Young Ph.D.’s in nearly every field are finding today's job market a confusing and frustrating place. More new Ph.D.’s and post-docs are considering a wider range of careers in and out of academia and science, but feel ill-prepared and uninformed about their options. Some feel their Ph.D. training has led them to a dead-end. In this workshop I present a thorough and practical overview to the process of career planning and job hunting in today's job market, from the perspective of a young Ph.D. Dr. Fiske will cover specific steps that young Ph.D.’s can take to broaden their horizons within academia and outside academia, strengthen their skills, and present their best face to potential employers. An important part of this is the realization that most Ph.D.’s possess a range of valuable "transferable skills" that are highly sought after by employers outside of academia.

Peter Fiske Bio
Dr. Peter S. Fiske is a seasoned executive with more than 2 decades of experience leading technology organizations and initiatives across industries such as Water, Renewable Energy, Defense, and Natural Resources. He is currently the Director of Water-Energy Resilience Research Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Peter has successfully commercialized several technologies including Reactive Atom Plasma (RAP) processing for optics and semiconductor manufacturing, biomimicry-inspired high-efficiency fluid mixing and process control technology (PAX Water) and has served as a board member or advisor to a number of technology start-ups. As CEO of PAX Water Technologies, he led the development, marketing and sales of three lines of premium process control technologies for the municipal water market, maintaining unusually high gross margins in a cost-sensitive industry with stiff competition. Under his leadership, his team of talented industry outsiders won several major industry awards for advertising and design, and maintained profitable growth of >20% per year, culminating in the acquisition of the company in January 2017 in an all-cash transaction. But he is most proud of the many talented professionals he has had the opportunity to recruit and coach throughout his career.

Fiske is also a nationally-recognized author and lecturer, teaching innovation, entrepreneurship and personal career strategy to scientists and engineers in industry and research. He is a regular contributor to Nature (the #1 international science journal) and a past columnist for Science (the #1 US scientific journal). His articles have also appeared in The New Scientist. Fiske is the author of Put Your Science to WORK!, the most widely-read career strategy guide for early-career scientists and engineers. He is a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer at leading research universities such as MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Caltech and has given his acclaimed 2-hour workshop to over 25,000 scientists and engineers in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

Whether a graduate student’s career path leads toward academia, industry, or government, it is necessary to understand how develop quality proposals that involve multiple disciplines and require teamwork. This session, led by Manu Platt, Assoc Professor, Ga Tech and Mary S. Harris, GrantArtisans™, will provide an opportunity for graduate students to learn, in theory and through guided practice, how to develop compelling storylines and well-organized proposals. In addition, Dr. Platt will introduce and frame a week-long grant writing project that will give all participants the opportunity to apply what they learn throughout the week.

Manu Platt, Ph.D. Bio
Joined the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in January of 2009. His research is focused on cardiovascular tissue remodeling in sickle cell disease and in patients with HIV and developing regenerative medicine approaches using bone marrow derived stem cells for tissue repair. Platt received his B.S. in Biology at Morehouse College in 2001. As a senior undergraduate, he was invited to participate in research at the Georgia Tech & Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissue (GTEC) working with Robert Nerem, Ph.D. This propelled Platt to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, which he received in 2006. Under the advisement of Hanjoong Jo, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and cardiology, Platt’s thesis investigated the role of blood flow mechanics in differential regulation of cathepsin enzymes and their inhibitor cystatin C in the endothelial cells that line the arterial walls; this work has important implications on plaque development in arteries that leads to cardiovascular disease.

Mary S. Harris, Founder & Principal of GrantArtisans™
Dr. Mary S. Harris is an accomplished scientist, business-woman, and consumer health advocate. She received her undergraduate degree in biology from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), her Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Cornell University, followed by postdoctoral training in molecular virology at Rutgers Medical School in Piscataway, NJ. She is founder, president and CEO of BioTechnical Communications, Inc., which specializes in the production and the use of technology to disseminate health information targeted to ethnic minorities. She is also founder and Principal of GrantArtisans™, a subsidiary of BioTechnical Communications, Inc, that provides subject matter experts and technical writers to improve the competitiveness of applicants’ grant proposals.

This session addresses the core issues of good scientific presentations. The interactive session focuses on refining structural elements to ensure that any talk is clear, concise and engaging. Topics include: identifying the focus and theme, how to create effective visual aids, and how to begin and end a talk effectively. In addition, scientists need to know how to make a strong impression during a job interview. This part of the session will highlight the most common questions that students are likely to face and how to formulate the best responses.

Scott Morgan Bio
Scott Morgan has been teaching communication skills for 20 years. His clients include the National Institutes of Health, the Mayo Clinic, Merck, NASA, EPA, City of Hope Cancer Center, and several universities: Harvard Medical School, UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell, Maryland, Ohio State, Minnesota, Duke, Nebraska and NC State University, and Texas A∓M. He has 25 years of broadcast experience and teaches media and communication strategy to many think tanks in the Washington DC area. Specifically, as a Senior Associate with the Abshire Inamori Leadership Academy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (http://csis.org/expert/scott-morgan). Scott graduated with honors from the University of California, Davis and authored the book, Speaking about Science published by Cambridge University Press.

Graduate students put significant lot of time and effort into pursuing their PhDs, yet they sometimes neglect the assessment of their professional goals along the way. This session helps graduate students keep their professional goals in focus by developing an individual development plan (IDP) through which students explore career possibilities and set goals that align best with their interests, skills, and values. In the myIDP workshop, students will use exercises to help them examine their skills, interests, and values; then they will explore a list of 20 scientific career paths with guidance of which ones best fit their skills and interests. They will also be able to set strategic goals for the coming year and connect with articles and resources to guide them through the process.

Bill Lindstaedt Bio
Bill Lindstaedt has been helping scientists and engineers make career decisions for over twenty years. Since October 2014, he has served as the Executive Director of the umbrella unit known as Career Advancement, International & Postdoctoral Services (CAIPS), comprised of three offices: The Office of Career and Professional Development, International Students and Scholars Office and the Postdoc Office. Director of the Office of Career and Professional Development at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In addition to his leadership responsibilities, his career advising work focuses on helping pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research scientists with their career and professional development issues. He previously served as Director of the Office of Career and Professional Development. Lindstaedt is a co-author of "myIDP", a popular career development tool hosted by Science magazine's careers site. In his one-on-one practice he has developed particular expertise working with life and health scientists as they transition from academic positions to careers in biotech and other non-academic settings. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and a Master's degree from the joint Counseling Psychology and Higher Education/Student Affairs programs at Indiana University.

Cynthia Fuhrman Bio
Dr. Cynthia Fuhrmann is Assistant Dean of Career & Professional Development in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). In this role, she leads the development of new programs to assist graduate students and postdocs in preparing for their future scientific careers. Dr. Fuhrmann transitioned to UMMS from UCSF, where she founded and directed the Preparing Future Faculty program and oversaw professional skills development programs for biomedical scientists. Dr. Fuhrmann teaches workshops regionally and nationally, on topics such as preparing for the academic job search, giving a dynamic research talk, and creating an Individual Development Plan. She co-authored and coordinated technical development of myIDP, an interactive career-planning website launched by Science Careers in September 2012. Funded by AAAS and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, myIDP assists science trainees with exploring career options, making career decisions, and creating a career development plan for achieving their goals. Dr. Fuhrmann has great interest in national policy related to the career development of scientists. In 2011 she published the first study to look at (a) career preferences of doctoral and postdoctoral scholars in the basic biomedical sciences and (b) how these preferences differ based on year of training. Her research in this area has been cited or highlighted in Science, Nature Careers, PLOS One, the NIH Biomedical Workforce Working Group Report, NIH Extramural Nexus Newsletter, Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Tomorrow's Professor.

Through exploration of your strengths using the StrengthFinder assessment tool and Strengths based Leadership book, you will discover more about yourself and your unique strengths in a work context. The session will help you learn how to consider future roles in/out of academia that would leverage your strengths and help you appreciate the strengths of others on your team. You will also understand more about the four leadership domains and how your strengths align with the traits of strong leaders.

Steve Lee
Steve Lee is the Graduate Diversity Officer for the STEM Disciplines at the University of California, Davis. Lee, whose family immigrated to the United States from Korea, grew up in Chicago. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (1990) and a doctoral degree in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1996). Before becoming a graduate diversity officer at UC Davis, Lee worked for six years at Northwestern University, where, as the assistant director of a professional development program, he focused on enrollment and retention of underrepresented graduate students in the biological sciences. Earlier, he was at Chicago State University, Roosevelt University and Wheaton College, all in Illinois. Lee says his work to improve diversity in higher education and supporting students from different backgrounds is rooted in his own spiritual commitment to seek justice. “There is some inner moral responsibility,” Lee said.

This talk gives an overview of the sociological factors that affect the construction of diverse, high performing teams. Building on a summary of key issues that affect gender and racial disparities in high performing occupations, the talk covers the current social science and vocabulary for addressing the problem, as well as strategies for moving forward, avoiding common traps, and protecting performance-based advancement.

Janet Vertesi
Dubbed “Margaret Mead among the Starfleet” by the Times Literary Supplement,  Janet Vertesi is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and an expert in the sociology of science, technology, and organizations.  Vertesi’s past decade of research, funded by the National Science Foundation, examines how distributed robotic spacecraft teams work together effectively to produce scientific and technical results.  Her book Seeing Like a Rover (University of Chicago Press, 2015) describes the collaborative work of the Mars Exploration Rover mission including the people, the images, and the robots who do science on Mars.  Vertesi is also a long-time contributor to the Association of Computing Machinery conferences on human-computer interaction and computer supported cooperative work. She is an advisory board member of the Data and Society institute in New York City and is a member of Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

Students pick one:

1. Academic Job Search Q & A with Rosanne Lurie (academic options, dual career search in academia, teaching philosophy, etc…)


2. Job Search Materials with Natalie Lundsteen (resumes and cover letters, references, etc…)


3. Communicating your career plans with your advisor with Thi Nguyen (strategy, timing and getting over fear, etc…)


4. Professional networks and your professional reputation/brand with Amy Pszczolkowski (navigating social media presence, LinkedIn, etc…)

Graduate students, just like all professionals, need to surround themselves with a network of people who provide training, advice, mentoring, career and professional development. Navigating today’s complex job market requires strategic connections. In this session, graduate students will begin to identify and build their own developmental network and learn how to nurture and enhance their professional identities and relationships over time.

Amy Pszczolkowski Bio
Amy Pszczolkowski, is the assistant dean for professional development in the Princeton Graduate School. As such, she manages the professional development program for doctoral candidates at Princeton. Her areas of responsibility include the Professional Development Working Group and liaison to partner offices, review of grant proposals for professional development activities, placement and coordination with department placement officers, and professional development programs, including University Administrative Fellows. Amy has been a leader in higher education with 20+ years of experience in a broad range of areas including: professional and career development for graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates; employer relations and development; graduate advising and admissions; strategic planning and management; and marketing and communications. Prior to joining Princeton in 2008, Amy spent years career counseling students in STEM and the liberal arts at various institutions in the northeast. She received her M.S. in higher education administration from Miami University of Ohio and her B.A. in psychology from Allegheny College. She serves on the Executive Board of the Graduate Career Consortium, an international professional association of 200+ leaders in the field of professional and career development for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Each team will have the opportunity to present their ideas and get feedback on their work.

Rosanne Lurie Bio
Rosanne Lurie, M.S. is the Senior Associate Director of the Graduate Student/Postdoctoral Fellow Career Advising team at the University of Pennsylvania. In this role, she establishes direction for all career services, programs and outreach for graduate students, alumni of graduate programs, and post-doctoral fellows in six graduate schools: Annenberg School for Communication, Graduate Arts and Sciences, Design, Biomedical Graduate Studies, Engineering and Applied Sciences (Ph.D. only), and Wharton Doctoral Programs. Rosanne has been a career counselor for over 15 years. Before joining Penn's Career Services in 2009, she worked at several University of California institutions, including UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco, primarily in roles supporting graduate students in their efforts to establish careers which build upon their skills and academic training. She earned a M.S. in Counseling, with Career and College Specializations, from San Francisco State University, and a B.A. in Political Science with Honors from Haverford College. In 2003, Rosanne produced two publications for Wetfeet Press: she developed and wrote the guidebook “Killer Cover Letters and Resumes” and revised and expanded the “Insider’s Guide for Getting the Ideal Internship.” Rosanne is co-authoring the 5th edition of the “Academic Job Search Handbook” with Julie Vick and Jennifer Furlong for the University of Pennsylvania Press.

In a competitive job market, professionalism and proper etiquette are important skills whether you pursue a career in academia or in business world. This etiquette dinner will help graduate students understand the nuances in professional etiquette and build their skills and confidence in establishing solid interpersonal relationships. Professionals are more confident and self-assured when they know what to do, when to do it, and why it has to be done.

Renae Weghorst Bio
Renae Weghorst has over 20 years of experience in management and customer service ranging from corporate and executive dining to directing administrative and human resources for her husband’s training company. She received her Bachelor degree in Consumer Food Science and Master’s in Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management.