Who works at MIT Lincoln Lab?
MIT Lincoln Laboratory employs a diverse workforce of scientists, engineers, and support staff. The laboratory offers a wide range of job opportunities for individuals with backgrounds in engineering, mathematics, computer science, physics, and other related fields. Some of the typical job titles at MIT Lincoln Laboratory include research scientist, engineer, software developer, and program manager. The laboratory also offers internships and co-op positions for students who are interested in gaining hands-on experience in research and development.
In addition to its research and development activities, MIT Lincoln Laboratory is also involved in outreach and education initiatives. The laboratory offers a variety of programs designed to inspire and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers. These programs include summer camps, workshops, and internships for students of all ages.
Associated blog post: https://howtophd.org/2023/05/open-jobs-at-lincoln-lab-how-to-apply-directly.html
Wide range of job opportunities in science, engineering, and technology
In summary, MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center that is dedicated to developing advanced technologies for US national security. The laboratory offers a wide range of job opportunities for individuals with backgrounds in science, engineering, and technology. The laboratory is also involved in outreach and education initiatives aimed at inspiring and educating the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Where to apply for open jobs at Lincoln Lab
I have been working at MIT Lincoln Lab for over a year now and only recently discovered this link to apply to staff positions here. So I thought I would share it in this blog post.
Direct website for open jobs at Lincoln Lab: http://careers.ll.mit.edu/
I joined as a subcontractor myself through another company so I did not know about the regular careers website until now. This is where you can see all open positions and apply to multiple jobs if you like. I believe the application is fairly simple requiring a resume and basic information. The cover letter is optional. Of course, please verify all information yourself.
I will share part of an open job description below. This should give an idea of the types of roles available at the Lab. This is just one example though so please do your due diligence looking at all opportunities.
Open jobs at Lincoln Lab example
Required qualifications:
Good luck with your job search!!! Let me know any comments and/or message me on LinkedIn with your questions.
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oindreebanerjee/
What is candidacy?
Timing
Once you get the topic remember you are not alone
On d-day
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I am loving September in Boston. Today when I stepped out the sun was just right. Warms your heart but doesn’t burn the skin. Then after work I went to Home Goods and the evening too was just perfect.
You know when you’re driving and the sun decides to blind you and you can’t see the road for a moment, that almost happened but it’s becoming dusk earlier now and a cool twilight had descended by the time I was done buying my new comforter set.
Also I’m back home as Boston is home now!!! When I got back it was 4:30 in the morning and I was wondering if I’d get a Lyft or Uber. A nice smelling Lyft car came in THREE MINUTES
Among other things, this vacation in the Caribbeans was perfect for perspective about the many conveniences of the mainland. Lyft and Uber and ease of access to many things including unlimited (in comparison) FOOD, ingredients, things to do, jobs, etc.
The islands are in the most magnificent blue-green emerald water that is perfect for swimming, snorkeling with onlooking lush mountains. Nothing like it for sure!! However Boston has all the advantages of being on the water without the huge potentially disastrous disadvantages of being an island.
For that, we are LUCKY. Sure the water is cold so to solve that we can get away to the islands and the water is dark blue but that’s because the food of the food of whales is in the water and that makes us have whales. And I like whales. I like it here.
Of course the best part is FUJI SUJI BAJI (fur babies) live here now. I landed in Boston and realized we live here now!!! I could just go home and meet them and I did and Fuji was waiting at the door at FIVE IN THE MORNING!
Some differences between the US Virgin Islands and the Mainland (Boston):
I have been told by multiple employers that my resume using this template is the best resume they had ever seen! I always got the interview if not the job! I have also helped many friends successfully use this template and give their careers huge makeovers!! So now it is YOUR turn.
Please don’t hate me, but this resume template is in LaTeX. If you are not familiar with that, now is a great time to learn and that is exactly what I go over here in this episode! You can Google LaTeX and get lots of help. Also, this template will allow you to hit the road running. LaTeX is fully customizable which makes it awesome to use once you get the hang of it.
This template is now extendable to two or more pages. You will see. It can accommodate more than one page and is highly customizable. However, if you are early in your career, you should try to stick to one page!
Link to resume template where you will start working on your resume project now: https://www.overleaf.com/read/dnhymzqppptq
You can access this one-page technical resume template on Overleaf. I freaking love Overleaf. This is why.
All you have to do is click on the resume template link I provide above, and then edit the Overleaf files that you will then have access to, in order to change out the fields like name, and other specifics.
Once you click the link, please save the project with a different name and then turn off sharing unless you want other people to be able to edit your resume. See along the top panel to change the name of your Overleaf project and to change the sharing setting.
Next, look at the left panel. In the above picture, we are viewing the PDF result of the files after compiling the LaTeX code that makes your resume. To change what shows up in this PDF result, you need to make edits in the other files like main.tex, page1sidebar.tex, etc. All parts of the resume can be edited by going into each of these files in the left panel.
Try making a change, and then go back to the PDF view and click on the green button called “Recompile” in the top panel. You should then be able to see the change you made reflected in the PDF result of your work. After making all the changes, you will have your new resume in PDF format from this template. To save the resume to your computer, you can click on the button near the “Recompile” button with the down arrow on it.
You do have to log in. I usually just use my Google login. I made the project for this resume template that you will have to use to edit and create your own resume ‘Read Only.’
This is because I don’t want people to mess up the template once they start editing because I noticed that although I asked people to create their own project first, people start to edit the original template and then the template files get broken for other users! Not fun!! If you have problems accessing this template online because it is ‘Read Only’, please let me know and I will fix the problems.
Full blog post: https://howtophd.org/2020/05/one-page-technical-resume-template.html
GOOD LUCK!!! Leave a comment on the blog post with your questions!!! Have fun job searching and using this template to create your BEST RESUME!!!!!
Note: the blog post provides the files on OneDrive as well. Any problems, let me know. You can also add me on LinkedIn and msg me there with your troubles. I would love to improve this for everyone and make sure that it works!!!
Follow on LinkedIn and let me know if you need any help or advice with finding a job at any of the organizations I have worked in so far. Chances are I can at least point you in the right direction if I have not worked there yet. A referral is the most efficient way to get a job so don't forget to reach out and get started on this process! It is not you, it is them if you are not getting a job or a good offer. We will work on this together!
LADIES, change your profile photo and LI headline this New Year. (I need to as well once I find someone to take a headshot of me, lol!)
Here is what I have learned and like to share!!
🌱 Get someone to take a headshot of you in the outdoors against a natural background with natural lighting. Look professional yet approachable, which you are!!!
🌱 Change your headline to something like this: "Entry 1 | Entry 2 | Entry 3 | Entry 4 | Entry 5" where the entry values can be stuff like what I have in my headline describing myself, my role, etc. The last entry should be something that humanizes you or gives even more extra information about you that normally wouldn't be known. It could be "Travel Enthusiast" and has nothing to do with your job. See below for why the entries are so important.
🌱 Use the entries in your headline to make yourself more searchable on LinkedIn, leverage that space to put in keywords important to your industry or area of work like "Machine Learning Expert" so that the keywords help you to show up on search results. Don't just put your current title or job there. Think KEYWORDS
🌱 You can put things like "Open to Relocate" or "Remote" as your entries if you are willing to do those. Lots of people, for example, are not open to relocating and if you say that you are upfront it helps the right people find you on search results.
🌱 If you have a security clearance and looking for a job in the defense industry, make sure to put "Active Security Clearance" as one of your entries!!!!! And also in your role's job description!!! If you are trying to get into the defense industry and are a US citizen, meaning you are eligible for getting a security clearance, then put "Security Clearance Eligible" as one of your entries, please!!!!!
🌱 Comment your LI profile on here or DM me if you want me to personally review your LI profile and give you changes. We can iterate indefinitely.
🌱 GO GET THAT HIGH PAYING JOB NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, for your headline, which I suggest should be like this "Entry 1 | Entry 2 | Entry 3 | Entry 4 | Entry 5" you can be more fun and use emojis as the dividers like I do instead of this character "|" but it is whatever you like more!
The most important thing is KEYWORDS!
And note that my profile pic is just a selfie right now but at least it is outdoors in natural lighting, so you can do something similar till you replace the pic with a more professional-looking headshot.
Incremental progress is still progress. Don't wait for things to be perfect before you start implementing changes. If recruiters are not hounding you right this moment, that means you can make changes in the next 30 seconds to improve your chances of being found or showing up on search results!!!! SO DO IT (or I will beat you! just kidding)
Finally, this advice is especially relevant for those who are still in school or grad school, so people know you are job searching and that is normal. So go nuts!!!
For some who are in jobs right now and don't want it to be known that they are job searching, it may be a bit trickier, still for those, too, you can do a lot of these incremental changes without hurting anything and also increasing your chances of being found manyfold.
For me, for example, due to being in the defense industry already, I get approached all the time and know enough people whom I can reach out to for a job change, so my LI profile is not the end all be all for job searching, plus I am very happy in my current role!
But please recognize that it is an incredible tool for you if you are new to job searching!!!!
GOOD LUCK!!!!!
Women have everything it takes to be very successful, that is, more than average-level successful in STEM. We discuss:
This is my talk given on Nov 19, 2021, at the University of Mount Union at the Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Physics!
I cover my Ph.D. thesis which is in the field of particle astrophysics. I also go through content from my books, and blog to help students succeed in academia, industry, and government!
I have experience in all three worlds now (academia, industry, and government) so anything I can share to help students and young professionals to navigate challenges in these fields, I am happy to!
The journey from Ph.D. candidate to government scientist is worth sharing for those who feel the same uncertainties that I used to feel when I was in graduate school. It IS possible and this is how.
Excerpt from my blog on how to finish your Ph.D. in a timely manner:
If you have been keeping good notes, putting your thesis together should not take more than a couple of months.
Do not put off writing.
Basically, if you are a good graduate student, that’s great, but also, it won’t be easy.
You will be working really hard till the last minute.
You are fully capable of getting the work done, though. That’s WHY you are a good graduate student.
So, what do you need to do to finish?
Full blog post:
https://howtophd.org/2018/08/how-to-actually-finish-your-phd-in.html
Let me know any questions!!!
When asked salary expectations, say you will consider all reasonable offers
These will make you seem like a reasonable and balanced person who is not easily fooled. Also, if you currently have a job, then you are in no real rush and you can leverage that fact to make yourself more attractive. More leverage you have, the better offer you can get. Without leverage, and without looking like a catch, you will end up with a worse offer.
If you must absolutely give a number for salary expectation, go for 10-20k higher than what you would settle for. Don’t give a range. If you say 100-120k, they will just give you 100k. Companies will pay you what they can get away with paying you, not what you actually deserve. So keep that in mind. Remember that although your salary is just one of many things in an offer, it does lock you to that number for not just this job and its incremental raises based on that salary figure, but for your next job as well. So even though you are playing it cool about salary not being everything (at first), it is actually very important! That is why you are playing this game to win! Not to get a low-ball salary that will affect what you make for years to come.
Full blog post:
https://howtophd.org/2021/10/how-to-negotiate-and-answer-salary-expectation-questions.html
One-page technical resume template
Link to post: https://howtophd.org/2020/05/one-page-technical-resume-template.html
If you lost your job or looking to make a career switch during the pandemic, I have a one-page technical resume template for you that might work well for roles like consulting, technical research, etc. This is my current resume and the one I use within my company to help bid on new work. I work for a government consulting company, Booz Allen Hamilton, so we sometimes submit resumes for new contracts, etc.
You can access this one-page technical resume template on Overleaf. I freaking love Overleaf. This is why.
It seems most employers want their employees back in the office I cannot speak for all of you, so chime in with your comments, but from what leadership I interact with, it is clear that employers want us to go back in. I also know that plenty of employees would like to go back in and regain the option of keeping work at work.
In my experience, though, these are folks who are parents and have been struggling with doing work at home. Not us child-free folks. But, in general, a lot of us would be in that category: I would prefer not to. It’s simple. We were flexible and took work home when you needed us to, employers. Then we designed our entire lives around doing work from home and set everything up, made good progress. We delivered during a pandemic. And now you want us to change our lives again? I say, let’s take a breath.
Employers are not generally involved in the nitty-gritty of what day-to-day work looks like for us employees. Now that we are expected to come back in again, I am finding that I have to justify and make a case for why and when I would need to work from home. It seems we can’t just say, because, that’s what we do now! So, even though it might not make sense to have to rejustify this setup, I would recommend preparing to do so if you would like to keep working from home partially or completely.
After working from home, either partially or completely, for so long, for one, you might be more set up to do stuff from home than at the office. There might be projects that you are better off doing from home because they require more concentration and less interruption. I am doing projects at home using tools, for example, that are more (or even only) accessible at home, not at work. So… of course, I can’t do them as well at work, so in order to continue them I need to have some days at home. Be prepared to explain, in detail, what things need to be done at home, on which days, and what things need to be done at work, on which days. If you want to go hybrid, like me. It can be annoying but, trust me, if you present a case, that will be more acceptable than if you expect bosses to read your mind. What I am finding is that employers want to regularly or, at least, semi-regularly see your face.
The reasons they give mainly for wanting to do this is making sure we are not disconnected from what is going on, and for collaboration purposes. I would say that if a person did not take initiative to know what is going on, then even coming in, they might be in the dark. So by working from home successfully we actually demonstrate that we have a lot of initiative and don’t need supervision. It is the people who need supervision that would need to come in more.
Once they are set up and know what they are doing more, they can decide what makes the best sense. The employee themself would know best about what needs to be done, not a supervisor, especially when it is about the details of how the work gets done. Same for collaboration. If you don’t deliberately collaborate, you might miss a lot of collaboration opportunities even coming in. Now, if you are new in the job, it might take more interaction initially to solidify the connections that you might leverage later on to get things done. To me, it is all about doing what is best and also whatever works best. If there is no reason to go in, one should not be forced to go in. We can avoid traffic, rush hour, and stress.
Full blog post:
People thought that was crazy. But I got interviews for ALL but one of them. That is a high success rate for applying to postdocs.
If you are not writing a cover letter specifically for a given role – you should really ask yourself if you even care enough to bother applying for that role. This is what I did and ended up applying to so few places.
By the time you are applying for postdocs, it is not cute to like everything anymore. You want to be highly skilled, choosy, passionate, opinionated, and annoyingly specific, in order to make a strong case.
For the cover letter sample provided here, I was selling my background in a particle astrophysics balloon-payload experiment in Antarctica to apply for a job doing a different particle astrophysics balloon-payload experiment in Antarctica. The detection methods (RF antennas vs Si(Li) detectors) and science questions (ultra-high-energy neutrinos vs dark matter detection) addressed by each experiment were actually quite distinct from each other, however, there was enough in common between them (broadly, both were in the field of particle astrophysics, both balloon payloads, both in Antarctica) to make a case for the postdoc.
Full blog post:
https://howtophd.org/2020/07/how-to-write-a-cover-letter-for-a-postdoctoral-application.html
Should you stay longer and make sure your paper gets published? I address this question from a Ph.D. student. Here are the details of the question:
I want to transition to the industry as a research scientist.
I have one protocol paper accepted, one second-author paper, and one first-author paper that is not yet submitted.
I am worried as my advisor wants to add more data to the first-author paper before submitting it, and it keeps getting delayed.
Now he wants me to stay as a postdoc to finish it.
My advisor knows I want to transition to the industry.
My agony aunt response:
Your situation sounds to me like your advisor wants to keep you forever. Because you are good!
You usually end up doing other people’s jobs as well… maybe he needs to employ more people who can help to finish the paper if he wants a LOT more changes.
Sadly (or not, if you don’t care,) you might have to step down from the first-author status in that case, but I come from a field that has embraced the alphabet for better or for worse, so that’s up to you. I bet you could still claim a lot of ownership for the parts that you have done already. It won’t matter in the industry, not like in academia.
Keep in mind that your advisor knows you are going to the industry – HE has nothing to lose if you give more of your time to this paper. If you lined up an academic job, I bet he would be much less inclined to keep you longer. Because then it would matter to him. If you are in a field where producing postdocs/academics is important to the CV of an academic (which is true for many fields) your professor would care about this. On the other hand, if you are going to industry, YOU are the only one in a position to lose from staying longer.
In this situation, do what you need to do to graduate with your degree. And, ONLY that. Your advisor could want many things – but YOU need to do what will get you out ASAP. That is likely NOT working more and more on the paper. Write your thesis, finish up whatever is going into your thesis.
Sometimes getting a paper accepted by a journal is a requirement to graduate but that is clearly not the case here as he wants you to stay as a postdoc to finish the paper. So, don’t let anyone emotionally blackmail you into staying longer. That’s toxic, and all the more reason to leave.
Full blog post:
https://howtophd.org/2018/08/should-you-stay-longer-and-make-sure-your-paper-gets-published.html
What is my daily schedule for research and writing?
I am not super disciplined and don’t operate on a strict schedule day to day. I like flexibility and thrive on being able to improvise. Basically kind of like doing whatever I feel like.
I do have a full-time job and recently started to prioritize health and fitness in my daily routine. For the content and side hustle, I am driven by what I want to be doing. I set goals, write them down, and accomplish them. It makes me happy to accomplish the things I set out to do.
I don’t care about difficulty, but about getting things done. Not every day is the same and there are days when I don’t have the energy to make content. I allow myself to vegetate during such times and catch back up later on when I have more energy.
I always have ideas for more things to do and manage or stay organized about achieving them. This mainly entails writing and keeping track using basic tools like the Notes app on my computer. Writing, in general, is something I do every day for my own sanity and I don’t publish most of the things I write. When I organize my writing to form it into something for readers, it becomes a publication.
Otherwise writing never really stops.
This is an episode with podcast guest Chris! Chris finished his Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. This is an interdisciplinary Ph.D. focusing on Water and Sanitation in Urban India.
He researched low and middle-income regions in India and also minored in Engineering.
Not everywhere in the world has 24/7 access to water.
Chris talks about interesting results including that smaller cities with a lower standard of living were less likely to benefit from existing technologies, especially families with girl children.
Chris also talks about his experience in surviving graduate school and making it out successfully with his degree and even lining up a job in the government sector. He is currently working as a Senior Environmental Scientist for the State of California.
Although this is very much a pivot from Chris's academic pursuits, he is still able to make an impact where it really matters! We also cover how to start a podcast! Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple, or Google Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Learning to not take criticism personally is one of the most liberating and productive things you can do for yourself and your career.
In graduate school, I learned how to take criticism for what it is and it really helped me to succeed.
Sure, I didn’t know something. That was about me. But, they really, really wanted to point it out, for whatever reasons.
Once I realized that people really do rather love giving feedback, it was very productive to take advantage of it.
It’s like putting more people than just yourself to work!
I realized that getting a bunch of feedback from people did not mean that they thought I was stupid.
People don’t even have time to think that many thoughts about you. They want to say what they have to say and get on with their day. You just made them feel better, probably.
Even if people did think I was stupid, my main goal was to learn the material which I was doing way faster with their help.
If you don’t give talks or show drafts of something, your collaborators can’t give you any feedback.
They don’t have a chance to go on a long rant about something that you are wrong about or missed.
A long rant from a knowledgeable person in the group could teach you lots of things! Especially, when you are new.
So, taking it as a personal attack, even if it IS a personal attack which it rarely is, does you no good. You don’t have time for that.
Forget about the rest and don’t spend precious time and mental energy over-analyzing things.
You are in charge and you can get anything done. You are the only one that needs to believe in you.
Once you understand that that’s all there is to it, life is really rather simple and productive.
Full blog post:
https://howtophd.org/2018/09/learning-to-not-take-criticism.html
Please subscribe and rate this podcast!!
To get started with data science using Python, the recommendation from experts is to get Anaconda. The Python programming language is a powerful tool whose true potential is only harnessed with the right packages and libraries.
An Anaconda installation will give you those in one fell swoop rather than have to add things one by one.
To install Anaconda for individual use, go here.
With over 20 million users worldwide, the open-source Individual Edition (Distribution) is the easiest way to perform Python/R data science and machine learning on a single machine. Developed for solo practitioners, it is the toolkit that equips you to work with thousands of open-source packages and libraries.
I am pretty old school and have used vim a lot for an editor. For older programming languages like FORTRAN, that is kind of what you end up doing and I have had to do that as part of my job. However, with Python, you can expect much more.
Development of code can be done by opening files using any editor you like. But, that can get to be cumbersome and an IDE makes everything easier and more manageable. It will also help to autocomplete code like how your phone can autocomplete when you text.
Get started with data science using Python: Code example using Anaconda and PyCharm
Full blog post:
https://howtophd.org/2021/02/how-to-get-started-with-data-science-using-python-new-to-coding.html
Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous transient events in the observed Universe. However, there is no direct observational evidence for what exactly drives a GRB. The most widely accepted model for these cosmic events is the fireball model where it is thought that a substantial fraction of the kinetic energy of the source is converted to gamma-radiation by shock accelerated electrons emitting synchrotron and inverse-Compton radiation. The acceleration of protons in the gamma-ray emitting region of the GRB has been hypothesized as well. In this hadronic acceleration model, it is predicted that protons may interact with gamma-ray photons to produce a burst of neutrinos at energy ∼10^14 eV during prompt emission and energy ∼10^18 eV during afterglow emission. Several experimental searches for these high energy neutrinos have been conducted and no GRB neutrinos have yet been found. The analytical prediction for neutrino flux has been replaced with a more thorough numerical prediction for neutrino flux. The neutron model of GRBs, where only neutrons can escape the GRB and reach Earth as cosmic rays, has been ruled out by the experimental work of IceCube and ANTARES. Upgraded versions of current experiments such as IceCube, ANTARES, ANITA and ARA, as well as new experiments such as KM3NeT, are preparing to probe and further constrain the fireball paradigm of GRB neutrino production.
This review includes:
High Energy Neutrinos from Gamma Ray Bursts: Theoretical Predictions, Experimental Searches, and Prospects for Detection was originally written as a review submitted for my Ph.D. candidacy paper on Nov 23, 2015.
It has been edited for a "Short Read" on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing in Oct 2020. It is a public domain work.
Special thanks to the Connolly group at Ohio State University (OSU) and the physics and astronomy departments at OSU. Moreover, I am grateful for the contribution of each and every scientist and author listed in the "References" section of this review. This review would not be possible without their published science and hard work.
Please let me know if you find any mistakes or problems, I will fix them. My email is oindreeb@gmail.com. I am happy for this to be a living document. I am anxious to improve it but feel that it needs to be out at this point before that can happen.
Textbook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LS7Y6W2/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_dUGdGbKRSXSW9
