Mon Jan 25, 2-2:45 pm
WHAT: What Can I Do with a Graduate Degree? Identifying My Transferable Skills
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events/what-can-i-do-graduate-degree-identifying-my-transferable-skills-0
This workshop will help you identify the transferable skills you’ve already developed in graduate school or your postdoc experience, brainstorm opportunities to continue growing your skills, and connect with tools to help you plan for further development.
Weds Jan 27, 9-9:45 am
WHAT: Preparing for Virtual Career Fairs and Employer Events
REGISTER: Graduate students register at Career Connections; postdocs register at https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5dQe6Ldqrz1ctyR
Career Fairs and employer events are great ways to explore opportunities, practice communication skills and network with recruiters and hiring managers. This spring all of our employer events will be online and preparation for this format will be helpful in order to have a successful experience. This workshop will focus on the strategies and tools you can incorporate in order to prepare for these events and stand out as a candidate.
Mon Feb 1, 2-2:45 pm
WHAT: Research Tools for Exploring Your Career Options
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events/research-tools-exploring-your-career-options
Turn your research acumen to the task of exploring your career options. This workshop will introduce key tools that help you identify potential career alignment opportunities and learn about them in depth. In preparation for this workshop, please register for an account on The Versatile PhD website through Duke’s subscription.
Thurs Feb 4, 10 – 11:30 am
WHAT: Managing Your Research Career Using an Individual Development Plan (IDP)
REGISTER: https://tinyurl.com/IDPSpring21
For better or for worse, your experiences and the training you receive as postdoctoral researchers and graduate students can greatly shape the rest of your career. However, there are strategies and resources that can increase your chances of getting what you came for. During this program, participants will learn how to develop clear and specific goals and objectives, along with a plan for executing them.
Topics include:
- The importance of setting goals and developing an IDP
- Introduction to the SMART goals model
- Resources for crafting and executing your IDP
- Strategies for establishing expectations and effectively communicating research and career goals with your mentor/PI.
Speaker: Dara Wilson-Grant is the Associate Director at the UNC-Chapel Hill Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor. With over fifteen years experience providing career management education and counseling, Dara’s mission is to help individuals develop a framework for choosing a meaningful and rewarding career path, plus develop the skills necessary for a lifetime of career success.
NOTE: This seminar provides Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) credit. Note that you will not receive credit if you arrive for this event late or leave early. Questions? Email Molly Starback, Director of Duke Postdoctoral Services, at molly.starback@duke.edu, or Hugh Crumley, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, at grad-rcr@duke.edu.
Tues Feb 9, 4-5 pm
WHAT: Know Thyself: Using ImaginePhD
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events/know-thyself-using-imaginephd
Socrates noted, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Yet in academic life we offer ourselves little time for reflection on the relationship between the ways we spend our time each day and how those temporal investments serve our long-term goals (or not). Spend an hour getting to know yourself better with ImaginePhD, a free online tool that helps you assess your skills and interests as well as examine your values. ImaginePhD can help you surface gaps between your skills—the things you’re good at doing—and your interests—the activities that bring you satisfaction. Armed with that self-knowledge, you can make a plan to grow in the skills that matter to you. We’ll spend our time in this workshop identifying next steps that you can take after completing the Interests, Skills, and Values assessment in ImaginePhD.
All participants should plan to complete those assessments prior to the workshop; each one takes approximately 10-15 minutes. ImaginePhD is designed for PhD students and recent alumni in the social sciences and humanities, but this workshop is open to all Graduate School students and postdocs.
Thurs Feb 11, 4:30-6 pm
WHAT: Take Your Teaching Skills Anywhere: How to Talk about your Teaching Experiences to Employers Outside Academia
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events/take-your-teaching-skills-anywhere-how-talk-about-your-teaching-experiences
How can you capitalize on the skills you’ve developed through the many hours you’ve devoted to teaching? These skills can help you position yourself for success in industry, government, nonprofit, or even academic administration. In this interactive workshop, Dr. Melissa Bostrom, assistant dean for graduate student professional development, will help you uncover how your teaching experiences are an ideal way to help potential employers understand the crucial skills you’ve learned in graduate school—skills that are transferable to a variety of careers beyond faculty positions.
Weds Feb 24, 4-5:30 pm
WHAT: Navigating Career Uncertainty
REGISTER: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1BPdUQtwNjI12yp
ZOOM LINK: https://duke.zoom.us/j/95471334588
If you are going on the job market this year, it can be a confusing time filled with uncertainty and many changes. Join the Duke University Career Center and a panel of Duke alumni to hear how others have navigated challenges in their career journeys and tips for how to approach a job search this year.
Watch on the Duke Postdoctoral Services YouTube Channel
Thurs Feb 25, 1-1:45 pm
WHAT: Your Confident LinkedIn Profile
REGISTER: Graduate students register at Career Connections; postdocs register at https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9XohCZB2bmtwhoh
Advice about optimizing your LinkedIn profile is readily available online. Attend this session to make sense of the advice for your specific field and goals, take advantage of recent product changes, and get feedback from other attendees.
Tues Mar 2, 3-4:30 pm
WHAT: Developing Business & Professional Skills
REGISTER: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3K3yjGoBKbYyINn
ZOOM LINK: https://duke.zoom.us/j/94956423343
Business skills are often necessary in many work settings and in a variety of roles. This session will focus on: Personnel Management/Organizational Behavior, Effective Communication, and Budgeting & Finance. Participants will also leave with strategies for further developing these skills while students or postdocs.
Watch on the Duke Postdoctoral Services YouTube Channel
Thurs Mar 4, 10-11 am
WHAT: Leaving the Ivory Tower: Managing the Emotional Side of Career Change
REGISTER: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8GkdRzbIVhImN49
A large part of how we define ourselves and how others define us is based on what we do for a living – our professional identity. But what happens when we are no longer a [fill in the blank]? How do we deal with the loss of self, the loss of professional status, the loss of affiliation with an elite group that we’ve been aligned with as long as we can remember?
The overall loss of identity that we feel when we decide to leave academia is comparable to healing after the loss of a loved one or after the breakup of a long-term, and possibly dysfunctional, relationship. Letting go can be difficult, but we have to let go and give ourselves permission to grieve before reaching a point where we are ready to commit to making a career change. In this informative session, participants will learn about the emotional obstacles that can keep us stuck in an academic career path that is no longer fulfilling. Participants will also learn how former postdocs and graduate students found the courage to follow a more rewarding career path.
Dara Wilson-Grant, Associate Director of the UNC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, will discuss:
- Strategies for letting go and moving on to form, and eventually embrace, a new professional identity.
- Resources that can help you navigate through the transition phase and into a more rewarding career.
Speaker: Dara Wilson-Grant is the Associate Director at the UNC-Chapel Hill Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor. With over fifteen years experience providing career management education and counseling, Dara’s mission is to help individuals develop a framework for choosing a meaningful and rewarding career path, plus develop the skills necessary for a lifetime of career success.
Thurs Mar 11, 12-1 pm
WHAT: Effectively Communicating Your Leadership Skills to Employers
REGISTER: Graduate students register at Career Connections; postdocs register at https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bPKYYZRFYq279Ea
Employers from all industries say that leadership skills are among the top essential skills they look for in candidates. Whether you hold a formal leadership position, are a TA, help manage your lab or have organized a seminar, you already have leaderships skills. In this session you will learn how to communicate these experiences effectively on your job application documents and during interviews in order to help you stand out.
Thurs Mar 25, 1-2:30 pm
WHAT: Developing the Language of Transferable Skills for Humanities PhDs
REGISTER: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_42RQgE4PtnaMCPk
How do you effectively convey the valuable skills and knowledge learned through a humanities graduate degree to employers outside of academia? This workshop will help you identify language to describe your strengths, learn how to unpack job descriptions to discern what managers are really looking for, and practice articulating the power of a humanities graduate degree. Come hear from alumni who have made the transition to the workforce as well as representatives from organizations that hire humanities PhDs.
- Steve Pysnik, PhD (Musicology), Salesforce Consultant
- Katherine Jentleson, PhD (Art History), Curator of Folk & Self-Taught Art at The High Museum
- Meagan Green Labunski, PhD and Matt Woodworth, PhD (Art History), Co-Founders of Curated Touring, Inc
- Anna Mann, HR Manager, Government Executive Media Group
Thurs May 6, 6 pm
WHAT: WiSE Panel Discussion: Scientific Careers in Government
REGISTER: tinyurl.com/wisegovtpanel
Join Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) as we host 4 female scientists, all Duke alumnae, who work in government. Learn about science opportunities in government, the transition from academia to their positions, and any other questions you might have. We will also offer breakout discussion sections to allow you to ask more tailored questions about the fields you are interested in. Find full panelist bios online.
Speakers:
- Adria Wilson, PhD (Chemistry), Manager, US Policy and Advocacy at Breakthrough Energy
- Keisha Findley, PhD (Molecular Genetics and Microbiology), Scientific Reviewer and Microbiologist at FDA
- Sheena Scruggs, PhD (Biology), Health Scientist at NIEHS
- Sandra Vergara, PhD (Genetics), Biologist at NIEHS
Mon May 10, 2-2:45 pm
WHAT: What Can I Do with a Graduate Degree? Identifying My Transferable Skills
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events
This workshop will help you identify the transferable skills you’ve already developed in graduate school or your postdoc experience, brainstorm opportunities to continue growing your skills, and connect with tools to help you plan for further development.
Tues May 11, 2-2:45 pm
WHAT: Research Tools for Exploring Your Career Options
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events
Turn your research acumen to the task of exploring your career options. This workshop will introduce key tools that help you identify potential career alignment opportunities and learn about them in depth. In preparation for this workshop, please register for an account on The Versatile PhD website through Duke’s subscription.
Fri May 14, 2-3:30 pm
REGISTER: https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/events/
Have you ever wondered how your personality preferences shape the way you interact with other people? If you prefer quiet time alone to interacting with a group, how do you respond when you’re assigned a team project? What if you like to be highly organized with checklists but colleagues prefer to fly by the seat of their pants? This interactive workshop will help you learn not only about your own behaviors and preferences but also how people with different personality types might perceive those behaviors and preferences, impacting your effectiveness as a leader.
Using an assessment based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, this workshop will help you apply your understanding to your interactions with others. This workshop is facilitated by Dr. Hugh Crumley, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, and Dr. Melissa Bostrom, Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Professional Development, both of whom are MBTI certified. Detailed instructions for the assessment available upon registration; all participants must register and complete the assessment by Fri May 14 at 9 am.
