This is two-part session with workshops co-hosted and run as part of the Spring PhD PATHFinder course (March 22 - March 26, 2021).

PART 1 (5:00 pm - 6:00 pm)

What do you consider when you're making a career transition? Attend this session to hear stories about graduate students and postdocs who successfully jumpstarted (or crawled) into new industry roles, and strategies and timelines for how they did it. 

You will also learn about InterSECT, a convenient online career exploration tool for PhD-level individuals. These web-based job simulations can help you explore PhD career paths, narrow down options, and make informed career choices.  The job sims have been vetted by professionals.

By the end of these sessions, you will be able to: 

• Explain different strategies for exploring careers

• Describe key tasks and terminology for your career field of interest

• Determine if you would like to further pursue a career field, before committing energy and time to an internship or additional training

• Identify next steps to make progress on career goals

Thi Nguyen, PhD is a neuroscientist, career coach, freelance consultant, former associate dean of graduate career development, and founder of InterSECTjobsims.com. She practices inclusive learning principles. She earned a BA/BA in Psychology and Biology from UT Austin and PhD in Neuroscience from UT Southwestern.

Read about how researchers are using InterSECT Job Sims- https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/10/virtual-reality-careers-new-online-resource-helps-scientists-explore-job-options

PART 2 (6:00 pm - 7:00 pm)

Are you struggling to figure out how your Ph.D. skills can be applied to a non-professoriate career? Or are you doubting your abilities to market yourself outside of the academy? This workshop is for you.

In this workshop, you will discover how your Ph.D. training is providing you with an arsenal of transferable skills applicable in a range of careers. We will also focus on

• Exercises to help you identify your transferable skills;
• Learning how to demonstrate your transferable skills to prospective employers;
• How to address gaps in your Ph.D. training to generate additional transferable skills for specific careers;
• How professionals in non-professoriate careers have used their Ph.D. scientific training in leadership and management roles.  

Dr. Lloyd Munjanja, Associate Director of Graduate Diversity and Program Climate, leads the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with the recruitment, retention, and advancement of graduate students, with a specific focus in traditionally underrepresented groups in chemistry.  Dr. Munjanja is passionate of inclusive education, cultural competency and career development that readies STEM professionals to be engaged in a global society. He is the co-instructor of two semester long courses for graduate students in their first and third years at the University of Illinois, CHM591 Professional Development for Chemists and CHM 593 Advanced Professional Development for Chemists respectively.

Register here.