We completed our annual lab Career Development Week (CDW) between June 21-25. This was the 2nd annual CDW and we added some new elements to the plan to keep improving this intensive career development and planning event for our group.
The main focus in Career Development Week is each student completing career development/exploration tasks from a long list of available activities (can be accessed here). Our week and list were based on an activity originally designed by Dr. Prachee Avasthi (her website is here, one of her previous lists is here, and a writeup about her approach to this activity can be found here). In our adaptation in its 2nd year, our 4 PhD students completed 74 (!!) career development activities! Our summer student, James, also tried out something new. Although I always like to point out that all students who participate “win” by working their plans, we do make this event a little more silly and competitive by assigning and tabulating point values. The point total winner this year was Kendall Clay, with 27 activities (and also the most “points”). She received the traveling Cardev Cup trophy and some treats inside (see below). I’m so proud of all the hard work everyone put into this week of activities!
This year, we also added a guest speaker component to our event, inviting four speakers to talk about their career paths. Dr. Tony Chen (Editor, Wiley) zoomed with the group to talk about his career in science publishing. Dr. Chen emphasized the transferable skill of problem solving that he regularly employs in his publishing job. Dr. Lauren Cote (Stanford U) spoke about her experiences as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Cote helped our group understand differences in postdoctoral and doctoral research and emphasized the importance of finding an environment and postdoc mentor that will allow you to thrive. Dr. Stephanie Conant (University of Detroit Mercy) talked about her teaching-focused faculty position. Dr. Conant shared her joy of teaching student scholars and helped students understand different types of faculty positions in academia. And Dr. Kellie Kravarik (Pfizer) talked with our group about her job as a scientist in industry. Dr. Kravarik emphasized the joyful teamwork that she experiences in her position and helped students identify steps they should take to find and apply for jobs in industry. We were grateful to have two former planarian-ologists with us, as students had read their papers and appreciated hearing from someone who had walked a somewhat similar Ph.D. path. All four guest speakers were truly phenomenal, answering questions, and generously sharing their wisdom and experience in their current job and career path. All guests shared their jobs so wonderfully that I think our students could envision themselves in many different careers (a good thing!).
It was interesting to complete Career Development Week with more experienced students and after a year+ of working and mentoring in a pandemic. On top of all the other challenges of research during a pandemic, students missed career development and networking opportunities. Further, our focuses on health/wellbeing and salvaging some research progress in the past year had put career planning on the back burner for many of us. I’m hopeful that an intensive focus on career development for a week was a useful jumpstart that we all need to create opportunities and plans in the coming year that will enrich students’ experiences and prepare them for their exciting next steps!