Name: Calyn Maske (she/her)
PhD: Neuroscience, Florida State University, 2020
What was your main area of research?
I studied the circulating endocrine signals and neural circuitry that are involved in coordinating hunger and fullness. My dissertation focused on whether those biological systems were dysfunctional in individuals who experienced binge eating.
What is your current job?
I am a Senior Medical Writer at DynaMed.
I work in educational medical writing. I research and write medical reference material for clinicians.
I love that I can receive an assignment to update a topic and see the finished product published in a matter of weeks. I know that the efforts I put in are positioned quickly to improve patient care and no longer wonder if my work makes a difference.
I love that writing for DynaMed is super collaborative, involving a team of internal writers and editors and external clinicians working together to disseminate the most recent health care advances and guidelines to a wide clinical audience.
I love that my job is flexible and understanding of my other roles in life outside of work. This enables me to have a successful career and achieve my personal goals in motherhood, caregiving for my dad, and enjoying hobbies. A well-balanced life. :)
I love the stability of having a long-term career with a generous salary and excellent benefits.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
I was looking for jobs in scientific writing. I had never heard of medical writing. A close friend who is a medical doctor passed along the job advertisement for Medical Writer at DynaMed because she used DynaMed in the hospital and thought I'd enjoy that career! I applied, went through the 3-step interview process, and was hired!
PhD graduate ➡️ Postdoc (1 year) ➡️ Medical Writer (2 years) ➡️ Senior Medical Writer
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?
Towards the end of graduate school, I started to realize I didn't want to become a PI and run my own lab. I was tired of working nights and weekends and stressed out by the prospect of competing with other labs for novel ideas, publications, and grants, and it seemed difficult to run a research program on a rotation of trainees. I didn't enjoy running experiments and was questioning whether all of my efforts to study obesity and disordered eating would ever even impact a single person's life. At the same time, I didn't know how to do anything else or feel that I was qualified for alternative career paths, so I continued on the academic path and began a postdoc.
During my postdoc, I continued to burn myself out in a career I did not enjoy or find fulfilling and truly questioned whether the research I was involved in was valuable and worthwhile. I wanted to plan my transition into another career, and when I began to reflect on the aspects I did enjoy, I kept coming back to the feeling of enjoyment I got when seeking answers to a question in the literature and thinking critically about research results and discussing the conclusions and impacts of findings. I decided I'd like to pursue scientific writing, but I still felt stuck because I didn't know how to gain writing experience to break into that job sector. I decided I'd give myself an additional year to work on building my resume to apply for jobs (...I didn't know this at the time, but my extensive experience from my PhD was exactly the preparation and experience I needed to be competitive for a medical writing position!!).
This was an extremely difficult time for me, as I really tied my self-worth and identity into my path as a budding scientist, but it became really hard to grind on in a postdoc role when I knew I didn't want to be a PI. It just felt pointless, but I was so tired I couldn't even work on an after-hours job search. I felt like I'd be disappointing my mentors by leaving and that maybe I could find a way to be ok with the demands of academia just to avoid that uncomfortable parting of ways. This internal struggle ultimately ended up in me quitting the postdoc position, spending a ton of time panicking about quitting without a job lined up, and absorbing everything I could from the free resources on Cheeky Scientist and Versatile PhD. I got through this time with the support of my family and friends and applied for jobs. The posting for DynaMed went up 1 week after I quit. I was terrified and certain that I was just going to walk into another situation where I was taken advantage of and worked to burn out. In hindsight, though, it really feels like everything went down so quickly with leaving the postdoc so that I could join this wonderful group and see that it is possible to find meaningful work that validated my education and respects my many roles in life besides being an employee.
What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
Believe in yourself!!! Your PhD journey is so much more than your lab skills. You are uniquely qualified for so many careers and you will find something that allows you to live your life without tons of compromise and sacrifice.
Lean on your loved ones for support as you make a career transition. It can be scary to start something new and unfamiliar or feel like you're going against what mentors expected or envisioned for you.
Utilize free resources to learn how to convert your academic CV into an industry resume and effective cover letter. When I was applying for jobs, I used the free eBooks and blogs on Cheeky Scientist and found a bunch of example resumes and cover letters on Versatile PhD.