Category: for career educators and staff

Progressing in your career exploration involves collecting information…just like you do for your research project!

Featured ~ thiwin

Hi ya’ll! Still active and updating job sim links and creating new ones for the graduate community. How are you using the site? Have you shared with a friend or colleague? We hope you find it useful.

We often present about InterSECT job sims at universities, and the responses from PhD students is encouraging! We are so glad the PhD community finds job sims helpful for their career exploration.

In the presentation about InterSECT Job Sims, we share that you can approach career exploration like doing a personal research project. Be curious, ask questions, collect data on yourself, and evaluate what you learn about yourself and what you like to do (or do NOT like to do.)

Here’s what a few folks shared:

  • “I had never thought of the process of looking for a career in a new industry as possibly being more similar to the research process … (e.g. vis a vis opportunities to be creative, follow your curiosity, have fun). This reframing has really made the whole job search process appear a lot more approachable and enjoyable to me.”
  • “Thank you! Your advice was invaluable during this time of my life. I feel more confident and calm about the nonacademic job market after attending your workshop!”

Wanna read more about this perspective how on finding the next career is just like following the bread crumbs for your research project? Here’s an article – “Using Your Research Skills for Career Exploration” by Tina Solvik, PhD (CarpeCareers blog from Inside Higher Ed)

Job Sims Help Advocate for Work From Home (WFH) Policies

~ thiwin

Did you know we have a job sim to help you assess your org and team to help you advocate for Work From Home (WFH) Policies? Yes! What timing. As many workplaces are figuring out hybrid or not, and how to do it – check out this job sim for tips to advocate for your team.

Check out the “Mediation” job sim / Human Services job family / Humanities Job Sim Library.

You’ll go through tasks to conduct a reflection on your organization. Here’s an excerpt from the job sim:

“For this job sim, you are a business partner for an organization discussing post-pandemic work-from-home (WFH) policies. Due to the unusual circumstances of 2020 and positive news of available vaccines, your organization is revisiting pre-pandemic policies as well as considering allowing employees to continue working from home in some capacity. Mediation will be required to bring your stakeholders (employees, managers, and leadership) and their interests in this process together to build a new, well-structured plan.”

Some folks have tried it and started conversations with their managers. If you give this one a go – Good luck!

New Policy and Advocacy Job Sims!

Featured ~ thiwin

Exciting news! We’ve been working with science policy and advocacy professionals on a few new job sims. Check these out!

Science Policy: Develop a Course – this is based off a course for graduate students and postdocs at UCSD. It’s dynamic and helps develop a lot of skills and language in policy. If you’re interested in building a similar course at your university – definitely check this one out.

Advocacy: Power Mapping – rooted in the civil rights movement, this job sim helps you to map the players. Knowing who holds influence and in what way helps you to ask better questions, talk to a broader network and anticipate challenges. Use this one for graduate student and postdoctoral advocacy on campus, too.

Policy: Writing Legislative Science Notes – Missouri Science and Technology fellows write legislative science notes to inform congressional members. Community members write science notes to shed light and inform different types of organizations about what’s important to them. High schoolers are writing science notes to learn about science policy and how engaged citizens of all ages have the power to engage with their lawmakers.

Happy Anniversary to InterSECT job sims!

~ thiwin

We are celebrating! It’s been a year since we posted the first simulations on InterSECTjobsims.com, and three years since the first job sim was developed. We are celebrating the amazing community of graduate students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and professionals who have contributed to this project. Individuals have tried out the sims and given feedback, and developed and submitted new job sims to the library. Professionals and employers have given informational interviews and taken the time to read and vet the simulations. I was a little nostalgic, and also curious about the data, so if you are, too, take a look at our journey below.

Summer 2016 – Started interviewing PhDs in diverse science-related careers and prototyping job sims.

Fall 2016 – PhD students and postdocs beta tested the job sim experience, complete with the self-reflection sheet and SMART goals check list.

Summer 2017 – Completed the development of 10 science job sims in 6 career areas. Collaborated with individuals at 6 universities. PhD students and postdocs started creating job simulations to contribute to the online library.

Summer 2018 – Launched intersectjobsims.com!

Fall 2018 – ScienceCareers published an article about the job sim library. InterSECT job sims was selected for presentation at two nationwide conferences on graduate education.

Spring 2019 – Partner with ImaginePhD.com, a career exploration resource for humanities and social science graduate students, and started creating job sims for their job families.

Summer 2019 – One year since launching this online library! In the last year, 12,000 users from 100+ countries have checked out this career exploration tool.

We now have 8 humanities-focused simulations and 35 science simulations from 23 different authors across 11 institutions. And there are more on the way! Special thanks to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for the initial grant funding through the Career Guidance for Trainees, and UC San Francisco’s Office of Career and Professional Development for partnering on the beta testing. Thanks also to ImaginePhD.com for support and Washington University for continued support.

For me, it’s been a wonderful experience to see a community of students, postdocs, staff, faculty and professionals…and InterSECT job sim explorers…come together and contribute to this online library.

-Thi

Lesson plans for InterSECT

~ thiwin

“How can we use InterSECT at our university?” is a common question I get from educators and grad student and postdoc group leaders. Using the InterSECT job sims in the classroom setting, with interactive peer group, has been one of most useful ways for users to interact with InterSECT.  We are happy to share sample lesson plans we’ve used at Washington University in St. Louis (WU), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and most recently at University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). We hope they can serve as inspiration or a model, and feel free to adapt it.

The professional-led flipped classroom – the WU Graduate School collaborated with the WU Office of Technology Management (OTM) to highlight internship positions in intellectual property and marketing. Participants who signed up for the 90 minute session completed the job sim before attending the in-person portion. Then in-class, the participants split into two groups to discuss the different job sims, completed the self-reflection, and conducted a group informational interview. After the session, grad students and postdocs commented that they the session gave them a better idea of what tech transfer entails, and they could determine whether they wanted to apply for the different internships (or not). The OTM staff members also commented they they enjoyed the rich conversation. The WU Postdoc Society co-sponsored the event. Here was one of the marketing emails:

Ever wondered what it’s like to work at the OTM? Try out an OTM-related job without leaving the bench! Join us for the InterSECT job simulation series! Here you can try out a task in a job, get feedback on your work, and talk with professionals in the career field. Think of them as advanced informational interviews.

Our first session will be with the Office of Technology Management (OTM), and the tasks featured are:
– Market Analysis (Business-Related), led by OTM Trainee and former Marketing Intern
– Freedom to Operate Analysis (Intellectual Property), led by a Patent Agent at the OTM

The WU Biotechnology and Life Sciences Advising (BALSA) group also collaborated on a flipped classroom experience to invite two medical science liaisons (MSLs) to lead an InterSECT session. The flipped classroom format was similar as described for the OTM session. One difference it that since the focus was only the MSL job sim area, the groups split up to discuss the different tasks (conducting research into clinical professionals’ interests and creating networking emails). Two memorable comments from the conversation were, I had no idea that MSLs did so much networking. I don’t think that’s the job for me -and- I wish I did this before completing the MSL certificate. It’s so helpful.

The info session – At UCSF, we invited grad students and postdocs who were interested in exploring the InterSECT job sim library to meet for a general info session. After learning about the job sim process and benefits to completing the experience, they were encouraged to work in groups on different career areas and share their informational interviews with each other. The participants were also encouraged to set SMART goals and complete the experience in a month. Peer groups ranged from 2 to 7 individuals. Some of the groups gelled more than others, and it was organic. One of the comments from the group experience was that they were excited to work with peers and it was comforting to find a community to explore with.

The in-class experience – At URMC, the grad students and postdocs completed the job sim together in-class with more time (3 hours) to discuss in groups and present findings to each other. Here was the lesson plan:

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

  • Describe key tasks and terms for a selected career field
  • Explain the benefits of doing a job simulation
  • Determine if you would like to further pursue a career field
  • Identify next steps to explore a selected career field

Before class:

Explore the 5 career areas on intersectjobsims.com and identify the area you would like to work on during the in-person session.

In class:

2:00-2:30 pm, Introduce the job simulation process. Select teams.
2:30-3:45 pm, Complete the job simulation. Create posters and summaries.
3:45-4:00 pm, Break. Complete the self-reflection sheet individually.
4:00-4:45 pm, Group presentations.
4:45-5:00 pm, Discuss career options and next steps.

We’ve had a lot of fun trying different classroom formats. Have you tried a group workshop or experimented with small peer groups? We’d love to hear from you. Share it with us!

-Thi

Creating a Job Sim

~ ssolin1

Creating a job sim can feel like a difficult task if you don’t have much experience in the field. However, by using the template and interviewing a professional, writing a sim can be engaging and informational.

The job sim template lists many questions for the professional, so it’s important before doing the interview to review the template and familiarize yourself with the structure of the sim. Use any background knowledge you have about the field to shape the questions to the career field in question. For example, if you know the sim requires scientific information, be prepared to ask the professional for external resources. Ask yourself what you would want to know as an entry-level worker in that field.

During the interview, take notes! If it’s okay with the interviewee, record your conversation so you can reference it later. Ask for clarification on any topics you don’t understand. Remind them that the task is intended to take only a few hours – this can help focus the activity the interviewee selects. Don’t worry too much about formatting the sim at this point. Just keep your eyes and ears open to collect as much information as possible.

At the end of the interview, make sure to ask the professional for their contact information, and let them know that you may be in touch with any additional questions. Start working on the sim as soon as possible after completing the interview so that it’s still fresh in your mind.

While writing the sim, focus on being as clear and legible as possible. Use action verbs, and don’t get bogged down in explanations that are specific to the task in question. Keep in mind that the sim should be comprehensible to a beginner.

When you’ve completed the sim, step away for a day or two, so you can return with fresh eyes. While revising your draft, you may want to compare your sim with a sim in a similar career field. Reference the job sim library for examples. When you have completed a draft, send it off to the professional with a list of specific questions. Keep in mind that your interviewee is a busy person, and probably doesn’t have the time to check all your work.

Creating a job sim can help you understand the many career paths that are open to you. Have fun with it! Remember when you were a kid and you would play firefighter or veterinarian? Try to approach creating a job sim with the same energy, enthusiasm, and spirit.

-Serena, copyeditor, job sim developer, and website specialist for InterSECT

I did a job sim. What next?

~ thiwin

A graduate student recently asked me, “What do I do next?”. She planned to do more informational interviews, but wanted to know how to make the most out of this entire InterSECT experience. It was wonderful to hear that she planned to do informational interviews, because students and postdocs tell me that it’s the most useful part of the InterSECT experience.

In terms of next steps after doing a job sim, here are suggestions depending on your goals.

If you want to get context for the job simulation, I strongly encourage you to talk with a professional in that career field about the job simulation tasks. The job simulations are discreet tasks that may represent one particular type of organization or firm. For example, are business analyses and presentations the same for pharma companies versus start-ups? Do writers pitch articles differently if they work in a non-profit organization versus if they freelance? An informational interview can help students and postdocs learn about the actual workplace and how team dynamics might affect a role.

If after doing the job simulation (and the informational interview), your goal is to discover a different career path, yes, please try other simulations! To help you narrow down the types of careers or skills you enjoy, pay attention to the types of data you like to work on or the websites you like to read (e.g., business-related, finance, or regulatory or user experience).

If your goal is to delve deeper into a career area and build a network, consider creating your own job simulation. For each job simulation, we encourage you to interview 2 or 3 professionals. In addition to learning about the job itself, now you have a co-copyright on a job sim to add to your resume. Several students have created job simulations from internships they already completed as a way to spread knowledge.

Whatever step you decide to take next, remember to reflect on your goal and whether your next step will help get you there. Let us know what works for you!

-Thi

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