Entering the job market after graduating with a Master’s or Ph.D. can be daunting. The challenge is easier to meet when the degree-holder has a ready set of career skills.
That’s why more than 30 graduate students from colleges and universities across Rhode Island participated in the Career Development Program (CDP) virtual Summer Intensive, July 16 and 17. The CDP, established by Metcalf Institute in partnership with the Rhode Island Consortium for Coastal Ecology, Assessment, Innovation & Modeling (RI C-AIM), is designed to help Rhode Island researchers gain the confidence and skills to succeed the workforce.
Metcalf Institute kicked off the online program with a session on creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP), a career road map that helps students set professional goals. Cara Mitnick, director of professional development in the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School, described the IDP as a forward-thinking way to promote career advancement.
“An IDP can help you navigate the current challenging job market,” she said. “Research shows that individuals who perform structured career planning have greater career success and satisfaction.”
Dr. Sunshine Menezes, Metcalf Institute’s executive director, shared her expertise on the fundamentals of science communication, including the key traits of inclusive science communication and a workshop on framing and crafting clear messages.
“Audience is absolutely central to this whole process,” Menezes told the group. “Knowing who you are talking with and what they value is a critical first step.”
The CDP Summer Intensive also focused on effective writing habits in a session led by Dr. Austin Jackson, assistant director of The Writing Center at Brown University. Jackson outlined a long list of myths that “prevent us from becoming excellent writers” and emphasized the importance of developing habits that build writing skills.
“Successful writers know that there are no shortcuts, no magic bullets, no special exercises, no tricks to making it easier,” explained Jackson. “There are just habits and practices that you can develop. In other words, writing is just simply hard work.”
The workshop concluded with a conversation about career paths with Dr. Karlisa Callwood, director of the Community Conservation Education and Action Program at Perry Institute of Marine Science in Vermont in, and Dr. Heather Goldstone, chief communications officer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
One participant asked the speakers to identify skills they gained in graduate school that have proved to be relevant in their respective careers.
“What I learned in graduate school is how to learn, how to take in a ton of information and critically analyze it…” said Dr. Goldstone. “That is a life skill that is important to pretty much any career.”
Dr. Callwood pointed to preparation, an essential skill for everything from defending a dissertation to workforce preparedness. “You should know or have an expectation of what you will be asked when you walk into that defense room,” she said. “And that is very true in the real world as well.”
The Career Development Program is supported by the National Science Foundation under EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement #OIA-1655221. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.