Science Careers Forum

Hello,

I am about a year out from graduating with my PhD. I am very interested in working on DARPA projects. Ideally, I would like to work directly at the DARPA Biological Technology Office. I was wondering if anyone has experience applying for a position there and if so what are the qualifications? For example, do I need to join the military? Do I need to complete a post-doc?

Thanks for any advice,
JLH

JLH,

I think the best approach here is to do some networking with DARPA employees. I pretended that I wanted to do this, so I went to LinkedIn (most everyone's #1 place for a place to start looking for job information) and there was a nice page of text for DARPA and who/how they hire. Then, I noticed off to the right the links that I have with people who work at DARPA. I've never done any work in those niches, but I have a whole bunch of DARPA connections to scientists.

Peeling back this particular series of links, I see that I could fairly easily approach about 30+ people with my questions about DARPA, because of my status with them on LinkedIn. At least, even if it's 3rd degree, I can see them and I can see their profiles. Calling them on the phone would not be out of the question if I was serious about wanting to learn more about their career choice.

This is a time to do what you are trained to do -- some solid research! Good luck,

Dave