International #KeynoteSpeaker. Writer. Career Coach. @tedx speaker. Author, Create Your Unicorn Career, & Networking for Nerds
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Articles by Alaina G. Levine
How to get the most out of an informational interview
Informational interviews should provide a networking opportunity for both parties.Credit: SeventyFour/iStock via Getty Informational interviews are informal opportunities to share or seek information. These chats can cover all sorts of topics, from switching disciplines or moving countries to potential job openings and collaborations. Most importantly, they are the mechanism that makes networking — the building of mutually beneficial working relationships — so powerful.
Finding hidden career opportunities outside academia
Career development relies, in large part, on gathering and scrutinizing data. You start with data about yourself, like your skills, values, needs, and wants — the full dataset of all that makes you, you. But career development also requires external data on opportunities, sectors, industries, and organizations.
LinkedIn Profile Template
February 13, 2026 What you need to know about LinkedIn Central to creating an effective LinkedIn profile is to include key words so an employer searching for someone with your expertise will be able to find you. A LinkedIn profile is meant to be fluid. It is a living resumé that can be easily updated to reflect new projects you are working on, new opportunities you have, new skills you have gained, and more.
2025’s Top Employers: Innovation, AI, and policy in biotech & pharma
In a year marked by unprecedented shifts in science, policy, and the global economy, one constant remains in the job market: STEM-trained professionals continue to seek employers that are stable, innovative, and welcoming—organizations that prioritize both science and patient outcomes. For more than two decades, Science’s annual Top Employers survey* has spotlighted leading companies in pharma and biotech.
Land a Job in a Crisis
Do you need a job? Were you recently laid off or fired? Did you recently lose your anchor client and need to add more clients to your roster? There is a crisis in the USA right now in the job market and it is about to get worse. In this webinar and Ask Me Anything, you will gain specific strategies and tactics that you can take today to navigate this uncertainty, cushion yourself, and emerge stronger- and more importantly, you'll learn tools to help you actually land a job.
Land a Job in a Career Crisis
Do you need a job? Were you recently laid off or fired? Did you recently lose your anchor client and need to add more clients to your roster? There is a crisis in the USA right now in the job market and it is about to get worse. In this webinar and Ask Me Anything, you will gain specific strategies and tactics that you can take today to navigate this uncertainty, cushion yourself, and emerge stronger- and more importantly, you'll learn tools to help you actually land a job.
Building a global community: Q&A with Black In Neuro co-founder Clíona Kelly
Neuroscientist Clíona Kelly knows the power of community. She watched Black Birders Week take flight following a 2020 incident in which a Black birdwatcher was wrongly accused of threatening a woman in New York’s Central Park. Following that inspiration, she jumped in to help found Black In Neuro later that summer, when Angeline Dukes, assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Minnesota, first proposed its creation.
Mahmoud Bukar Maina
Mahmoud Bukar Maina holds dual roles as junior group leader at the Biomedical Science Research and Training Centre at Yobe State University in Nigeria and in the neuroscience department at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. His team’s research focuses on generating induced pluripotent stem cells from Indigenous African people for open-access biobanking and investigating the molecular mechanisms of tauopathies in the context of African genetic backgrounds.
Convert Your CV Into a Resume for Industry Roles
About this Event You may already have your curriculum vita with all your publications, experience, and roles, but now you're considering applying for jobs in industry— what do you do now? How do you convert this record of your achievements into a fabulous marketing document that gets you job interviews? In this webinar, professional speaker and STEM career coach Alaina G.
Networking for ChE Nerds
Networking isn't just about connecting—it's about fostering relationships built on mutual benefit and shared value. Join Alaina G. Levine, an esteemed speaker and author of the award-winning book Networking for Nerds, as she reveals practical strategies and tactics to improve your networking skills and utilize your AIChE membership effectively for impactful networking. In this webinar, you'll learn essential techniques to identify and approach potential collaborators effectively.
The Transmitter Launch: Q&A with Kaitlyn Casimo
Kaitlyn Casimo loves her job. Every day is different, she says, and she draws on her varied background to tackle her work as education and engagement manager at the Allen Institute. Armed with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, certificates in computational neuroscience and neural engineering, an M.Ed. in instructional design and experience directing plays, Casimo oversees a team of six people to organize dozens of outreach events and activities at the institute each year.
Using Physics to Design the Stages of Broadway and Cirque du Soleil
Breisch has helped create structures for Broadway productions, like custom stages, overhead architectural pieces, and the building renovations needed to accommodate them. He’s worked on projects for live events like high-profile concert tours, fashion shows, Disney and Universal theme park attractions, and Cirque du Soleil shows. Once Breisch and his colleagues understand a client’s vision, they can bring it to life with engineering, physics, and art, while reducing risks for everyone involved.
2023’s Top Employers: Making a happy workplace for employees Original
Scientists want employers who value data, evidence, and science—as they positively impact society and serve humanity. Play and work are words that don’t often pair together well, if at all. And yet for many scientists, their original interest in a science career came from an innate delight in exploring the universe, and a penchant for playing with the components of matter and life. They want to have fun while working in service of science and humanity.
‘Mind-boggling’ sea creature spotted off Japan has finally been identified
When Ryo Minemizu, a professional underwater photographer, posted photos of an elegant ladybug-size flittering creature off Okinawa, Japan, in 2018, biologists were baffled. It wasn’t a worm, a mollusk, or a crustacean. What was it? No one knew. One of those intrigued was Igor Adameyko, a developmental neurobiologist at the Medical University of Vienna.
The Neurophysicist Trying to Tackle Jet Lag Ahead of the World’s Longest Flights
Sveta Postnova wants to make 20-hour flights more bearable for travelers. By Alaina G. Levine | August 10, 2023 Qantas Airlines, an Australian company, is planning the longest-ever flights, slated to begin in 2025 — and one physicist is working to make the experience better for flyers. Most people don’t like long flights, rife as they are with claustrophobic seating and loud neighbors. But one airline, Qantas, is about to unveil the longest flight routes ever planned.
Annual Meeting
There’s nothing like a good conference. I am a certified conference addict and I attend as many as I can each year. I love hearing the exciting presentations, meeting new people, gaining insight about new discoveries and innovations, and discovering novel ways to look at problems. From attending conferences, I have been able to move my career in new directions as I have met interesting people who have given me amazing advice and ideas.
Making a Beef Patty - Without the Beef
Yan says the company emphasizes not only innovation and creativity, but compassion, a value she saw firsthand in her earliest interaction with the company. She was en route to an interview at Impossible Foods, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, when she hit a traffic jam. She was 20 minutes late, but to her surprise, “everyone was super understanding and super kind,” she recalls, a response she says is consistent with the company’s culture.
2022’s Top Employers provide safety, support, and success for scientists
Share: When it comes to selecting an employer that will value their expertise, voice, and career goals, scientists use a specific metric: safety. On the day of a critically important meeting that had been in the works for months, Gene Sullivan had a funeral to attend. When the chief product strategy officer at Insmed (No. 1), a global biotech company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, learned of a death in his family that would compel him to miss the conversation, he emailed his boss, the CEO.
Four Mistakes Early-Career Scientists Make in Interviews and How to Correct Them
By Alaina G. Levine | October 13, 2022 Credit: Antonio Rodriguez/Adobe I love job interviews! Why? Because an interview is your finest opportunity, as an early-career scientist, to share why and how you’ll be an asset to an organization and convince an employer to hire you. But to land that job, you’ll need to avoid common mistakes physicists make before and during job interviews. Fear not, fair physicists! Here are a few fixes to ensure these errors do not become epic fails.
Profiles in Versatility: Physicist to Test Nanoparticle-and-Laser Cancer Treatment in Humans
After losing her aunt to cancer, Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green dedicated her career to physics-based therapies. By Alaina G. Levine | September 9, 2022 Credit: Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green When Hadiyah-Nicole Green crossed the stage at her college graduation, she felt sure about what would come next. She’d start a career in optics—a good option for someone with a bachelor’s degree in physics—and that would be that. Life, though, had other plans.
I got fired-and used it as fuel to grow
The email hit me like a punch in the gut. It came from my editor and when I saw it had several paragraphs, I winced. Quickly scanning for the vocabulary of bad news, I discovered words like “unfortunately,” “I’m sorry,” and “end.” Sure enough, Science Careers is focusing on reported service journalism and my column was being canceled. Man, that smarts. But despite my initial shock, I wasn’t as sad or mad or disturbed as I might have been in the past.
Physicist-Turned-Advocate is a Champion for Menstrual Freedom
Bangalore wanted to learn more. What organizations existed to aid those who could not afford menstrual products? At the time, there were few nonprofits with this mission. She wondered if this could be an opportunity to serve. Then, later that week, a strange coincidence solidified her idea. She was in line at the grocery store, buying menstrual products, when the person in front of her had their credit card declined—while they too were trying to purchase period products.
Profiles in Versatility
Now, as assistant professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, Matsumoto leads a group that focuses on geometry and topology of soft materials, in particular the effects of nonlinear elasticity on emergent structural and mechanical properties in complex systems. Knitting serves her in two ways: it is the model and method to explore topological properties in nature.
Profiles in Versatility
The Futurama of Physics with David X. Cohen By Alaina G. Levine In the episode “Bender’s Big Score” of Futurama, the animated television comedy, the character Professor Farnsworth contemplates paradox-free time travel. “I believe this ‘paradoxicality’ equation to be unsolvable,” he says, pointing to the equation, E=9.87sin(2B)-7.53cos(B)-1.5sin(B), written on a blackboard. “Ergo, time travel is impossible.
From alchemy to assets: harnessing power from what we can’t control
I love a concrete, quantifiable career plan. As a scientist, I bet you do too. Who doesn’t like envisioning career progression in terms of processes and formulas with measurable variables? A framework based in physics is fabulous. But sometimes reality gets in the way of this utopian vision, because the truth is there are many aspects of career progress that are simply beyond our control. Still, the uncontrollable doesn’t have to be unknowable or unusable, nor does it have to shake us.
When leaving a job, you don’t need to break up with your boss
Your Unicorn Career is an advice column about understanding your value and creating professional bliss by career consultant and professional speaker Alaina G. Levine. Oksanita/iStock, adapted by C. Aycock/Science You’ve reached that special time in a nerd’s life—you are getting ready to leave your job and move on to the next step in your career. But the end of an employment relationship is not necessarily the end of the relationship—with either the supervisor or the organization.
Profiles in Versatility
A key attribute that has shaped her perceptive nature and dedication to this field is her background in physics. A budding experimentalist, Kammerlander became enamored with physics in high school. She kicked it up a notch as a student at the Technical University of Munich, where she graduated with a diploma in physics, with a focus on laser physics, bio/nano physics and semiconductors.
Social media for career enhancement: An introduction
Credit: iStock.com/PeopleImages Editor’s note: This article is part of a career advice series contributed by Physics Today’s partners at the American Institute of Physics Career Network. These days many people have at least one social media account. Perhaps you use yours to keep up with friends or for personal entertainment. But social media can also be a powerful tool for advancing your career.
Scientists, avoid workplaces that don’t value you
Many scientists and academics have been in the unfortunate position of weighing whether to work for an organization that doesn’t truly value what they bring to the table. An especially egregious and public example occurred in 2021, when journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones announced she was not taking a faculty job at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her initial offer did not include tenure, unlike everyone else who had been given the exact same position before her.
American Society of Journalists and Authors
February 17, 2022, 2:00 pm-3:00 pm ET Is 2022 the year you want to expand your portfolio to include public speaking? Our experienced panelists, Alaina G. Levine and ASJA member C.L. Fornari, will give you all the details to inspire you to make it happen. Join us on Thursday, February 17, at 2 pm ET to learn how to find gigs, market yourself, and price your efforts. Bring your questions….and your moxie. Members Free Public $20 Registration is free for ASJA members and $20 for non-members.
Forced to settle for a nonideal job? Here’s how to make the most of it
Your Unicorn Career is an advice column about understanding your value and creating professional bliss by career consultant and professional speaker Alaina G. Levine. Oksanita/iStock, adapted by C. Aycock/Science Accepting a job offer can be exciting. But if the job doesn’t tick all your boxes—if you feel like you are settling—then it can also induce a sense of frustration, anxiety, even sadness. I have felt the sting of settling many times in my life.
Harvesting a Career in Soil Physics to Serve Humanity
Massri was drawn to soil physics because he wanted to help his fellow humans and make a difference in our environment. His early life was a continuous celebration of knowledge and discovery. “I thrived in a world of history and education and in a home with bookshelves full of science books, magazine series, collections of scientific encyclopedias, photography, art, and poetry that I had the privilege to read,” he recalls.
How to begin building a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in your research group
A strategic plan for your team should include more than just the infrastructure to achieve your research agenda: It must include a thoughtful approach to crafting a culture that honors the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In doing so, you create the means for science to advance—and everyone to triumph.
2021’s Top Employers engage, nurture, and harness the power of scientists
While respondents in the Top Employers Survey say they are looking to work for companies that are innovative, another characteristic they look for is a close second: respect. Ask Christina Nurse, the Ph.D. senior biostatistician manager at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., why she loves her employer. She’s clear and confident: “I get to work with some of the most brilliant scientific minds who care so deeply about bringing medicines to our patients.” But a personal story hints at something more.
How to network during challenging times
My email was simple. After the COVID-19 pandemic exploded, I wrote to clients, colleagues, and prospective partners—including conference organizers and staff at professional societies and universities—saying I recognized they wanted to stay connected to the members of their communities in this challenging time. "If I can help you with this," I offered, "please let me know." I noted my experience running webinars and virtual events.
Profile in Versatility
But it wasn’t an easy road. There weren’t a lot of Black people in either department, she notes. “At St. Mary’s, we had a Black student union, but we were still the minority. But I felt I belonged because I am also Mexican, and I could speak Spanish,” she says. “Yet, the fact I am Black, [and] a woman in a male-dominated field, I spent a lot of time trying to prove myself and working by myself.” Her physics mentor became a trusted ally in many ways.
How to banish impostor syndrome
Impostor syndrome—the feeling that one doesn't belong or deserve their success, and that they will be discovered as a fraud—strikes many professionals. It doesn't matter whether you are a Nobel laureate, CEO, department head, university president, or graduate student. Many of us have felt like an impostor at various times in our careers, especially as we ascend into new roles and achieve milestones. I myself have felt like an impostor. I remember that time like it was yesterday … Oh wait.
Don’t settle for your dream job
Reaching the peak of a mountain or the perceived end of a career path is rewarding, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to accomplish. Recently I found myself on an airplane returning to the US after two weeks abroad. When I had had my fill of watching La La Land too many times to count, I decided to pull up the shade and glory in the globe below me. I found I was flying over Greenland.
Why science job seekers need to market themselves-and how to do it
Your Unicorn Career is an advice column about understanding your value and creating professional bliss by career consultant and professional speaker Alaina G. Levine. Oksanita/iStock, adapted by C. Aycock/Science Looking for a job? Get ready to market yourself. You may be thinking marketing is something dirty or icky and that it takes time away from your work as a scientist. In actuality, marketing is exactly the opposite.
Post-pandemic: The power of crisis management planning
No matter our profession, organization, sector, or ecosystem, we will always have to navigate unforeseen circumstances in our careers. The pandemic has taught faculty the power and promise of incorporating crisis management plans into our career strategies.
How to stop self-sabotaging your career
By Alaina G. LevineAug. 9, 2021 , 9:00 AM Have you ever done something that felt wrong, that you knew was wrong, and that turned out wrong for you? As the Beastie Boys said, “Listen all y’all, it’s a sabotage.” Or, to be more precise: self-sabotage. Unfortunately, this sabotage is all the more insidious because you are the perpetrator. Self-sabotage can happen at any time in our lives and careers. It could be something simple such as knowing you need to study for an exam and not doing so.
How to stop self-sabotaging your career
Have you ever done something that felt wrong, that you knew was wrong, and that turned out wrong for you? As the Beastie Boys said, “Listen all y’all, it’s a sabotage.” Or, to be more precise: self-sabotage. Unfortunately, this sabotage is all the more insidious because you are the perpetrator. Self-sabotage can happen at any time in our lives and careers. It could be something simple such as knowing you need to study for an exam and not doing so.
My Favorite LinkedIn Features for Career Advancement
When it comes to career advancement, social media is a must. Twitter is great to find influencers in your field, learn and network with new collaborators, and to engage in effective and appropriate self-promotion. But it is LinkedIn where you should invest the majority of your social media time. As you already know, LinkedIn is the platform for career development. It is specifically designed for three purposes: to network, self-promote, and get jobs.
Dealing with bullies and jerks in science
By Alaina G. LevineJun. 21, 2021 , 1:55 PM Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we could do science surrounded only by kind and caring colleagues? Unfortunately, science involves humans, and let’s face it—some of them are jerks. Some are bullies. Some are harassers. Some are disgusting zombie creatures who exist only to suck the life out of our souls. These creatures spew their garbage into the world and don’t relent. Their purpose is to propagate filth in irrational service of their own survival.
Dealing with bullies and jerks in science
Wouldn't it be fabulous if we could do science surrounded only by kind and caring colleagues? Unfortunately, science involves humans, and let's face it—some of them are jerks. Some are bullies. Some are harassers. Some are disgusting zombie creatures who exist only to suck the life out of our souls. These creatures spew their garbage into the world and don't relent. Their purpose is to propagate filth in irrational service of their own survival. Undoubtedly, you have encountered some of these monsters.
Five career tips to start the year off right
Setting goals and planning ahead will position you to succeed in 2017. Alaina G. Levine This is the second of a two-part post about bettering your career during the holidays and the start of the new year. Read the first part here. Prepping your 2017 calendar is an important step toward meeting your career goals for the year. Credit: Dafne Cholet, CC BY 2.0 You have a lot to look forward to in 2017. This is the year you will triumph in new ways and advance your career in the direction of your choosing.
Bounce Back from a Career Challenge: Pandemic Fallout Edition
Every challenge, loss, and failure is a gift to make you stronger and more agile, efficient, creative, productive, and aware. What seems like a setback can actually serve as training to help you solve the next problem and prevent other failures. I’ve had lots of failures and challenges. I’ve been laid off and fired. I’ve applied for jobs and not gotten them. I’ve been ghosted by recruiters and decision-makers. But by far, my most challenging year was 2020.
Looking for meaning in your career? Try a pay-it-forward plan
By Alaina G. LevineMar. 1, 2021 , 11:00 AM No matter where you are in your career, you didn’t get there without help. Someone opened a door, gave you advice, shared a bit of info about a path or a profession. And when you pass that kindness on to others, you often get more benefits than you could have realized. That’s why I suggest instituting a pay-it-forward plan in your career—a commitment to take every kindness you receive and convert it to a kindness for another person.
Looking for meaning in your career? Try a pay-it-forward plan
No matter where you are in your career, you didn't get there without help. Someone opened a door, gave you advice, shared a bit of info about a path or a profession. And when you pass that kindness on to others, you often get more benefits than you could have realized. That's why I suggest instituting a pay-it-forward plan in your career—a commitment to take every kindness you receive and convert it to a kindness for another person.
If you’re hesitant to apply for professional awards, remember: It’s worth putting yourself forward
By Alaina G. LevineJan. 11, 2021 , 2:45 PM At the start of my career, I—like many others—was hesitant about applying for awards. Back when I was a student, for example, I talked myself out of applying for an intriguing fellowship to study abroad because I figured there was absolutely no way I would get it. I would be competing against applicants attending better schools, in better programs, with better grades, and on and on. So why waste my time and risk disappointment?
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