Attending conferences can feel overwhelming for young scientists because there’s a lot expected from us at these events — we’re supposed to learn the latest science, present our own work and make connections with potential collaborators or future employers.
It’s a lot.
Luckily, many meetings are building resources into the actual conference programming to help early career scientists with these daunting tasks. I was happy to see last week when I attended the American Heart Association’s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) conference, that the program was sprinkled with a multiple sessions specifically tailored for young scientists.
Attendees during the Early Career Investigator Social Event at AHA’s BCVS 2019 conference. Photo by © AHA/Todd Buchanan 2019.
Two sessions in particular called “Oh All the Places You Can Go … With a Degree” and “What I Wish My Mentor/Mentee Told Me” were a welcome change from the rest of the conference — and they were actually helpful.
Both events were career development panels, but they each had their own twist.
The “Oh All the Places You Can Go … With a Degree” panel had professors, a grant writer/instructor at a large cardiovascular institute and an industry scientist. The panelists’ diverse backgrounds and experiences allowed for an engaging discussion about the most effective way to start searching for a job, especially if you’re not looking to go the traditional academia route. This was particularly welcome since the chance of young scientists landing an academic position is insanely low. Young scientists need to be prepared for this environment.
During the “What I Wish My Mentor/Mentee Told Me” session, graduate students, postdocs and faculty talked about the academic side of mentoring — how to find a good mentor, how to be a good mentor and what to do if problems arise. Overall, I thought this session was interesting but most of the questions were geared towards the professor’s perspective. Also, it quickly became apparent that the participating professors were the actual mentors of the trainees on the panel, so it didn’t seem like an environment where the trainees could be completely honest about their work experiences because their bosses were sitting right next to them.
Both sessions were really well attended with almost every seat filled. I’m really excited to see events like these at future BCVS conferences and it seems like I’m not the only one.