Tag: IDP

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.

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

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