Research Scientist Turned Down Offers that Didn't Fit

Name: Kim Nguyen (she/her)

PhD: Cognitive Psychology, Temple University, 2024

What was your main area of research?

I studied how kids and adults remember events that they experienced in the lab and how their brains stored that information.

I was able to design multiple research studies throughout grad school which included testing behavior on the computer and scanning people's brains in an MRI scanner. I got to work with kids 8-13 years old and undergrads. Tthey were always excited about seeing their brain!

I also was awarded two NIH diversity (RIP) grants throughout grad school.

What is your current job?

I am a Research Scientist at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, NJ.

Now, I work in addiction medicine research at a teaching hospital. One part of my job is mining electronic health record data to gain insights on patient care and treatment retention. Another is developing new study designs and methods to ask new research questions with our patient population.

Our research includes working with emergency medical services to administer harm reduction practices in the field, reducing barriers to treatment access, understanding characteristics of treatment retention, and many other topics. I also work as a consultant at Penn Medicine to develop neuroimaging analysis pipelines for research on disorders of consciousness.

What is your favorite thing about your job?

I appreciate having direct patient impact from my research.

What is the most important skill you developed or experience you had during your PhD that now helps you in your current position?

Stats & research methods

How did you build the skills necessary for your current role?

Taking upper-level graduate stats courses, being open to moving into other fields of research, knowing how to conduct research at all stages... even if that means collecting data during your PhD.

How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?

Indeed

PhD graduate ➡️ part-time consulting ➡️ research scientist

If someone is interested in a similar role, what would you recommend they start doing now to prepare?

1. Hone your technical skills (R, Python, anything to run stats honestly) and learn SQL if you want to work with health record data.

2. Start thinking about how your hard and soft skills can translate to other contexts and roles. I.e., if you apply for a role where you don't know the literature as well, focus on how your technical skills will apply to what they are looking for.

Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?

Shitty pay and uncertainty with following through to a tenure-track career.

It was difficult. I interviewed for a perfect postdoc, but the pay was the main deterrent. It took me 6 months of applying and interviewing for various roles to get a full-time offer I liked. I really had to bet on myself.

I turned down offers that did not meet my salary and benefit requirements even though it was scary not knowing when and if there would be another offer. I did have a part-time consulting role throughout the process, so I had some income to be patient.

What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?

1. Figure out the right keywords for your job search.

2. If you can, pay for LinkedIn premium if you are searching for industry roles. This helped me see the education level of applicants to gauge if it was a PhD-level role. Job descriptions range from very detailed to not at all, so having any extra data helped.

3. Take the time to cater your resume/CV and cover letter to the role.

4. Don't be scared to negotiate the salary you want and negotiate by email so that all your points are clearly laid out.

Are there any components of your identity you would like to share, including how they have impacted your journey?

I grew up low socioeconomic and am the first in my family to earn a graduate degree.