Hematology Career Planner
Every hematology trainee, whether an MD/DO or PhD, should have a plan for career success. To help you start planning for a successful career in hematology, the ASH Trainee Council has created this career-development tool.
PhD
- Choose a dissertation mentor and a laboratory.
- Select lab rotations to evaluate if the mentor can develop your research interest.
- Critically evaluate your criteria and preferences for mentor selection.
- Meet and talk to lab members and gather information on graduation timeline, funding sources, publication records, and life after graduation.
- Choose a lab where you will be satisfied spending the next four to five years.
- Identify a research project.
- Figure out potential projects during lab rotations.
- Outline a thesis project by the middle to end of your second year, and evaluate if research goals are realistically achievable within the PhD timeline.
- Determine your interest among basic, translational, and clinical projects.
- Apply for NIH predoctoral fellowship (NRSA-F31) or similar opportunities in your second year.
- Apply for institutional training grants and mentoring fellowships for doctoral students.
- Use ASH’s Grants Clearinghouse to find relevant grant opportunities.
- Join ASH as a graduate student member.
- Attend the ASH annual meeting.
- Submit an abstract by the deadline in early-August.
- Attend special trainee events to make the most of your annual meeting experience.
- Prepare for qualifying exams and thesis proposal.
- Take scientific writing courses and attend grant writing workshops.
- Attend institutional/departmental seminars and journal clubs.
- Decide on academic versus non-academic career paths early.
- Academic route: Look for postdoc positions outside your institution, and continue to build connections.
- Non-academic route: Identify postdocs or positions in industry, scientific writing, editing, consulting, patent law, etc.
- Alternative career paths: Meet and talk to people outside academia who have achieved similar professional or personal goals.
- Publish in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Plan on submitting at least one high-impact primary author publication and one small publication by your fourth year.
- Start early by organizing the figures and result section, fill in required gaps by continuing experiments, and then finish the introduction and discussion.
- Work on short-term achievable projects that can lead to likely publications, even if they are smaller.
- Consider writing one or two review articles or commentary on your research related topic with a research advisor or a collaborator.
- Continue to apply for predoctoral fellowships available from federal or non-federal organizations.
- Consider applying for smaller grants, institutional awards, or joint grants with collaborators.
- Use ASH’s Grants Clearinghouse to find hematology-related grant opportunities.
- Every application, even if it does not get funded, is a chance to learn how to turn results into grant proposals by developing a clear research plan.
- Develop a collaborative network.
- Identify collaborators, including co-trainees, post-docs, bioinformaticians, and statisticians.
- Establish expectations and clarify authorship order if a collaborative project matures to the publication level.
- Be cautious about getting involved in too many collaborative projects, and always prioritize your own thesis project.
- Attend the ASH annual meeting.
- Submit an abstract by the deadline in early-August.
- Attend special trainee events, including the ASH Trainee Council reception, to meet co-fellows and senior ASH members.
- Prioritize and make progress on your thesis project.
- Clearly outline a project proposal and plan timeline for achievement of each aim.
- Continue to build data and design experiments to ask hypothesis-driven questions.
- Aim to turn each project into a manuscript.
- Avoid having too many secondary projects that can become distractions.
- Consider summarizing results regularly to visualize a bigger picture by regularly presenting at lab meetings or departmental seminars.
- Take courses on statistics, large data analysis platforms, or learn programming language if it is applicable to the research project.
- Update your CV constantly to maintain track of talks, posters, publications, and grants.
- Prepare your NIH biosketch for postdoctoral position application.
- Attend career-development workshops and talks at your local institution and at conferences.
- Identify a research area and mentor.
- Identify a research area you would like to pursue as a long-term career after transitioning to independence (consider translational research).
- Choose a mentor with a good track-record of supporting postdoctoral trainees.
- Evaluate the lab environment, scientific productivity, publication record, and funding sources during your lab visit.
- Evaluate institutional environment and resources critical for future grant applications.
- Contact previous trainees who recently graduated from the same lab.
- Continue to develop mentor relationships.
- Meet with your advisor on a weekly basis.
- Discuss expectations for funding and think about grants early.
- Set a clear timeline for postdoc training (not more than 5 years).
- Be a proactive mentee: set concrete goals, be timely and prepared at meetings, be willing to accept and act on advice or criticism, and be trustworthy.
- Understand expectations that determine transition to an independent position.
- Academic tenured track: Gain national prominence in a thematic area relevant to postdoc research, and demonstrate independence at the postdoc level by publishing in a high-profile journal and receiving funding.
- Independent group leader in industry: Gain national prominence in an area relevant to your field of interest by publishing, applying for patents, designing therapeutic compounds, and developing your expertise.
- Non-tenured track/teaching: Gain teaching experience to transition to an instructor position.
- Start looking for alternative career paths early if academia does not interest you.
- Focus on your primary research project.
- Continue to build the research team.
- Turn early results into abstracts.
- Turn abstracts into small manuscripts.
- Turn manuscripts into grant proposals.
- Work on smaller secondary projects that have high likelihood of publication.
- Consider reviews, meta-analysis, and feasibility projects.
- Turn each project into a manuscript before starting a new one.
- Avoid having too many secondary projects that can become distractions.
- Apply for postdoctoral fellowships in your first year, including NIH F32, ACS Postdoctoral Fellowship, or NCS.
- Apply for career-development awards, such as the ASH Scholar Award and Translational Research Training in Hematology in your second or third year.
- Apply for one of the ASH Abstract Achievement Awards as a postdoctoral fellow and earn the opportunity to present your work at the ASH annual meeting.
- Use ASH’s Grants Clearinghouse to find hematology-related grant opportunities.
- Apply for institutional grant support even if it is a small amount of funding.
- Apply for NIH K99/R00 (pathway to independence) in your fourth year.
- Apply for NIH K22 or similar career transition grants if unsuccessful with K99, and eventually turn it into an R01.
- Showcase your research by doing departmental, national, and international presentations as talks or posters.
- Go to small meetings to develop your network and to get to know the leaders in your field.
- Attend the ASH annual meeting.
- Submit an abstract by the deadline in early-August.
- Attend special trainee events to make the most of your annual meeting experience.
- Continue to deliver presentations locally and nationally and keep a teaching dossier.
- Attend grant writing workshops and career-related talks about how to succeed in academia or industry.
- Take courses and obtain certificates that can complement your research direction.
- Consider doing two short postdocs instead of one if your first postdoctoral experience doesn’t fit your needs.