Tag: identity

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)

Your Identity at Work: being a researcher in any sector

Featured ~ thiwin

What if your goal wasn’t to explore new career options, but to become a scientist in a work place you enjoy? Or being a researcher who chooses to work with people who inspire and uplift them. Or being a __________ in an environment that energizes them.

I was listening to a podcast with James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits (link below). He posed that people’s actions and habits reflect their identity and not their to do list. For example, what if you aimed to become a runner rather than aimed to finish a marathon? This new way of thinking can motivate you to achieve goals that you’ve failed at before. In focusing on who you want to be, you then in turn, choose actions to realize that potential in yourself. It comes more naturally.

I thought about this idea this morning as I sipped my coffee. I’m not a morning person, but I got out of bed with my alarm, for once, rather than snoozing it till eternity. I adjusted my goal from “waking up early” to “becoming a person who has time to read in the morning”. This new way of thinking helped me focus on my identity rather than things I needed to do.

What would this look like for you? How would your daily goals change? For example:

  • Identity: Be a person who is curious about other workplaces to do research/teach/science communication? Action: Talk to other people in other sectors (rather than just someone who needs to update their Linkedin?).
  • Identity: Be a writer. [how do you make room for this in small, achievable ways?]
  • Identity: Be an activist.
  • Identity: Be a student leader.

Defining your identity in the workplace is an extension of identifying what’s important to you. You might be a person who knows right away what kind of boss you want, team you want to work in, work-life balance you need. If this is you, remember to check in with yourself and acknowledge that your values can change. And if lots of things are important to you, and you’re unsure about what factors contribute specifically to your identity at work, others have found it illuminating to talk to their friends, family, peers, and mentors to get insights into what they enjoy most about work, and the type of work they find to be fulfilling.

Hope you have fun as you make these discoveries. Celebrate the incremental successes. I know I won’t wake up every morning at 6am, but I will celebrate the days I do. And for the days I sleep in, I’ll remind myself that I needed that, too!

-Thi

“James Clear – Building Great Habits” | Entreleadership podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts)

“True behavior change is identity change”, James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits. Adapt this to career exploration by building daily, personal practice to progress 1% everyday.

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

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