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The cost of accepting a dead-end job, or working for a bad boss or an employer that isn't going anywhere, can be enormous.

"Companies play favorites. You're either one of the favored few, or you're an orphan stepchild, all depending upon where in the company you work."

Very few of the factors that will make you successful are out of your hands.

If you're entrenched in something that isn't your lifelong passion--see below--you've got to get off those rails and find some way to get back on the right track.

My attitude is that if you are stuck, you should do anything you can to get unstuck as long as it's not illegal, unethical, or obviously foolish.

If they can't influence others positively, they will be relegated to running assays for the next 10 years.

I can't help wondering why, if only 15% to 20% of grad students and postdocs go on to academic careers, do we describe the career choices of the other 80% as "alternative"?

"Our best people foster a killer instinct."

"It might be okay to take a shortcut if you're trying to decide which peanut butter to buy, but in the area of career decisions, shortcuts are dangerous." –J. Edward Russo

The trick is to meet conflict head on with the goal of managing it, not winning.

The single most important evidence of productive research in industry is the development of research applications that can return value on shareholders' investments.

It is entirely possible, and in many ways preferable, to develop a job-seeking style that reflects your core values and allows you to be authentic.

"Personal branding is not about presenting a false image. It is about understanding what is unique about you--your accomplishments, experience, attitude--and then using that to differentiate yourself from other job hunters. Your brand is your edge in the job market." --Levinson and Perry

Although it is true that some people use an early MBA as a launching pad, many others claim that the degree, without work experience behind it, only makes the job search more difficult.

The puritanical reverence some people have for science may be a good thing, but it can sometimes lead to bad career choices.