Today, biomedical graduate students and postdoctoral researchers face a very difficult job market once they complete their training. Despite spending sometimes a decade honing their skills, many now struggle to secure employment in ways that worked for their colleagues just a few years ago. This situation often leads to deep frustration, disappointment, and anxiety, especially for foreign trainees who may be dependent on employment to maintain their immigration status.
One of the most valuable tools in a tough job market is building a professional network, but this is often easier said than done. Networking can lead to referrals, direct contact with recruiters, hidden employment opportunities, as well as mentoring relationships that support your personal and professional growth. While graduate students and postdoctoral trainees in the sciences receive extensive training and mentoring from their academic advisors, expanded mentorship provides valuable networking capabilities and provides students and postdocs with mentorship and guidance they can use to shape their career paths. It can provide an objective source of knowledge.
But for graduate students and postdocs who are already balancing research, writing, and job hunting, networking can often be overwhelming. One effective approach to helping trainees build professional connections is to facilitate initial introductions. Lowering barriers to networking can greatly improve the ability of graduate students and postdocs to navigate their career paths.
Our institution, Scripps Research, a nonprofit biomedical research institution that is also home to the Skaggs School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, has leveraged our alumni network of graduate students and postdocs to establish a new alumni mentorship program . The current traineeship consists of approximately 400 graduate students and 300 postdoctoral researchers. During the first two years of the program, we paired 87 graduate students with postdocs (mentees) and alumni (mentors) for one-on-one mentoring. We are pleased that all mentees who enrolled in the program were matched. In the future, we plan to expand support for our alumni community and secure more alumni mentors by acquiring more current alumni email addresses and creating targeted LinkedIn ads.
The program was formed using guidance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM resources and is based on the mentee’s career interests, field of study, and shared identity with the alumni mentor. The combination has been adjusted accordingly. Through these relationships, mentees develop professional networks, often through introductions that snowball into connections. In addition, mentors have guided mentees as they explore diverse career paths, build professional skills, and refine their applications, and have also provided psychosocial support during these difficult transitions.
The program is semi-structured and lasts from 3 to 6 months, with at least one meeting per month, typically via Zoom. The program provides initial mentorship training for mentors and mentees and includes suggested discussion topics such as career transitions, life setbacks and challenges, strategies for building resilience, and professional etiquette and communication. We will provide you with a resource guide. Program administrators will host a virtual kickoff event that includes popular speed networking and mentoring sessions. This year, we welcomed Harvard-trained geneticist Joan Kamens as the keynote speaker to kick off the program’s launch. To ensure connection, we send out a one-month check-in survey to address challenges such as mentees not reaching out to their mentors. It also provides people with the opportunity to evaluate results and suggest topics and other ideas on how to improve the program in order to continuously improve the program.
One of this year’s Class of 2024, a third-year graduate student with a passion for structural biology, said: He provided me with a lot of valuable advice on personal career development and actively guided every conversation we had. He introduced me to numerous networking resources and encouraged me to go beyond my comfort zone and tackle things that scared me. ”
“As a result, I experienced great growth throughout the process,” the student continued. I gained a deeper understanding of my career and personal development goals, expanded my network of contacts, and learned how to effectively establish my own network. Overall, I feel more confident. I am very grateful to have had such great mentors and was lucky to be a part of this program. ”
Another mentee said the program “gave me greater reflection on my goals in pursuing science, clarified general expectations for success in the field, improved my presentation and grant writing skills, and helped me get back on my feet.” It helped me develop my way of thinking.”
The objectives of our program are:
Mentee goals
Build a network of support and access additional mentors Prepare for a career within and beyond the academy Improve your professional skills including networking, informational interviews, and career exploration Gain industry insights An inclusive and supportive environment Provide nurturing psychosocial support
Mentor goals
Enhance alumni engagement with the Scripps research community Develop leadership skills to share knowledge and insights from professional experience
organizational goals
Supporting the comprehensive training of graduate students and postdocs Strengthening the professional development of trainees Expanding connections with other institutions, organizations, and industry Promoting inclusion and belonging for trainees and graduates Improving alumni engagement and provide career insights to inform current training opportunities and areas for improvement at Scripps that embrace diverse perspectives.
Additionally, we assessed satisfaction based on four program objectives:
Engagement activities, participant satisfaction, learning and development, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We found that 97 percent of mentees would recommend the program to other Scripps Research trainees, and 80 percent of mentors would recommend the program to other Scripps Research alumni. Some mentors reported low satisfaction due to unresponsive mentees.
We have learned that it is important to contact both mentors and mentees about a month into the program to ensure we are making the best match. In some cases, a mentee has left Scripps Research and we will try to rematch the mentor with another mentee whenever possible. In the future, we would like to consider small group mentoring and expand the pool of available alumni mentors through increased marketing efforts. By supporting graduate students and postdocs in this way, we can help them navigate a difficult job market and find success even during difficult times.
Delaney Dann is a former postdoctoral and graduate student professional development manager at Scripps Research and a member of the Graduate Career Consortium. She currently teaches in the Biological Sciences Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Lee Tacliad is Scripps Research’s Employer and Alumni Engagement Manager, consortium member, and Southwest Regional Director. For additional resources and information regarding the objectives of the Scripps Research Alumni Mentorship Program, please contact cpdo@scripps.edu.
