Career development workshops and resume critiques will be available in the Career Center from Saturday, February 19 through Tuesday, February 22. Andrew Green and Alaina Levine will lead workshops throughout the meeting and will also provide one-on-one career counseling.
Registration is required for the limited number of one-on-one career counseling sessions. Please sign up for these appointments onsite at the meeting beginning Saturday afternoon, February 19. These signups are on a first-come, first-served basis, one session per person. Please come prepared to your appointment with resumes, CVs, and any other appropriate materials.
Registration is not required for the workshops, but please show up on time! Workshops are held in Esplanade, Room 151.
Leveraging LinkedIn in the PhD Job Search: Networking, Informational Interviews, and More
Presented by Andrew Green
Saturday, February 19, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
You’ve done some exploration and identified some interesting possibilities as the next step after grad school or your postdoc, but is it enough to convince you that research in industry, medical science liaison, data science, etc. is right for you? More importantly, do you know enough to craft a persuasive story about why you’re a credible and compelling candidate? This presentation provides specific examples of how you build out your knowledge of a new, potential career field, and forge valuable connections that can facilitate your successful transition out of academia using LinkedIn, professional societies, informational interviews, and more.
Networking for Biophysicists: How to Create Your Unicorn Career
Presented by Alaina Levine
Sunday, February 20, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Monday, February 21, 10:30 AM – 11:30 PM
In this session, we will discuss how to leverage networking to create a unique, customized career, which we call Your Unicorn Career. We will address how to understand your unique value, skills and interests and how to align that with employers who will hire you. We will discuss various methods for finding and building win-win collaborations with people in different professions and pathways to create opportunities for your unicorn career to come to fruition.
Demystifying the Academic Job Search I: Understanding the Search Process from the Perspective of Search Committees and Decoding Job Announcements
Presented by Andrew Green
Sunday, February 20, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
What goes on inside search committees; the “black box” of the academic job search process? How are they constituted, what are their processes, and what do they look for when assessing applicants? Answers to these and other questions presented by Andrew Green, PhD a veteran of the academic job search and numerous search committees.
Focus on Teaching: Building Your Career as a Teacher
Presented by Alaina Levine
Sunday, February 20, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
In this session we will address the elements needed to become a successful and engaging teacher and to build a career involving teaching. We will discuss skill development, opportunity and resource identification and allocation, how to recruit students for your lab/group, and how to build a strong mentoring program. We will also delve into how to identify grant and other funding opportunities as well as additional training opportunities to be a skilled teacher.
Nailing the Job Talk, or Erudition Ain’t Enough
Presented by Andrew Green
Sunday, February 20, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Congratulations! You've made it to the finals and are suddenly facing the most important presentation of your life. Answers to your questions about how to structure your presentation, how much detail to include, what they are really looking for, etc.
Demystifying the Academic Job Search II: Preparing your Written Application Materials
Presented by Andrew Green
Monday, February 21, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Over 90% of the cuts in a typical academic job search are made on the basis of your written application materials. Given the large number of candidates in a typical applicant pool, your documents must convey the most important information about you in the most clear and efficient manner. Learn about how your materials should differ based on the type of institution and/or program, and how to create “glance-able” documents to speak most effectively on your behalf.
Translating Your Credentials: Writing Effective resumes + Cover Letters for Industry, Government, and Nonprofit Jobs
Presented by Andrew Green
Monday, February 21, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
You have a CV with its list of publications, presentations, honors & awards, etc., but jobs outside of academia typically require a resume. Very few job ads fail to mention the importance of teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, yet if you take a glance at your CV, these are all likely to be absent or incomplete. Learn how to transform your CV into an effective resume that helps hiring managers recognize and appreciate the value you have to offer.
Optimize Every Experience: How to Extract Value and Leverage Your Postdoc, Grad Experience and Internship to Advance in Your Career (#SpoilerAlert: There’s Much More Than You Think!)
Presented by Alaina Levine
Monday, February 21, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
There are so many more resources and opportunities that can be accessed and leveraged while you’re still in grad school, your postdoc, or an internship. In this session, we will elucidate some of those and explain how to access, assess, and do them, for skill building, marketing, reputation enhancement, job searching, improving leadership and communications capabilities, becoming a stronger teacher and mentor, and, most importantly, to enable your success in the future and help you design a professional path that makes sense for you.
Marketing Your Value: Crafting Your Elevator Pitch/30 Second Value Statement/Brand Statement
Presented by Alaina Levine
Monday, February 21, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
In this workshop, we will address how to effectively market yourself for career opportunities (academia, industry and beyond) and leverage and utilize marketing methods and channels, and we will spend time on how to craft an elevator pitch and what makes a great pitch for employers.
Looking Beyond Academia: Identifying Your Career Options using MyIDP, LinkedIn & More
Presented by Andrew Green
Tuesday, February 22, 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Not sure where your professional future lies or how to approach the process in an organized and strategic manner? This presentation provides a framework and resources for moving forward with confidence towards the next step in your professional future. In addition, it will provide specific examples of how to build out your knowledge of a new potential career field and forge valuable connections that can facilitate a successful transition.
Transitioning Your Career Beyond Academia
Presented by Alaina Levine
Tuesday, February 22, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
In this session, we will discuss how to build a career development and networking plan to move your career beyond academia, including to industry, government, nonprofits and more. We will address how to find people in these ecosystems, what to say to them and how to actually create bridges with them so they think of you for opportunities. We will also delve into what you can do now to prepare for a career in these spaces.
The Strategic Postdoc: How to Find & Leverage Your Postdoc Experience
Presented by Andrew Green
Tuesday, February 22, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Many PhDs just kind of fall in to a postdoc, rather than thinking about it from a strategic perspective. Your postdoc is never an end in itself; rather it’s a means to another end whether that goal is a faculty position at a research university, a small college, national lab, or perhaps an industry job. Learn how to find postdoc opportunities that will best prepare you for that next step, and how to use your postdoc experience to facilitate the transition to the next step in your career.