Technical writer
- § Reporter
- § Freelance writer
- § Web designer
Ø Settings
- § Journals
- § Magazines
- § Newspapers
- § Industry
- § Government
- § Non-profit
v Law (law firms or industry)
Ø Roles
- § Patent lawer
- § Litigation lawyer
- § Business lawyer
Ø Settings
- § Law firm
- § University
- § Industry
- § WARF-type foundation
v Clinical
Ø Roles
- § Diagnostic microbiology
- § diagnostic molecular biology
Ø Settings
- § Hospital
- § Private reference laboratory
- § Industry: R&D for diagnostic systems
Campus Career Resources:
UW Career Services http://www.wisc.edu/wiscinfo/student/#2
CALS Career Services http://www.cals.wisc.edu/students/careerServices/
L&S Career Services http://www.lssaa.wisc.edu/careers/
International Careers http://www.wisc.edu/globalstudies/goglobal/
UW MBA program for Life Sciences http://www.bus.wisc.edu/graduateprograms/smiles/default.asp
Campus Teaching/Learning Community:
Delta Teaching/Learning Community http://www.delta.wisc.edu/index.html
HHMI New Generation Program http://scientificteaching.wisc.edu
Center for Biology Education http://www.wisc.edu/cbe/

Online Career Resources:

Career & Job Sites

Rank	URL	Description
***	www.sciencejobs.com	searchable jobs by topic, keyword, location
***	http://www.nature.com/	good resources and searchable job listings (follow links to job section)
***	http://recruit.sciencemag.org	Science listing site, good information, job listings
***	www.asm.org	American Society for Microbiology
***	www.biospace.com	searchable career center, many phamaceuticals and biotech companies by region; good amount of resources
***	http://www.justgarciahill.org/	JUST GARCIA HILL: A virtual community for minorities in science
***	http://www.gs.howard.edu/agep/resources.htm	A list on Howard Universityâs website of resources for underrepresented minorities
***	http://www.mentornet.net/	e-Mentoring network for women in engineering and science
**	www.science.org	NextWave site
**	www.grantsnet.org	by AAAS/HHMI - find funds/post doc info, biomedical focus
**	www.rileyguide.com/science.html	links to web sites for jobs, with site descriptions
**	www.medzilla.com	many company links to look at their job postings, searchable lists also
**	www.postdocjobs.com	not bad, postdoc listings, some grant/resume info also
**	www.microbes.info	comprehensive links to different types of careers, especially government
**	www.jobs.nih.gov	NIH official job listing web site - it's a start·
*	http://science.education.nih.gov	LifeWorks Careers link has very general info on different types of careers, info on job sector growth, too.
*	www.bioview.com	links to big pharma companies
*	www.bio.org	Biotechnology Industry Organization
*	www.scijobs.org	Search for jobs (by type & region), submit a resume.

Advice & Graduate School Sites

Rank	URL	Description
***	http://www.smi.stanford.edu/people/pratt/smi/advice.html	Graduate School Survival Guide - serious and realistic advice
***	http://www.personal.umich.edu/~danhorn/graduate.html	Graduate Student Resources on the Web - interesting links in different topic areas
***	http://www.cs.indiana.edu/HTMLit/how.2b/how.2b.html	Marie desJardins serious advice on How To Be a Good Graduate Student
***	http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/hitch4.html	fun to read with a good perspective on getting a PhD from someone who's done it
***	www.PhDcomics.com	it's cheered up a lot of students·not that we advocate wasting time
*	www.nagps2.org	National Association of Graduate-Professional Students web site

Last update: 2.06.05

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