Careers Exploration: Beyond Academe

Careers Exploration:Beyond Academe February 4, 2014Dr. Brian Mitchell, Associate ProvostDr. Rachel Burk, Graduate Career Advisor

Today’s Presentation • What You Can Do to Prepare as a Student or Postdoc • Researching Industries • Networking and Informational Interviewing • CV to Resume • A Few Words on Transitioning from Academe • Questions?

Pathways Through Graduate School • Council of Graduate Schools/ETS Report • http://pathwaysreport.org/ Master’s Degrees Doctorates in Science, Engineering and Health

What You Can Do To Prepare to Leave Academe • Think about it • Identity change • Take advantage of assessment tools • My IDP at sciencecareers.org • Strength Finder, Meyers Briggs available at Career Center • Research Industries • What do you most like and most excel at • Networking and Informational Interviewing • Internship/Skill Building

Where Scientists Work

Famous PhDs Outside Academe • MiucciaPrada, PhD Poly Sci Designer, Prada • MLK, PhD Theology Civil Rights Leader • Brian May, PhD Astrophysics Guitarist, Queen • Angela Merkel, PhD Chemistry German Chancellor • MayimBialik, PhD Neurobio Actor • Gordon Brown, PhD History Prime Minister UK • Newt Gingrich, PhD History Fmr. Speaker of the House

Industries that Attract Advanced Degree Holders • Humanities/Social Sciences: Non-Profits/Foundations Cultural Institutions/Policy Professional Research Publishing/Writing/Editing International Development • STEM: Industry R&D Science Policy/Non-Profit IP/Patent Law Science Communications Tech Transfer • All: Higher Ed Admin (Alt-Ac) Financial Services K-12 Teaching Consulting Government

Researching Industries • Career sections of professional organization websites • Industry publications • Department of Labor • Vault and Wetfeet, available on CSC website • Forums at VersatilePhd.com • Company/Institution websites, publications • Career/jobs aggregators and advice sites like The Muse

Humanities/Social Sciences Resources • Alt Ac: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Higher Ed Jobs • Nonprofits: Idealist, Foundation Center, The Chronicle of Philanthropy • K-12: National Association for Independent Schools, Teach for America, Carney, Sandoe& Associates • Cultural/Historical Organizations: American Association of Museums, National & Louisiana Endowments for the Humanities, NEA • Federal Government: USA Jobs, Partnership for Public Service, Presidential Management Fellows

STEM Resources • Trade Journals • http://chemistryjobs.acs.org/jobs • Professional Organizations • http://www.aiche.org/resources/careers • http://www.aps.org/careers/employment/jobcenter.cfm • NGOs • http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/jobs/

What is networking, and why should I network? • In its simplest form, networking involves having a career-related conversation with someone. Networking and establishing contacts can help you to: • Explore careers and jobs - gather information about a job, industry or workplace to determine fit • Find a job – use networking to talk to people about your qualifications to find out about jobs leads and other resources you cannot know about otherwise. • Building and maintaining a network of professional contacts will help you get a job and then help you do your job. • The vast majority of jobs outside academe are landed through networking. • It’s not as bad (or as self-serving) as it sounds.

Strategies for Networking • Prepare materials—resumes, business cards—to share when appropriate. • Think through a brief description of your experience and goals to serve as an introduction to new contacts. • Keep a list (or database or spreadsheet) of contacts. • When you want something (information on a company, a job in X field), let lots of people know, including those whom you would not expect to be in a position to help. • Reciprocate by being a good connection for others.

Networks are Powerful! “Networks are powerful, and when done right leave you surrounded by a core of individuals who are all rooting for your success and happy to help you. The building blocks of a great network aren’t purpose-driven meetings — they’re casual encounters, agenda-less coffee catch-ups, and even favors for people who don’t seem to be in any position to help you right now. Build your network that way, and when you present your acquaintances with a problem they realize they can solve for you — they’ll be right there with an offer to help.” -Kathryn Minshew, Harvard Business Review, Oct. 2012

How to Build a Professional Network • Begin with friends, colleagues, family, Tulane alumni; let them know your training, experiences, and career plans (or even less-defined aspirations). • Conduct informational interviews. • Take part in professional society local and regional organizations: • Monthly/Quarterly Meetings • Annual Meetings • Learn to use LinkedIn strategically.

Informational Interviewing • The best information on an industry comes from people who are actually working in that career field. • An informational interview is an informal conversation with someone working in an area of interest to you who will give you information and advice. • It is an effective research tool in addition to reading books, exploring the Internet and examining job descriptions. • It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings. • You may feel awkward making arrangements to talk with people you don't know about their work. However, most people actually enjoy taking a few moments out of their day to reflect on their professional life and to give advice to someone with an interest in their field.

Benefits of Informational Interviewing • Get firsthand, relevant information about the realities of working within a particular field, industry or position. • Find out about career paths you did not know existed. • Discover what others with your degree are doing in their careers. • Get tips about how to prepare for and enter a given career. • Improve your communication skills and confidence speaking with professionals. • Learn what it’s like to work at a specific organization. • Gain knowledge that can help you in writing your resume, interviewing for jobs in the field, and your other job search activities. • Initiate a professional relationship and expand your network of contacts in a specific career field; meet people who may forward job leads to you in the future.

Skill Building • Using what you’ve learned in your industry research, networking and informational interviewing, expand your training during your degree with an eye towards post-graduation employment. Some possible examples: • For humanists, a basic working knowledge of statistics complements your research skills. • For social scientists already strong in statistical analysis, grow your computing skills to include programming or web development. • For scientists, learn about finance. • Growing number of training programs/degrees provide biomed academic researchers with practical business knowledge to join industry

Internships • Internships have not traditionally formed a part of advanced research training. This, however, is changing as students recognize that many (in some fields more than 50%) will have a professional life outside academe. • There are few formalized internship programs for advanced degree holders. Enterprising students and postdocs can propose their own. • In the past five years, fellowships for Humanists and Social Scientists (CLIR, ) have been established to facilitate transition from academe. • Interning has a greater and growing presence in the Sciences. A good place to start investigating possibilities is the Graduate Student Institute for Career Exploration at UCSF. • Presidential Management Fellowship

CV to Resume • CV is a complete history of your academic and professional life as a researcher. • A resume is shorter, more targeted document intended to get you an interview for a specific position. It should clearly articulate how your experience matches the employer’s needs. • To convert your CV to a resume, • Shorten it to 1 to 2 pages • Plan to tweak it to specifically address the job description • Shift focus from publications and presentations to skills and career objectives • Include interpersonal skills development, career-related extracurricular activities, leadership positions

Transitioning Out of Academe • Few professions follow the proscribed linear development of a faculty career. This means in leaving academe you will learn to risk, change, and re-invent, all at a much faster pace. • Work outside a faculty is often in an office and concentrated during business hours. • You normally work on several projects in parallel and must be ready to change projects frequently. • Lots of other people will scrutinize your work, and you’ll regularly work collaboratively. • You’ll work under tighter timelines--and learn to live with good enough.

Upcoming Events Virtual Career Fair for Ph.D.s & Master’s February 19, 2014 • Register via CSC website • RSVP to event • Upload Resume • Check schedule of employers • Attend Information Session for Postdoctoral Professional Masters and Bioscience Management Bootcamp Keck Institute of Applied Life Science March 24, 2014

Resources What Color is Your Parachute? So What are You Going to Do with That? Rachel Burk, Graduate Career Advisor Tulane Career Center (504) 865-5107 or rburk@tulane.edu

Careers Exploration: Beyond Academe