Sarah Cullen was eyeing the impending end of her postdoctoral position and wondering what to do next. She had earned a PhD in microbiology and immunology at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 2009, and was now studying the behaviour of breast-cancer cells. But she felt that it was time for a change: she knew that postdocs are jammed into the scientific pipeline every year but fill only a tiny number of faculty research jobs (see Nature 511,255-256; 2014). "The career options were limited, and I saw so few friends getting academic positions," Cullen says. "Rather than being a 20-year post-doc, I decided I needed to make the jump." She had experience only in bench work, but wanted a position that gave her more involvement with other people and had no idea where to look.
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