Contemplating a career in health sciences or looking for more opportunities for funding and training? NIH recently launched a new Virtual Career Center developed by the intramural Office of Education and designed to meet the needs of the NIH community as well as students and professionals in science and medicine, from the college level to postdoctoral and beyond.

The center, http://www.training.nih.gov/careers/careercenter/index.html, has four major areas of interest: exploring career options, continuing education, employment options and opportunities, and the job search process. Containing 55 pages and more than a thousand links, the site also allows for a quick focus on areas that meet a user's particular needs.

"The range of career options open to young scientists is broad and continually evolving," says Brenda R. Hanning, acting OE director. "Many of the jobs students will have in the future may not have been invented yet. Our site will work to keep pace with new avenues of opportunity."

The "Exploring Career Options" section enables users to explore their interests through self-assessment mechanisms, discover careers and pathways, and learn important career skills such as writing grants and publishing articles.

The section titled "Continuing Your Education" provides information on admissions, application services, financial aid, loan repayment, grants, fellowships, education survival skills, and medical schools and other professional programs.

Information on conducting employment searches and learning about opportunities available in industry, academia and government are found in the "Employment Options and Opportunities" section.

Last, important skills to be used for applying, interviewing and negotiating for a position are found in the "Job Search Process" section. Because users will have specific needs and come from different backgrounds, each section can be searched independently and includes related links that will provide additional information on particular areas of interest.