Leaving Academia

### Who is this person?
                        
                        <div style="width:30%;float:left">
                        <img src="./images/2016-03-02 15.20.14_cropped.jpg" alt="Dr. David Dotson" style="width:253px;height:510px;"> 
                        </div>
                        
                        <div style="width:65%;float:right" align="left">
                        <p class="fragment" data-fragment-index="0">**Dr. David Dotson**, formerly of the *Beckstein Lab* </p>
                        <ul>
                        <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="1">performed simulations Na+/H+ antiporter proteins</li>
                        <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="2">Linux nerd with an affinity for Python</li>
                        <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="3">defended in November 2016, been working in Phoenix tech industry since</li>
                        </ul>
                        </div>

<h4 style="color:white">Grants are hard to come by</h4>
                            
                            The success rate of grant applications by<br>funding agency*:
                            <table style="color:white">
                                <thead>
                                    <tr>
                                        <th>Agency</th>
                                        <th>Overall Success Rate</th>
                                        <th>Year</th>
                                    </tr>
                                </thead>
                                <tbody>
                                    <tr>
                                        <td>NIH</td>
                                        <td>21%</td>
                                        <td>2016</td>
                                    </tr>
                                    <tr>
                                        <td>NSF</td>
                                        <td>21%</td>
                                        <td>2017</td>
                                    </tr>
                                </tbody>
                            </table>

\*averages across funding sources; large grants often have much lower success rates

#### 2. Build a Twitter presence

Most people in the tech industry share advances, news, and (professional) opinions on Twitter.

<p>You'll want to have a presence there as a **flagpost** for your professional persona.</p> 
                            <ul>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="2">follow whomever you like, but shoot for a high signal/noise ratio (no Biebers)</li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="3">tweet wisely, and try to keep your tweets focused on the persona your account intends to project</li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="4">it's good to have a personality :)</li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="5">be authentic</li>
                            </ul>

#### 4. Share what you can

<p align="left">You'll want to share some of the things you do with the wider world.</p>

<p align="left">Add to your searchable portfolio by giving yourself a space to show off the fruits of your creativity.</p>

<ul>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="2">If you develop software, share your work on <a href="http://github.com">GitHub</a>, and maybe contribute to an existing project</li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="3">Make a website as a **home base** for showcasing your interests and work</li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="4">Consider blogging, either on your website or on e.g. <a href="http://medium.com">Medium</a></li>
                            </ul>

#### 5. Learn the things you don't know yet

<p align="left">A Ph.D. is a professional research degree; use it to learn new skills.</p>

<p align="left">Build time into your schedule to fill in knowledge and skills gaps you identified for your goal career.</p>

<ul>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="2">Check out online courses, such as the many offered by sites like <a href="http://coursera.com">Coursera</a></li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="3">Watch video lectures and talks on <a href="http://youtube.com">YouTube</a>, and read papers</li>
                            <li class="fragment" data-fragment-index="4">Participate in projects or competitions, e.g. <a href="http://kaggle.com">Kaggle</a></li>
                            </ul>