Our Insights

  This website and others are filled with examples of the “soft skills” that aren’t taught in graduate school, but which are absolutely necessary for a job in industry. I’ve written about some of these in my blog, including communication…

  Many of my blog columns here describe the difficulties that some experience when they discover how different life is between the university and industry. I write about these things because I have a great passion for training young scientists and…

  (This piece was written for graduate students back in 2009 when the job market was not in good shape, and I hope it still has value to you in your job offer decisions). It’s frustrating to try and figure…

  The senior executive leaned forward before entrusting me with his secret of success. This was a seasoned President of a billion-dollar corporation–someone whose words should be taken seriously. We had been discussing the personal characteristics of his most successful…

  I got caught off guard in a recent workshop when one of my audience members asked me to describe the single most difficult career problem. For someone who writes and speaks about these issues all the time, it shouldn’t…

(This is a classic oldie, published a decade or two ago in our column for Science. I hope you will enjoy it — DJ). As a recent interviewing process came to a close, the hiring manager prepared to extend an…