Welcome to InterSECT Job Simulations!

InterSECT is an online platform that allows PhD-level scientists and humanists, regardless of professional stage, to explore future career options. Our goal is to provide true-to-life job simulation exercises that help individuals consider the following questions:

• What are my professional interests and skills?
• How do my interests and skills translate to potential careers?
• What are my career options?
• Which careers haven’t I considered?

InterSECT engages with an individual’s interests and extrapolates these interests to positions in actual professional settings in industry, academia, and government sectors. While the simulations do not evaluate an individual’s performance on the task, they offer insight into the specific, real-life duties of varying career paths. By completing job simulations you can consider which careers are of interest to you and utilize provided resources to explore future courses of action by following up with professionals in the career field.

After completing a job simulation exercise, you will be able to determine if you would like to further pursue the career field before committing energy and time to an internship or additional training. The simulations are not meant to replace an internship or externship experience or a formal course, but to give you an idea of what kind of experience you want to invest in next.

The InterSECT experience has four components outlined below. We encourage you to review all of the documents before getting started on the job simulations so you have an idea of what’s ahead.

Job Simulations We designed the job simulations to be self-guided. Each simulation contains background and directions for you to complete tasks related to the career of interest. You can complete one task of the job simulation in as little as 1 hour, or complete the series of tasks for a deeper dive into a job area.

Project SMART Goals The Project SMART Goals checklist is a timeline to help you keep track of the different components of this project.

Self-Reflection Guide The Self-Reflection Guide will help you determine if you want to spend more time exploring a career. We encourage you to look at this document before getting started to orient yourself to the job simulation. Please answer the self-reflection questions when you complete the job simulation task.

Informational Interview Guide We highly encourage you to contact a professional to interview for each specific career field. The informational Interview Guide provides tips for this process.