PhD 019: Starting an “Alternative” Career Symposium at Your Institution with Mark Esposito

APR 30, 201539 MIN
PhD (in Progress) Podcast | Education, Career, Life

PhD 019: Starting an “Alternative” Career Symposium at Your Institution with Mark Esposito

APR 30, 201539 MIN

Description

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A very special thank you to Mark Esposito who also runs the Breaking Bio blog found at breakingbio.org

Ep019

Mark wrote a guide about creating the career symposium you heard in this show at http://www.breakingbio.org/resources/

Discussion points:

  • Understanding your career path and constantly questioning your goals
  • Problems with tenure track positions as the default
  • How do we approach learning about “alternative careers”
  • Steps in initiating a career symposium:
    • 1) Raise money via internal and external grants or donations
    • 2) Connect with potential speakers/guests
      • Ask faculty
      • Use LinkedIn or call companies
      • Ask departmental office
      • Location can be important
    • 3) Logistics for travel arrangement, room availability
  • Career areas addressed at the symposium held at Princeton’s Department of Molecular Biology:
    • Policy
    • Education
    • Industry R&D
    • Law
    • Science Communication
  • Related Episodes:

A very special thanks to Mark Esposito. You can find some great, accessible science posts by Mark at BreakingBio.org. We hope you can take some of his advice and start discussions of alternative careers at your school. He was nice enough to write up a summary and supporting materials that you can find at phdinprogress.com/19.

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[Image used under Creative Commons licensing and adapted from original by US Dept. of Education]