Take Advantage of Collaborative Opportunities Posted on February 20, 2006 David J. Kupfer (bio) encourages researchers to take part in activities that encourage collaboration and networking.

The other thing is what we call a kind of matchmaking, which is that you've got to take advantage of opportunities to establish collaborations. When somebody says, "Well, we're going to do poster sessions, or we're going to have an opportunity to do that," don't turn that down and say, "I have nothing to say" or "I don't want to waste my time preparing something."

It may be a very important set of opportunities you would miss if you didn't take advantage of poster presentations and things like that. With these, I'm really talking about local kinds of things.

Really, what I come down to about this whole negotiation issue is nobody's going to do it for you. Sorry to say. You may think they're going to do it for you, but they're not really going to do it all the way, and if you're not proactive, if you're shy, then I suggest not necessarily professional counseling unless you think it's necessary, but you've got to break out of it. You've got to, in a sense, take care of yourself. It's your responsibility to find a mentor, not my responsibility.

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