‘Unexpected career paths disclosed at Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation’

When you think of Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation, you definitely think of blood: Blood supply, transfusion... As regard to professions, nurses, technicians determining blood types and receptionists may come to your mind. What else? Anything interesting for PhDs? On 7 October 2010  PCDI and Amsterdam Biomed Cluster co-organised a company visit to this hybrid organisation (both non-for-profit and for profit) to explore the careers it harbours.

A spur to action: It is Your Future, Your Choice!

Know your talents! Reflect on your work and yourself! Dare to try new things! These were the most heard pieces of advice at this year’s PCDI Postdoc Retreat. Over 100 postdocs and final-year PhD students gathered at Kapellerput in Heeze from February 16-18 2011 to reflect on their current position, explore possibilities for their next career step, discuss developments in the scientific world, broaden their horizons, find out how varied careers in the different areas of the Life Sciences can be and how important it is to think ahead and choose a career path that suits you best. ‘Your Future, Your Choice!’ was therefore the theme of the fifth PCDI Postdoc Retreat.

Are you aware of the many opportunities for young life scientists in the Dutch Life Sciences sector?

A PhD in Life Sciences is very valuable to pursue all kinds of career paths. That’s an important message the Postdoc Career Development Initiative (PCDI) is communicating to young researchers. I have a PhD and some years of experience as a postdoc and yes, I believe there are more career options than in academia alone. But figuring out what opportunities are out there and whether they would suit me, is pretty tough.

‘Research at a spin-off company is not that different from academic research!’

Ever thought about a career at a spin-off company? On 1 June 2010 PCDI and Amsterdam Biomed Cluster co-organised a visit of two spin-off companies, AIMM Therapeutics and Arthrogen, to explore this career path. How do spin-off companies relate to academia? What are the similarities and differences between spin-off and academia? What challenges can a scientist expect? And what about job security?

There is a lot you can do as a PhD to increase your chances of a successful career

88 early career researchers, 12 parallel workshops, 9 keynote lectures, 3 days away from the lab and one excellent Postdoc Committee... these were the main ingredients for PCDI"s Postdoc Retreat 2010 which took place from 21 - 23 April in Kapellerput, Heeze, where postdocs and final year PhD students come together to reflect their current position and their career perspectives. What challenges are out there and more importantly: what do I want?

What did the participants learn?

Online contest on your interpretation of "Success!"

What does success mean to you? Winning the Nobel-prize, finishing the ultimate experiment, winning the karaoke-contest at the Postdoc Retreat or something totally different? Something already accomplished or something you aspire for the future?

Budding photographers unleashed their creativity and submitted up to 3 photos of their interpretation of the theme ‘Success!’. Find out who won an inspirational set of books and everlasting fame...

Insights into careers at four non-profit organisations - Utrecht, 29 January 2010

What is it like to work for a non-profit organisation as a PhD? The non-profit organisation is a fairly unknown career path, while interesting positions for PhDs can be found at this branch. PCDI invited four PhDs from four different non-profit organisations over to speak about their career and the choices they made, their daily work and future perspectives.

Insights into a biotech company for young academics - Utrecht, 30 October 2009

‘A career in scientific research outside academia, it is possible!’

This was probably the most important message the 40 early career researchers took home from the Genmab company visit on 30 October 2009, organized by the Postdoc Career Development Initiative. PCDI offered postdocs and final year PhD students the opportunity to spend half a day at the company, to learn about the core business, to personally meet the scientists and fire all their questions about career options.

Insights into the pharmaceutical industry for young academics - Haarlem, 25 September 2009

‘Only few of the big pharmaceutical companies do Research & Development in the Netherlands!’

‘If you cling to doing research, the big pharma’s in the Netherlands may seem uninteresting to you but if you open up and look beyond R&D, you may discover a variety of most interesting careers.’

‘When recruiting for new employers, pharmaceutical companies select people rather for their personality traits than for their qualifications.’

Postdocs in Life Sciences take off for the future!

Three days away from your pipettes, no tissue culture and not even one scientific talk. On 24 - 26 June 2009, eighty postdocs and final year PhD students in Life Sciences gathered to reflect their career. Surrounded by key players from academia, policymakers and entrepreneurs from industry, burning questions could finally be asked: ‘What are my career perspectives?’, ‘What are my options if I were to leave academia?’, ‘What are my chances and how can I improve them?’,’ Is the outlook really as grim as some of us may think?’. Find out what early career researchers learned at the PCDI Postdoc retreat and what happened in Heeze-Kapellerput making them so determined to take charge of their future.