Things You Should Do Before Your Last Year

Guest writer Laura Zirbel is finishing her fifth year in the UCSB Mathematics PhD program and her research interest is applied knot theory. She also writes for the American Mathematical Society Graduate Student Blog.

I’ve started to worry about applying for jobs and finishing my dissertation, even though two years seems like a lot of time. But in a year from now, one short little year, I will be applying for jobs. Watching those a year ahead of me, I’ve began to make a list of things I can do now to make my life easier next year. While this is tailored to an academic job search, many of these items are applicable to those going into industry as well. 

• Make a website. It’s not that hard, and if you have a Wizard of Oz IT guy, he can probably help you.
• Write stuff up. Write up background, write down little ideas and bits of progress you make. It’s difficult to imagine that these trivial, inconsequential bits will make it to your dissertation. But recreating a week’s or month’s worth of ideas is way more time-consuming that just writing them down now. Or better yet, TeX it up.
• If you need a little extra motivation to write stuff up, speak in seminars, both at your home institution and away. Make a poster for a poster session. Preparing for these will help you record your thoughts and work. It’s also great networking!
• The above are really subsets of this next one: get organized. Keep a research journal. Post your work to your website. Keep a binder with notes from all your meetings with your advisor. Do what works for you to keep track of what you’ve done.
• Think about your research statement.
• Think about and begin writing your teaching statement.
• You may have a clear idea about who is going to do your research recommendations, but what about teaching recommendations? A professor you have worked well with? Maybe you were a head TA or did TA training and the lead faculty member could write you a recommendation. If you can’t think of anyone, maybe you can start building a relationship with the professor you are working with this term.
• Keep your CV updated.
• Meet with a career counselor or some other wise job-finding-sage about your CV and do mock interviews.
• Look for programs to beef up that CV and prepare you for college teaching. CCUT, classes in education at the college level, programs about using technology in the classroom, and reviewing your teaching methods and student feedback with a faculty mentor can inform your teaching statement and are good interview topics as well.
• Find out the requirements for filing your dissertation, including formatting and due dates. If you are including work that you submitted as a journal article, you may need written permission to include it in your thesis. 
• Find out where job postings are posted, and when you need to start applying. 
• More generally, make a timeline of your final year, including job application seasons, conferences, dissertation deadlines and so on.  

I’m sure there are many more things to do, and not all professional. What kind of job do I want? Where can I live? Can my partner get a job in the area? What are you doing to prep for finding a job and graduating?

The Academy for Future Science Faculty

A group at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine seeks advanced Ph.D. students in the sciences for the Academy for Future Science Faculty, supported by an NIH grant. Selected students will participate in annual summer conferences and stay connected with student colleagues and their Academic Career Coaches throughout the year. The Academy has been designed for students who have the long-term goal of becoming a faculty member and are likely to complete their Ph.D. within the next 12 to 18 months. All expenses will be paid.

The Academy is being conducted as a true experiment—60 students will be randomly selected to participate from those who apply. Selection will not be based on grades, GRE scores, publications, or letters of recommendation. The Academy encourages applications that will help create a diverse group of participants in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

What will the Academy for Future Science Faculty provide?

• Guidance from Academic Career Coaches—faculty and leaders of research training from around the U.S.
• Insights on how to best prepare for an academic career as your prepare for the critical next step after your Ph.D.
• Intensive (but fun!) summer events in downtown Chicago (July 21-23, 2012 and July 2013), including Academy students and Academic Career Coaches to maximally prepare you to excel—travel and program costs provided
• Ongoing guidance and networking with the Coaches and Academy peers throughout the 2012-13 academic year to complement and supplement what you receive through your Ph.D. program
• An exceptionally diverse community of future faculty colleagues and collaborators from highly varied backgrounds

What will be required of you?

• Full attendance at the July 2012 and 2013 meetings in Chicago
• Willingness to engage with Coaches and peers
• Willingness to provide feedback on your experiences in the Academy and graduate school through responses to a few surveys and confidential interviews

To apply you must satisfy all of these criteria:

• Be a U.S. citizen or have permanent residence status
• Currently within about 12-18 months of completing a biomedical Ph.D. program
• Have a primary goal and intent to achieve an academic career as a faculty member
• Be able and willing to commit to the participation requirements

The application deadline is Monday, April 30, 2012. Those selected will be notified by May 15, 2012.

Apply at: https://nufsm.wufoo.com/forms/academy-for-future-science-faculty-group-ii/

Program Questions? Contact Dr. Rick McGee, Associate Dean and Program Director, r-mcgee@northwestern.edu

Application Questions? Contact Beth Morrissey, Project Coordinator, e-morrissey@northwestern.edu

To Be Creative, Effective and Innovative, You May Want to Avoid These 10 Terms on CV’s

Created at www.wordle.net

On that CV you’re writing, you want to impress. Your resumé  is loaded with “dynamic” terms meant to show potential employers how “creative,” “effective,” “motivated” and “innovative” you are. Well, there are a whole lot of other people using those same terms to describe themselves, at least according to the professional networking site LinkedIn, which cites “creative” as the No. 1 overused buzzword on its site this year.

Of course, it’s good to be creative and motivated and problem-solving, but these descriptions by themselves don’t really distinguish you from others competing for the same jobs.

LinkedIn came up with its list of top 10 overused profile terms by analyzing the profiles of its 135 million members.

The site suggests that rather than just stating you are creative, give specific examples of how you were creative to make yourself “stand out from the professional pack.”

“Banish buzzwords from your profile,” Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s Connection Director and best-selling author of the book, “Girl on Top,” advised in LinkedIn’s press release. “Use language that illustrates your unique professional accomplishments and experiences. Give concrete examples of results you’ve achieved whenever possible and reference attributes that are specific to you.”

However, before you dump all those overused words, read what Fortune contributor Vickie Elmer has to say on the matter. Sometimes, she says, hiring managers and recruiters plug those very words into searches to find candidates.

Here now are the top 10 most used buzzwords on LinkedIn profiles for 2011:

1.  Creative

2.  Organizational

3.  Effective

4.  Extensive experience

5.  Track record

6.  Motivated

7.  Innovative

8.  Problem solving

9.  Communication skills

10. Dynamic

School-to-Career Questions

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on the creation of a new commission charged with examining trends in the grad-school-to-career transition in the U.S.  The commission is being created as a follow up to this 2010 report, The Path Forward, sponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Educational Testing Service (ETS).   

 It’s nice to know that there are some folks looking at whether the time and money investment in graduate school will actually result in a career that matches education and experience.  One interesting and new trend from The Path Forward shows that doctoral-degree recipients are looking for career opportunities outside of higher education, since there are less and less tenure track positions available each year.  Meanwhile, more and more jobs will require a graduate degree. 

We here at the Grad Post are interested in the grad student community’s thoughts on the school-to-career transition.  What are your career hopes…or realities?  Feel free to comment here.  

GauchoLink Has Current Jobs

It's easy to search the official, campus job resource -- GauchoLink -- in order to find jobs that are: in an area you'd like to live; require a degree you are working for; or are with an organization you admire. We just dove into GauchoLink and used "PhD" as a search term and came up with a lot of listings -- most of them technical. If any of these look good to you, get yourself into GauchoLink (you must be a UCSB grad student to get in) and use the system to apply.

Click to read more ...

Career Services offers "Out-of-the-Box" Ph. D. Talk at GSRC

By Mario G. Galicia, Jr. - GradDiv Diversity Peer

Last week, the Career Services department led an insightful conversation regarding jobs outside of academia; hence, the title "Out-of-the-Box". Micael Kemp, Director of Career Services, facilitated the conversation by first engaging the graduate students with resources and search engines available to help enhance their own specific career goals. Micael followed with a question and answer and forum addressing individual students' comments and questions. There are so many resources available for graduate students that are looking for career possibilities given our current economy. 

If you're interested in reading more information regarding this topic click on the following link: Career Services 

LinkedIN Workshop at Career Feb 16 @ 4PM

By Don Lubach - Student Affairs Correspondent

Jumpstart Your Career: How to Gain a Competitive Edge Using LinkedIn

Wednesday, February 16

4:00pm – 5:00pm

@Career Services.

Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets. With over 47 million members in over 200 countries, LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. This workshop will show you how to get started using this valuable networking and job search tool. You’ll learn how to create a profile, how to network with alumni and other career professionals, how to take advantage of groups, how to research future employers...and more.

Career Services Invites Participation in a Survey

By Don Lubach - Student Affairs Correspondent , care of Ignacio Gallardo, Associate Director of UCSB Career Services

This survey, run by a 3rd party, results in some very useful data for our campus and for the emloyers who are considering UCSB as a source of new hires. If you have some time and would like to assist with our efforts to attract top employers, please fill it out.

UCSB Career Services encourages you to complete the University of California-Santa Barbara Student Survey offered by Universum and be heard by recruiters at top companies across the world as well as get some free stuff in the process!

UCSB students are highly sought after by employers, thus your opinions are extremely important and valuable sources of information. Top companies, including many that recruit UCSB students, base their recruiting strategies on our research.

Check out what else you get just for taking the survey: 
• A Free WetFeet Insider Guide: Networking Works! (Value: $22)
• Be entered to win a Universum Scholarship worth $500 to $1000
• A Chance to win a $5,200 IEM Study Abroad Internship Scholarship for Shanghai, China
• Exclusive access to Jullien Gordon's One Day Resume eCourse
• Make a donation to a charity of your choice: UNICEF, Breast Cancer Research or The Center for Biological Diversity
• Gain Exclusive Membership to Springboardr.com, an application that helps students discover, follow and connect with their ideal employers.

Take the survey now at: www.universumsurvey.com/usss

Winter Career Fair Update

By Don Lubach - Student Affairs Correspondent

Here at the post, we are keeping our eyed on the growing list of employers who are coming to UCSB on January 27, 2011. The good folks at Career Services ask the employers, when they sign up, to check a box if they are seeking full-time recruits from our ranks of graduate students. It is possible to start studying for the fair right now. Just visit the list and read up on any employers who you might want to meet at the fair.

Scholarly Pursuits: A Guide to Professional Development During the Graduate Years

Special to the GradPost by Amber Gonzalez, UCSB Graduate Student and former GSA President. Often, things that are "free" come with blinking advertisements and watered-down content.  This excellent work is of great value. A tip of the GradPost press fedora to Cynthia Verba from Harvard for offering this resource to graduate students around the globe. Click the image below and you'll be transported to Harvard and the and can access nearly 200 pages of useful information on professionalism for the modern grad student.