Tag: Research

Advice from Your Peers: Penn Doctoral Students on the Job Search

Have you wondered how Penn PhDs are using Career Services in their job search efforts?  Each year, Career Services works with hundreds of Penn doctoral students and postdocs in their career exploration, planning and job search efforts.   We also conduct “Career Plans Surveys” of recent PhD graduates, to find out their post-graduation plans and to ask them to share their advice with current students.  Below are just a sample of the responses we have received very recently – each with some direct and doable suggestions for making the most of your time and the resources here at Penn.  These graduates, representing a wide variety of disciplines, utilized Career Services for doctoral students/postdocs as one component of their job search efforts. We encourage you take advantage of their insights:

Linguistics PhD (2012), currently a lecturer at a university in the United Kingdom:  
“I made heavy use of the Academic Job Search Handbook, the sample materials available on the Career Services website (and similar materials on the website of Berkeley’s Career Center), and one-on-one meetings with Career Services staff. I strongly think knowing how to craft a well-formulated research statement and cover letter helped me get a leg up, because I was short-listed for two jobs in departments where I didn’t have any close contacts, and I really think that was due to how I sold myself in my application materials. That said, for the one offer I did end up getting, I had three close faculty contacts in the department: so there is a large element of networking and luck in the process. But I do really feel that Career Services helped to demystify the process and show me how to write about my work in a promising and intelligent way.”

Sociology PhD (2012), currently a postdoc at a R1 institution:
“One of my committee members hired me for a project he is working on.  In terms of advice I’d give other students, I’d say develop ties with academic people outside of your committee, talk to people in your field, meet as many people as possible.  Also I would highly recommend using Career Services.  Although that’s not how I got this job, I had interviews thanks to the help I got from the career advisors at Penn.”  (Check out Career Services resources on the academic job search.)

Bioengineering PhD (2012) currently a consultant with an international management consulting firm:
“I went to Career Services first to get my first few concrete steps, which were to write a resume along with reaching out to alumni on PACnet (now called QuakerNet). The initial networking and research helped me determine which field I wanted to pursue first, so I could focus the limited time and energy I had on optimizing my resume and cover letter for that niche. I then went to Career Services about eight more times to hone my resume and cover letter, so I had a solid platform to apply to many jobs quickly.  After that, I reached out to anyone who would talk to me in that field to either get advice or do case studies.  Pithy advice: prioritize; get an outside coach who knows the process to let you know where you should focus your energies because you can’t do everything.” (Click here for information on consulting for PhDs.)

Communications PhD (2013), currently a postdoc at a R1 institution:
“1. Create a list of what you want out of a career, what you enjoy doing, what you are good at doing, and where you would like to live.
2. Networking throughout the entire time as a student is important to get to know organizations, institutions, or individuals who do similar types of work or research. This could be at informal meetings, lunch seminars, conferences. And it helps to inform your choices of courses, projects, and research topics during the program. Don’t wait until the last year to do this.*
3. Start about a year before the expected date of graduation to scan through position announcements that seem to match those in the list and get a sense of skills and responsibilities that are required.
4. Attend many of the excellent Career Services workshops; make appointments with the CS advisors along every stage of the job search process.
5. Keep in touch with your referees during the search process about your plans, outcomes from interviews, etc.
6. Before interviewing, talk to as many people as possible who are familiar about the organization e.g., alumni, advisors, or faculty.
7. Staying positive and keeping the search in perspective and balancing the search with other daily demands is really important too.
8. Thank everyone who helped you and gave advice along the way.”

* View our suggested PhD career planning steps/timeline here.

Speaking of “thanks”…..  Career Services is grateful for all the doctoral students who fill out our surveys and take the time to share their advice with us on behalf of their peers.

Day in the Life: Research at Tulane University’s Anthropology Department

We’re excited to welcome Dr. Melinda G. Nelson-Hurst, Ph.D to @PennCareerDay on Tuesday, March 12th.  Throughout the week of March 11th, we’re going to focus on careers in education from K-12 to policymaking to research, as a follow up to our Education and Social Services Career Day on February 27th.  To learn more about Dr. Nelson-Hurst’s bio read below, and be sure to follow her on the 12th!

@PennCareerDay_TulaneResearchDr. Melinda G. Nelson-Hurst is a research associate in the Department of Anthropology and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Classical Studies at Tulane University.  She completed her Ph.D. in Egyptology (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Graduate Group) at the University of Pennsylvania, where her doctoral work and publications focused on the social history of the Middle Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt.  This work particularly centered on the part that family played in shaping the administration of the period, as well as on the social and religious roles that different family members fulfilled.

Since 2012, she has been conducting a research project on the “Tulane Mummies” collection at Tulane University (a small collection that includes multiple Egyptian artifacts, as well as two mummies).  This most recent project has brought her Egyptological background together with new research into the modern history of the Egyptian artifacts now at Tulane – and into the history of the discipline of Egyptology itself – in order to answer questions about this enigmatic collection.

As both a research associate and an adjunct assistant professor, Dr. Nelson-Hurst’s time at Tulane University is typically divided between teaching and research on a variety of topics.  However, during the current semester she is focusing entirely on research, most especially that on Tulane’s Egyptian collection.

Day in the Life: Development Officer at Penn Medicine by Day, Grad Student by Night

Day in the Life on@PennCareerDay is back!  January 30th – February 3rd we will highlight Careers in Healthcare on our various social media platforms.  There are a variety of career paths in the healthcare industry beyond becoming a nurse or doctor, managing insurance or healthcare policy.  We are excited to welcome Lee Every to discuss an important role to the industry – fundraising for research.  Lee will also talk about a component to anyone’s career path – pursuing an advance degree – as a current graduate student here at Penn.  To learn more about Lee, visit our Penn & Beyond blog.  And remember, follow him on @PennCareerDay next Tuesday.  We welcome questions on Facebook or send them directly on Twitter, and we’ll be sure Lee gets to them!

Lee Every is an Assistant Development Officer at Penn Medicine Development and Alumni Relations.  In his role Lee works to develop fundraising initiatives for a number of centers and institutes within the Penn Medicine Health System.  Currently, Lee is working with the Center for Aides Research and the Neuro-Ophthalmology Program within the Department of Neurology.  Both departments are spearheading cutting edge research that requires additional funding to support their work.  In addition, Lee works in conjunction other Penn Medicine Development Officers in order to fundraise for some of Penn Medicine’s most well known centers and institutes including the Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research that consistently makes strides in the fight to cure Alzheimer’s.

Lee began working at Penn Medicine in 2010 and immediately enrolled in the Fels Institute of Government Executive Program where he will graduate with a Master of Public Administration in May of 2012.  A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh in 2009 with the Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Lee interned with a number of non-profit entities during college including the American Red Cross and the United Way of America.  Lee hopes to combine his knowledge of public policy and finance with his experience in the non-profit and higher education sectors as his career moves forward.

RE-Who? REU! Research Experiences for Undergraduates

by Jamie Grant, C’98, GEd ’99

Considering research this summer, in the future, or for your career?

A research-based experience is one of the primary ways in which undergraduate students – even freshmen – can gain experience and knowledge beyond the classroom, most especially in the early years of their education.  While many opportunities exist throughout the year – on campus with faculty, in labs, as part of nearby facilities like HUP and CHOP, among many other places – a few special programs exist in the summer months to help students gain specialized research experience.

The most notable of these programs, in my opinion, is the National Science Foundation-sponsored “Research Experience for Undergraduates” programs – NSF-REUs for short.

NSF-REU experiences offer a multitude of benefits to participating students, including the opportunity to:

  • work in small, diverse yet focused groups with noted faculty on novel topics
  • complete guided and independent research in areas including:
    • economics
    • engineering (a variety of fields available including nanotech, clean energy, biomedical, chemical and others)
    • ethics and values studies
    • mathematics
    • physics
    • sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, and others)
    • social sciences (psychology, criminology, diversity and inclusion, social aspects of hurricanes, anthropology, sustainability, politics and political science, civil conflict management,
    • technology (cyberinfrastructure, Department of Defense, etc.)
    • and more!
  • be published in well-respected publications and return to school with impressive projects to add to your resume
  • receive a highly competitive salary (referred to as stipends, typically ranging from $3,000 – $5,000) and often also receive additional funding to cover housing and/or meals
  • participate in fun activities organized by the site host
  • and more (benefits vary by location)

Sites can be found right here in Philadelphia, at UPenn and Drexel, as well as across the country and around the world (there are even polar research sites in the Arctic!)

Click on the below link to see a list of topics and find your site within.  Most students apply to more than one program, and individual requirements and deadlines (which can vary) are included on each program’s page.

http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/index.jsp

And, if you’d like to speak with a Penn student who has done an REU or any other type of research, be sure to use the Penn Internship Network to search: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/pin.html

Best of luck in your search for a research opportunity – it’s a surefire way to build a great resume and potentially launch a lifelong career!