Leaving the lab in graduate school?

Abstract

Career Development The academic system cannot support the current volume of Ph.D. students, and the lack of training in transferrable skills during graduate school compounds this problem. To investigate the efficacy of internships as career exploration tools, Chatterjee et al. used a cohort model where graduate students completed one internship as part of the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training program. Participants described having learned marketable skills, or CV builders, that they predicted would help differentiate them in the job market. Additionally, participants described a variety of ways that they were able to transfer their industry learning back to their academic and research lab context. Perhaps most valuable were the industry mentoring and networking opportunities, which help show students that there is more than one way to be a scientist. CBE Life Sci. Educ. 18 , ar20 (2019).