1 / 18

Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths

Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths. Gokcen Cilingir 12/02/2011. Who is Grace Hopper?. A ship at port is safe, but that’s not what a ship was built for. Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper

davida
Download Presentation

Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths Gokcen Cilingir 12/02/2011

  2. Who is Grace Hopper? A ship at port is safe, but that’s not what a ship was built for. Grace Hopper • Grace Hopper • developed the first compiler for a computer programming language in 1940s • conceived the idea of machine-independent programming languages -> COBOL • popularized the term "debugging" (motivated by an actual bug removed from the computer)

  3. Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) • Presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) • The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry and academia.

  4. GHC 2011 • Gathered about 3000 technical women in Portland. • Included new investigator research forums, PhD forums, career development sessions/panels, technical speeches, poster sessions. • You can read session notes from their wiki page.

  5. Career fair highlights • About 100 employers from industry, research labs, and academia. • Lots of internship/job opportunities, check out this job booklet for more information. • Some attendees of the career fair: • Adobe, Amazon, Expedia, Facebook, Google, HP Labs, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, Twitter, Yahoo, Thomson Reuters,… • GE Global Research, Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (PARC), Advanced Technology Labs (ATL) of Adobe, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, A2Z Research and Development,…

  6. Rest of the talk… • “PhD says something about you beyond the particulars of your research” • A scientific perspective to job search

  7. PhD says something about you beyond the particulars of your research ! • It is important to know/to be reminded of what you’ll bring to the table having a PhD. • Why? • You can make sure you are gaining the skills you’re expected to possess • Knowing your strengths shapes the way you present yourself • You’ll gain most out of the activities you’re performing, having an “active” state of mind.

  8. Skills that you learn in grad school • Critical thinking • Ability to identify problems and being able to go deep into solving them • Ability to step back from the depth and detail and show how your solution affects the big picture • Communication skills- with people in and out of your discipline. • Time management skills for managing multiple tasks simultaneously

  9. Why hire a PhD? “PhDs become translators between academics and engineers, they built the bridge between cutting edge research and products.” “Critical and analytical thinking about problems can be a hard quality to find in product development work, which PhDs consistently demonstrate.” “PhDs can simplify complex things into something that business/product units can understand and work with” Dr. Monica Martinez-Canales, Principal Engineer at Intel

  10. Job search is a complex process “As a scientist, you are used to tackling complex problems in a systematic way. Finding a job is a complex process requiring a serious commitment of time and smarts.” • Find out what’s out there. • Read job ads, career articles • Find out what you want to do • Talk with people, request ‘informational interviews’, do internships

  11. What is out there? • How to find jobs in science/ research/ academia: • Your network • Career & Job Center of ACM • CRA Job announcements • International (UK-based)

  12. Can you go back and forth between academia and industry? • YES, but you need to play by the rules. • If you stay too long in industry, it is hard to get back into academia • Remedy: Keep reading papers and keep publishing • If you stay too long in academia, it is hard to get back into industry • Remedy: Stay up to date on the current climate in industry, keep your technical skills fresh

  13. Some facts about job search • Expect to send out at least 10 applications to get an interview • Start building your professional network early, company referrals ease your way into an interview • There are so many factors out of your control, so start your search early, be persistent

  14. Some tips for increasing your visibility/credibility • Keep your web presence up-to-date • Make a personal web page • Open a technical blog • Prepare a Linked-in profile • Participate in open-source projects • Check out github – social coding(!)

  15. Interview the company • Asking no questions may kill your interview. • Asking insightful questions demonstrate your critical thinking abilities • A Principal Engineer at Intel explained how she gives her decisions largely based on the questions one asks

  16. Highlights of technical talks • Anne Condon - Some How's and Why's of Programming DNA Molecules • Margareta Ackerman - Towards Theoretical Foundations of Clustering (here is a talk on this work delivered by Shai Ben-David)

  17. Resources • CRA-W workshop slide archive • GHC wiki • Mastering Your Ph.D.: Preparing for Your Post-Ph.D. Career

  18. Thanks for listening! • Any questions or comments?

More Related