May 10, 2016

The room was abuzz with conversation. At times, serious exchanges ensued, a flurry of questions and responses. At other times, laughter and nodding heads.

For the third year in a row, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows gathered for Career Networking Night in order to converse with professionals about future career paths. As in past years, there was a particular emphasis on options outside of academic research labs. 

How did you get to where you are? What's the most rewarding thing about your job? Are you hiring?

This year's event, sponsored by the OHSU School of Medicine Alumni Association, took place on the evening of May 3 as part of OHSU Research Week 2016. Students and postdocs met with 24 professionals – including alumni – representing a variety of science-related fields.

"By learning about the range of different careers and unique career paths available to them, postdocs and graduate students will have a better sense of the steps they need to take to achieve their career goals after their training," said Abby Dotson, Ph.D., an OHSU postdoc and member of the School of Medicine Alumni Council who organized the event. "This year, we had faculty representatives from various academic settings, including state universities, small liberal arts and OHSU, scientists from both big and small industry, a wide range of alternative science careers, big data, intellectual property, project/lab management and admin/compliance just to name a few."

Research Week is a series of events and activities celebrating the research taking place at OHSU. More than 400 participants took part this year. View the list of awardees, including winners of the student Three Minute Thesis Competition.