Author: thiwin

How’d I do?

~ thiwin

Oprah once said that one unifying behavior of her guests all those years hosting her show was that once the cameras were turned off, they asked, “How’d I do?”.

So it turns out that graduate students and celebrities are similar (well, in this way at least). “How’d I do on this job sim” is one of the most common questions we hear as career advisers from graduate students who have completed job sim deliverables. It’s also phrased as “Can I use this exercise as a tool to assess my competency?”

We designed the InterSECT library for career exploration: to help you explore your interest in building skills for each career field. The job simulations are intended to serve as a bridge between an informational interview and an internship or course. If the job sim sparked curiosity (you found yourself in a google black hole, opening dozens of tabs, because you had to know more about the task at hand), we encourage you to pursue additional training or education in that career field.

“But am I on the right track?” one student asked me after I gave her this response. If you are eager to know how well you did on an exercise, we encourage you to set up informational interviews and ask the professional to discuss the tasks you worked on. Here are some sample questions to ask the professional:

  • How do you know if someone does a good job?
  • What do you look at when you are evaluating an intern’s progress on this type of project?
  • (show the simulation, if they have the time) This was the data set in the job sim. Would you look at a data set in this way? What different resources or methods would you use?
  • How do I develop my skills and get better or faster at this?

For more suggestions, check out the Info Interview Guide part of the website.

-Thi

How long should each job sim take?

~ thiwin

A graduate student recently contacted us with this question. She said she completed the sim in about 3-4 hours, but felt that she could have spent more time to make it better.

I am asked this question (how long should a job sim take) a lot, and I usually give the unsatisfying answer, “it depends”. We designed the job sims to involve separate tasks that can be completed in 1-2 hours each, and each job sim typically comprises 3 tasks, so approximately 3-6 hours in total. However, the time you can spend depends on factors like how much time you have, and your reason for doing the sim (e.g., doing the sim for a class assignment, in preparation for an internship interview, or simply shopping around for a job area to start investing time in). I typically suggest completing the first task in a job sim, so 1-2 hours, and encourage grad students and postdocs to reflect on if they are interested in completing the entire job sim and wanting to learn more. For example, a research associate worked on the business development job sim and wanted to apply the new knowledge to analyze two different companies, so she spent a lot of time creating different slide decks for the deliverables, and said she loved it!

If you find that you want to delve deeper or do more, that’s a great indication that you’re interested in the field. If you find that the exercise didn’t gel for you, or that you lost interest, pay attention to that, too. A postdoc once told me she was bored after reading through the job sim description, and I said, “Great! Which one are you exploring next.” It’s important to consider the tasks you like, and the ones you don’t. Move on and experiment with a different career area.

-Thi

InterSECT Success Stories

~ thiwin

When I’m introducing the idea of job sims to grad students or postdocs, I share stories about different ways grad students or postdocs have used and benefitted from the experience. One of my favorite stories is about a postdoc who completed a job simulation and found it useful, so she developed one for this online collection. To develop the sim, she talked with industry professionals, synthesized the informational interviews and wrote a draft. We worked with her to edit the final version, and published it on the website. She had a product to share, a concrete example to add to her resume, and co-copyright for her contribution. She updated us later that she talked about the experience in an interview to demonstrate how she can quickly gather knowledge in a new field, and explained that she is confident she can pivot in her career from an academic postdoc to an industry position. She got the job. I love this story because it demonstrates how InterSECT job sims can be a place to explore career options, and also a place to gain experience to in preparation for your career transition.

To read more stories from graduate students, a postdoc, and a research associate, check out the Science article about InterSECT: “Like virtual reality for careers: A new online resource helps scientists explore job options.”

-Thi

Welcome

~ thiwin

Thanks for visiting InterSECT Job Sims! We are excited to share this resource and the process to help PhDs reflect on careers that fit. For me, this blog is a place to share tips and guidance for ways that grad students and postdocs can use the job sims.

As someone who completed graduate school, did a postdoc, and navigated dual career searches in both academic and non-academic sectors, I deeply understand the journey of seeking new career paths. Now, as a career advisor and higher ed administrator I share strategies and advise graduate students and postdocs as they make career transitions. I’ve loved creating the InterSECT library with collaborators, and seeing how the community is coming together to create and share job sims.

You’ll hear from other InterSECT developers, PhDs and graduate students from all over the U.S. about their experiences. I hope it will provide some inspiration and concrete advice as you search for the next step.  Please let us know if there is a question you’d like answered or a story you’d like to share. We love hearing from graduate students and postdocs about they ways they’ve used job sims to explore careers and make career decisions.

-Thi