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Mentor Match Program Helps Toxicologist Address Career Challenges
Erica Dahl, an SOT member since 1999, provides her personal experience as a beneficiary of mentoring initiatives. She is now a toxicologist and study director at IIVS, Inc. in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The new SOT Mentor Match program is provided as a benefit to all SOT Members and is intended to provide services appropriate for each career stage.
The postdoctoral training period is both "years past terminal degree" and "not experience," so it is easy for industry to miss this population of highly trained scientists while attempting to fill open positions in toxicology. Since toxicologists are very much in demand, SOT has taken a proactive approach to addressing a potential labor shortage by actively reaching out to the postdoctoral population through its on-line mentoring program, Mentor Match. As a beneficiary of the pilot program, I am happy that this program has been launched formally and expanded to include scientists at all stages of career development.
Anyone who has been a postdoc knows how hard it can be to finish and move on. After earning a Ph.D. in toxicology, I saw my postdoc as an opportunity to learn something really new that would be difficult to learn in an industrial setting; in my case this was malaria research. Despite my best intentions, my 2 year postdoc stretched into 5 years, and I felt my connection to the toxicology world fade as I explored the more obscure aspects of parasite biology and was blindsided by the demands of new parenthood. I still wanted a toxicology career in industry, but hadn't had many opportunities to network with toxicologists who could offer any advice on what to do next. Since I had maintained my membership in SOT, I still received newsletters and updates from the Postdoctoral Assembly. When they announced the launch of a pilot mentoring program for postdocs, I nearly broke a finger speed-typing a "YES SIGN ME UP" reply.
I was matched with two terrific mentors who were more than happy to answer my questions by e-mail. The questions came slowly at first (Q: Is it really unprofessional for me to talk about my new baby during networking events? A: No. It's an icebreaker. Everybody does it). As I started applying for jobs, the questions came more easily (Q: Is it a really bad sign if I'm not invited to interview on-site after a phone interview? A: No, phone interviews are more on the "screening" end of the hiring spectrum). Probably the best advice that my mentors gave me was on the contents of my curriculum vitae; I'd encourage everybody to share C.V.s with a mentor. Though their practical advice was invaluable, the moral support and encouragement my mentors offered helped my confidence tremendously, and industry felt much more welcoming. After a few months, I found myself in a new job in industry as a toxicologist. I finally got to meet one of my mentors in person at the SOT Annual Meeting in Seattle. He is still happy to answer my questions and would gladly mentor more postdocs. It turns out that many of us in industry had a difficult time finding that first job after our postdoc, and we're here now because somebody helped us. We're always looking for ways to help the next group of toxicologists. The Mentor Match mentoring program just makes it easy.
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