Career & Professional Development, Winter & Spring 2022 Events

A professional portfolio has many components, each of which will continue to evolve and should be readily adapted to suit a variety of audiences. A CV is an excellent vehicle for communicating a full list of your experiences and accomplishments. A resume, on the other hand, is short & succinct, and needs to immediately capture the essence of your accomplishments and value in alignment with the job posting.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about the main purpose and uses of CVs and resumes,
• Learn the basic outlines and effective formats of these two documents,
• Learn to tailor your document(s) to the purpose of its final use

A professional portfolio has many components, each of which will continue to evolve and should be readily adapted to suit a variety of audiences.

While your CV or resume provides information about your past, your cover letter conveys your unique story, how your expertise aligns with the position, and your professional potential.

During this workshop, you will:

• Learn the overall purpose of a cover letter
• Gain an understanding of how to structure a cover letter,
• Learn how to tailor a cover letter to effectively communicate how your career trajectory and aspirations align with those of the organization/role for which you are applying.

Often, your first meeting with a future employer happens at the job interview; attend this workshop to prepare for that conversation!

In this workshop, you will learn how to communicate your past experience and future goals via concise and effective language that aligns with the the job you're interviewing for.

All are welcome - those currently in the application / interview process, and those interested in strengthening interview skills.

Want to learn more about recruiting and how PhD scientists can transition into this field? Come join our workshop to learn about the different types of industry recruiting and how a PhD can help you excel in this type of career. Millie will also be sharing her career journey into biotech recruiting and how to access these career opportunities.

About Our Presenter:

Millie is a Senior Scientific Recruiter and Account Manager at Recruitomics Consulting, where she helps biotech companies grow their talent and culture from the ground up. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience from UC Davis studying the neural correlates of memory. After her PhD, she helped PhD researchers at UC Davis navigate non-tenure track careers for about 3 years until she pivoted into the world of recruiting. Her work is only one of many multitudes — she is a queer Latina immigrant from Peru who grew up undocumented and low-income and hopes that she can pave the way for others with similar experiences.

This workshop will introduce Research Development (RD) as a career path for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Sengupta and Dr. Wallace will describe details of a RD career, including roles and responsibilities of a RD professional, different structures of RD offices, and differences between RD and Research Administration. This will be followed by brief descriptions of each presenter’s career path into RD, directions they have taken since, and paths forward.

After this workshop attendees will be able to:

• Understand what Research Development is and how it is different from Research Administration
• Understand the roles and responsibilities of RD professional and differences in RD offices
• Understand the pathways to RD career and the career trajectories

About Our Presenters

Samarpita Sengupta, PhD (she/her) serves as the Director of Research in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies at UT Southwestern. She is responsible for creating and executing strategic initiatives designed to increase student participation in research, elevate research by faculty, maintain accreditation as well as maintain program standing as a destination PA program in the country. She started in Research Development in 2015, helping create and eventually lead the Neuroscience Research Development (NeRD) office in the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern. She is an active volunteer with the National Organization of Research Development professionals (NORDP), serving and leading a variety of initiatives. She is currently serving as a co-chair of the Mentoring Committee. She can be found on Twitter (@AnonDumboOctopi).

Rachel Wallace serves as a Research Development Officer with the Research Development and Proposal Services team in the Univ of Michigan Office of Research. She supports U-M investigators in all research areas in securing external research funding. In her role, Rachel provides proposal support and editing, project management for large-scale proposal submissions, workshops to help increase grant competitiveness, and general consulting on research development. Rachel holds a B.A. degree in Chemistry from Wesleyan University and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Michigan. She also completed a graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Public Policy in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining OVPR, Rachel was the project manager for Michigan Drug Discovery. 

First-generation graduate students and postdocs, the first in their family to attend college and go on to graduate school, can lack understanding of how to navigate the experience of a research environment. Their experiences can mirror the challenges that first-generation undergrads face, but graduate school and postdoctoral training certainly can open up new obstacles and unknowns.

From our experiences advising graduate students and postdocs, we see that institutions recognize the challenges of first-gen undergrads, but may not give as much attention to such concerns for graduate students and postdocs. We wrote about this last year for Inside Higher Ed, and welcome the opportunity for further discussion and dialogue.

In this session we will discuss first-gen graduate school challenges, share advice on finding resources and community support as a first-gen grad student or postdoc, and offer opportunities to build connections with other session attendees.

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Arnaldo Díaz Vázquez is the Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Southwestern. He leads efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the biomedical sciences, including directing the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and AMGEN Scholars programs, the Postbaccalaureate to Ph.D. Program and co-directing the Provost's Initiative for Diverse Emerging Scholars Program. The latter offers resources to postdocs from UR backgrounds and supports their transition into faculty positions. Dr. Díaz Vázquez received his B.S. from the University of Puerto Rico, Ph.D. from Texas A&M​ University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Natalie Lundsteen is the Assistant Dean for Career and Professional Development for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Southwestern, where she manages career and professional development resources and programs for graduate students and postdocs. She has advised and taught postdocs, graduate students, and alumni from all academic disciplines at Boston University, MIT, Oxford University, and Stanford University. Dr. Lundsteen received her B.S. and Ed.M. from Boston University and her PhD from the University of Oxford. 

Managing all of your responsibilities can sometimes feel daunting or overwhelming. Join us for a workshop to explore some of the barriers to effective self and time management and learn some techniques for improving.