Archive for the ‘Higher Ed’ Category
Graduate students are also introduced to the concept of “transferable skills”
Just got an email about a workshop for grad students called “Convert your CV into a Resume.” Besides the fact that universities should be offering more than workshops to prepare the vast majority of grad students who won’t be securing a coveted tenure position, the description seems to reflect so many of the problems with the current system.
Interested in pursuing a career in consulting, government, non-profit, policy, finance, academic/student affairs or “industry” in general? Well you will need a concise and dynamic resume and cover letter to peak[sic] any companies’ or institutions’ interest enough to call you for an interview–and résumés often differ drastically from CVs. This workshop introduces graduate students to the basic but essential strategies and tips for converting a CV into an effective resume. Graduate students are also introduced to the concept of “transferable skills” and given the latest information regarding current industry needs and resume styles.
C’mon academia, grad students are going to need a lot more than a workshop on the latest “resume styles” to land safely after getting kicked out the window of the 92nd floor of the Ivory Tower.
Rotation decisions for my first year of graduate school
Posted by: Justin in Higher Ed, Neuroscience on July 1st, 2009
So, I’m a just a few months away from orientation, Boot Camp, and the beginning of my first semester of classes in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UC San Diego. One of the big decisions that I’ve had to start thinking seriously about is the first-year research rotations. UCSD’s Neuro program requires three laboratory rotations, intended to offer “hands-on” laboratory experience and find a laboratory for dissertation research. Though we’re only allowed to sign up for the first one prior to Boot Camp, choosing that first one has required thinking strategically about all three.
How does one approach a “strategy” for rotations? Well, this is what I’ve been told:
Telescope or magnifying glass? The vertical approach.
Neuroscience is an incredibly diverse field of research, necessitating inquiry at many levels. Research on genes and neurotransmitters happens very differently than research on the visual system which happens very differently than research on the emotional effects of music. Different areas require different backgrounds, knowledge, and use different tools. Since I’ll be developing expertise at a certain level of the field during my dissertation research, the rotations will be an ideal opportunity for me to explore the other levels of neuroscience, allowing me to put the diverse coursework of the program into a laboratory context and understand the methods that are used throughout the field. Further, UCSD requires second year students to develop a project proposal in an field of neuroscience which is unrelated to their dissertation research, so any proficiency which I can build during that first year would be highly useful during my second year.
Filling up the toolbox. The horizontal approach.
The tough part of this vertical approach is that many of the lab techniques and methods that I learn will not be easily transferable to my dissertation research. Patch clamp recording is a different beast from fMRI… they address different questions at completely different levels of the brain and knowing the former would be of limited immediate value for a dissertation focusing on the latter. Further, like many incoming students, I am comfortable and most interested in a particular level of neuroscience and I think I know what kind of research I want to be doing for their dissertation. So why bother learning “useless” methods during the first year when I could be focusing on building a set of techniques which could be incorporated into my later dissertation research? Instead, I could spend my rotations learning laboratory techniques which could be used on the kinds of questions I want to study.
The sample platter
Ultimately, I expect to employ a combination of the “vertical” and the “horizontal.” Regardless, the key thing that I’ve been encouraged repeatedly to remember, whether talking to advisors, professors, or grad students, is that rotations are a testing ground for selecting a dissertation lab. Every rotation lab ought to be a lab that I am interested in entering for my dissertation research.
Three things I wish I had started freshman year of college
I initially compiled this list while I was applying for grad schools. It was just a quick email that I sent to a list of other Flinn scholars, hoping that it could be a few words of wisdom for the new ones. Here it is:
I wish I had…
1. started signing up for frequent flyer miles
I don’t know how many miles I’ve flown during my undergrad. maybe a bazillion. study abroad. conferences. visiting friends and family. I should have signed up for a frequent flyer program. Since I did a lot of international flying, it would have been best to go with one (or all) of the alliances… like oneworld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance… or I could have tried to get a credit card that gave frequent flier miles. Whatever way, I wish I could now cash these in to visit friends and grad schools, etc.
2. saved all of my course syllabi in a single file
One of the grad schools I applied to wanted me to organize my entire transcript (all 210+ credit hours of it) based on courses which were most relevant to the program including the textbook used for each course. Technically, I save most of my syllabi because I am (was?) a major pack-rat. But I saved them along with every other unimportant scrap of paper I got from those classes. So when I decided it was time to purge myself of the many boxes of junk from the prior 5.5 years of my college career, I think I discarded most of them. Which made determining the textbook used for the CHM115 course I took in the spring of ‘03 exceedingly difficult. The course was not on Blackboard at the time and the instructor had since pulled the info from his own website. The Wayback Machine didn’t even help, since it doesn’t archive PDF files. I wish I had had a single file to go to to see all of my syllabi.
3. actually started a portfolio
because, again, one of my grad school prospects specifically asked for this. and they want it on the internet. I think this is especially true advice for “project” majors–that is, majors where you learn to develop a project with a final result. Art, composition, design, engineering, computer science. The tough part I found when I kindof started freshman year is being able to guess what is relevant. But the cool thing I’ve realized is that it is likely all relevant. Don’t know where to start? Try putting this into google… “<your field> portfolio”. Or try to find portfolios of grad students in your field or related fields.
