It is a difficult time to compete for a few jobs in academic science and industry. The number one piece of advice is to use all tools to differentiate yourself from the rest of the outstanding applicants. Simple steps can help you emphasize service and efforts beyond the call of duty.

1. Notes to Emerging
Science Professionals
Ideas to raise your professional brand
Kevin M. Folta, Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. USA

2. A Challenging Time
 Universities are in a buyer’s market
 Startup packages are scary low
 Lower funding rates
 Higher bar for publication
 Multiple postdoc appointments are the norm
 Low-hanging fruits are few and far between
 Increasingly difficult to find your niche

3. Your Survival
 You have to do extremely well at the expectations
 Publications
 Development of a research program
 Teaching (if part of a TA)
 You need to go above and beyond
 Voluntary teaching
 Service
 Other areas of distinction.

4. Grants and Publications
These are your currency
Grants
 Identify opportunities on your own, even small ones
Publications – Be Proactive!
 Every effort should end in a figure
 Target your work to a certain journal, get there
 Do not underestimate impact
 Do not publish a good idea prematurely
 Reviews, chapters, etc.

5. Develop Your Program
Sow Seeds of National and International Distinction
How do you separate yourself from others?
 You need to go above and beyond
 Voluntary teaching – guest lectures
 Service – departmental service, seminar committees, etc.
 Other areas of distinction.

6. Develop Your Program
Ideas for Distinction
 Organize a seminar or workshop
 Develop a journal colloquium
 Organize a club
 Organize a regular science café
 Organize a postdoctoral mentoring class- invite faculty/deans
 Develop relationships with area schools
 Science fairs
 Classroom presentations
 Develop online teaching modules in your areas
 Publish them on YouTube

7. Develop Your Program
Use of social media
 Develop a science blog, a science website
 Build an online following for your brand- Twitter, etc.
 Make journal colloquia amenable for YouTube
 Science podcasts with local experts
 Publish them on YouTube
 Hold workshops for farmers, others to use and connect on
social media.

8. Pushback
“It is not why you are being paid”
 If you are PDA or GS, you are being funded to do research.
 You are not technically allowed to work on tangential efforts
 Build your brand, but you need to do it on your own time.

9. You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get
You need to learn to be pro-active, anticipatory and assertive
 Others may neglect your needs because they are personally
overburdened
 Nobody will or should share your urgency
 Your department chair, deans want to support your ideas
 How do you do something that is good for them?
 Colleagues have connections- make sure you use them
 Connections for federal panels
 Connections for editorial/review duties
 Collaborative opportunities
 Service lite

10. My Ten Commandments
or my strongly advisable recommendations
 If it’s stupid, and it works, it’s not stupid
 Write everyday
 If you don’t ask, you don’t get
 Measure twice, cut once
 It is better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it
 You are the captain of your own ship
 Second place is the first loser
 Don’t sacrifice good enough for better
 It takes money to make money
 Crisis and opportunity are intertwined
 Luck is the residue of proper design and hard work
 Surround yourself with people that like you and know CPR
 Consistently over deliver.

11. Those are my two cents.
Thoughts or questions?