NEW YORK -- Getting a job after being a postdoctoral researcher doesn't just require demonstrated and potential excellence in research, but a value-added skill that will make the scientist unique to a potential employer. So said Elizabeth Ross, professor of neurogenetics at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC), to a group of postdoctoral associates at a symposium earlier this spring on how postdoctoral associates can best transition into science careers.

Networking, in the form of attending faculty meetings, asking questions and organizing events, can be critical to making a name for a rising scientist.

"Science is a personality-driven business. People hire people they know and like," said one of the panelists, who included professionals from academia, industry and alternative careers. Panelists recounted their own career paths and offered advice to postdocs from Tri-Institutional partners WCMC, The Rockefeller University and Sloan-Kettering Institute during the daylong symposium hosted by Weill Cornell. The symposium also provided a forum for the kind of networking that nearly all speakers agreed was the cornerstone of any successful scientific job search.

"Eventually our postdoc positions are going to end, and the hope for most of us is to be a principal investigator. So the goal of the symposium was to focus on what we can do to help us get there," said Leonardo Pignataro, a Weill Cornell postdoctoral associate and the principal organizer of the event. However, because most postdocs will not become tenured faculty in academia, an additional goal of the symposium was to expose postdocs to the range of opportunities for science Ph.D.s both in and out of academia.

"One of the key missions of the office of postdoctoral affairs is to provide up-to-date career information for science Ph.D.s and opportunities to acquire the skills necessary for a variety of careers," said Karen Sherman, director of WCMC's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. "It is very important that postdocs are encouraged to pursue careers that best match their own unique skills, interests and lifestyle."

Take industry panelist George Yancopoulos, for example, whose career exemplifies the fast-paced, high-risk science of biotech and pharma companies. After postdoc work in molecular immunology at Columbia University, Yancopoulos had achieved what he had long thought was his dream: a faculty appointment at Columbia and an eight-year, $1.5 million Lucille P. Markey Scholar Award. Then he did the unthinkable.

He turned it down and helped start a biopharmaceutical company, working out of an acquaintance's apartment with only enough capital to last a week.

Now, 17 years later, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and one of the most highly cited scientists in industry, proving that "high science" can be practiced in a market-driven environment. But Regeneron, the company he helped launch, has yet to make a major commercial breakthrough and reported a net operating loss of nearly $100 million in 2005.

Beyond academic and industry speakers, the symposium also featured scientists with alternative careers, including a science writer, a consultant, a lobbyist and a patent lawyer. With so many choices, the proposition of launching a career could seem daunting.

"It's important to stay optimistic, in your science and your life," said Joel Pardee, associate dean of the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences and faculty director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. "It's very important to follow that dream."

The advice was not lost on Pignataro, who hopes for a career in academia: "We didn't become scientists because there was sign on the door that said 'scientist wanted.' We became scientists to be scientists, and if you stay and insist, you will make it."

Gabriel Miller is a writer with Weill Cornell Medical College's Office of Public Affairs.