The SSE Sponsorship Highlights present personal stories from individuals who have received SSE funding. This month we highlight the Diverse Careers Workshop [1] at Evolution 2019. Continue reading to hear more about the workshop from the Diverse Careers Committee.
The SSE generously funded a workshop on career exploration for graduate students and postdocs at this year’s Evolution meeting. The workshop, titled “Leveraging Your PhD: Careers In and Out of Academia”, offered participants concrete tools for exploring career options beyond tenure track faculty roles, with a focus on networking and informational interviews. The event also provided participants opportunities to speak with evolutionary biology Ph.D.s employed in a diverse range of institutions and fields, including museums, community colleges, academic administration, science writing, crop breeding, and tech start-ups.
Based on pre and post workshop surveys, participants reported feeling significantly more prepared and confident about finding jobs outside academia. When asked in a follow up survey what they found to be the most valuable part of the workshop, they gave the following responses:
“I used to feel unskilled, but now I feel that I can sell the skills that I have/will gather during my Phd. Also knowing about informational interviews, that (is something) I was unaware about.”
“I loved the techniques for career exploration and meeting so many people with different careers after graduate school. I feel like knowing about other options is the hardest part for me.”
“The roundtable discussion because we got to speak with a diverse array of panelists working outside of academia.”
“All of the panel were super helpful in explaining their past and supportive to the participants.”