Career and Professional Development Programs
BioOpportunities Career Seminars
The primary goal of the BioOpportunities Seminars is to introduce graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to diverse life sciences career options, thus helping them identify career paths that maximize their individual skills, training, talents and interests. The core activity of the BioOpportunities program is a seminar series featuring speakers from a wide range of professions, unified by the fact that they all have a Ph.D. in the life sciences. Whenever possible, Northwestern alumni are invited to so as to provide tangible evidence of what can be accomplished with training from Northwestern. Most seminars have a panel of two to three speakers, providing the trainees with a diverse range of opinions and pathways in each field. Most recently, a database of alumni and former speakers has been developed by BioOpportunities to serve as a career resource for our trainees and to provide essential networking contacts. An extensive career resource library is maintained in the IBiS Program office (Hogan 2-100) to supplement BioOpportunities Seminars.BioOpportunities seminar topics: (Topics rotate on an annual or bi-annual basis)
• Tenure-track careers
• Teaching
• Industry Research- biotechnology and pharmaceutical
• Science/Medical Writing
• Intellectual Property: Patent Agents, Lawyers, and Technology Transfer
• Regulatory Affairs
• Computers and Science- Bioinformatics
• Development and Fundraising
• University Administration
• Museum Science: Laboratory and Outreach
• Science and Public Policy
• Forensic Science
• Management Consulting
• Public Relations
• Clinical Research Careers
BioSurvival Skills Workshops
This workshop series (based in part on that of other Universities′ skills programs) helps trainees develop specific skills needed to achieve maximum success while progressing through their training, making them more competitive in the career of their choice. The series consists of 5 interactive workshops, each lasting 2 to 4 hours.BioSurvival Skills workshop topics: (Topics are repeated on an annual or bi-annual basis)
• Science Writing
• CV and Cover Letter Writing; Interviewing Skills
• Writing and Publishing Scientific Articles
• Job Search and Self-Marketing
• Identifying Funding and Grantsmanship
• Presentation Skills
• Job Negotiation Skills
Chicago Science Career Forum
The life sciences doctoral programs, in conjunction with NU Career Services, The University of Chicago, and Science magazine, sponsor the annual Chicago Science Career Forum – a research exposition and employer job fair for PhD-level scientists and engineers. Two important features of the Chicago Science Career Forum make it a valuable event specifically for doctoral students and fellows. The day begins with a poster session attended by employers. Here, the students and fellows have the opportunity to showcase their research and achievements and to talk extensively with employers. Additionally, employers bring PhD-level scientists and engineers to the job fair in addition to human resources personnel. This provides students and fellows with resources on specific jobs as well as broader career opportunities. Employers participate in this event from all areas of science and engineering: biotechnology, pharmaceutical, business development, management consulting, intellectual property, government, bioengineering and academia.University Career Services
University Career Services (UCS) provides comprehensive career services to all life sciences graduate students and postdoctoral fellows considering non-academic as well as academic careers. Career counselors assist students and fellows with career decision making by helping them explore and re-clarify interests, values, and skills through one-on-one counseling meetings and career assessments. Life sciences trainees also utilize the Career Resource Center and other online materials to research employers and careers of interest to them. Employment counselors work closely with students and fellows to help them develop individualized job search strategies and refine job search skills (resumes, CVs, interviewing). UCS also coordinates on- campus recruiting and interviews with employers interested in PhD-level scientists and engineer applicants and coordinates special events such as the Career Expo and the Annual Chicago Science Career Forum.Pathway to the Professoriate
The Pathway to the Professoriate program focuses on academic career paths, especially the professoriate. This program insures that our trainees are enlightened and demystified about the process of becoming a faculty member and provides valuable insight into the effort required to be successful. Two faculty members meet monthly with students and fellows over lunch to discuss specific topics. Although this program is targeted toward pre-doctoral candidates, a number of highlighted topics below may be of interest to the master′s level graduate student.Pathway to the Professoriate program topics: (Topics are repeated on an annual or bi-annual basis)
• Grants: Funding During the Post-doc and Faculty Years
• Selecting the Right Post-doc
• Research and Publishing
• Technology Transfer
• Faculty Job Search and Start-up Packages
• Medical School versus Undergraduate Institution
• Lab Management, Mentoring, and Leadership
• Teaching
• University Service
• The Tenure Process
• Balancing a Faculty Career and Family
• Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Careers
• Lessons from Emeritus Faculty
• Lessons from HHMI Investigators
Searle Center for Teaching Excellence
The Searle Center for Teaching Excellence engages in a broad range of services and programs in order to promote and enhance university learning and teaching. Through its many programs, services, research, discussions, and consultations, the Searle Center helps faculty members and graduate student teaching assistants collect, analyze, and evaluate information about their own teaching skills. Research and evaluation projects contribute to the knowledge base and literature on university learning.Searle Center for Teaching Excellence graduate student workshop topics:
• Marketing Your Teaching
• Building a Distinctive Portfolio
• Helping Students Think Critically
• The Grueling Task of Grading: Approaches for Assessing Students
• Unpacking ″Pedagogy″
• Designing Courses to Advance Learning
• Stop Sleeping in Class!: Creating a Challenging Classroom
• Generating Feedback: How Students Can Improve Your Teaching
• Solving Problems: Helping Students Think for Themselves
• Directing Discussions
• Managing Multiple Roles: Timing is Everything
• Teaching ″Hot″ Topics
• Learning in Labs
• Student Affairs
• Negotiating Boundaries
• Motivating Majors versus Non-Majors
• The First Day and Beyond
• Professor Politics
• Dealing with Difference
• Web-Enhanced Instruction for Northwestern Graduate Students
• Graduate Teaching Certification Program
• Teaching Assistant Fellow Program and Workshop
Beyond Books
Beyond Books is a series of professional development workshops for all Northwestern graduate students, professional students, and post-doctoral fellows. Sessions focus on career development, from job searches to career tips for academic and non-academic employment. Workshops feature success stories as well as tips and advice on pitfalls to avoid during your graduate career and beyond.Beyond Books program topics: (Topics are repeated on an annual or bi-annual basis)
• Being a Successful Graduate Student: Working with Mentors and Tormentors
• Effective Research, Conference, and Classroom Presentations
• The Academic Job Search from Start to Finish
• The Non-Academic Job Search: Industry, Government, and Consulting- Writing Skills and Strategies
• Surviving Your Dissertation and Publishing Your Research
• Reason and Responsibility: Ways to Incorporate Ethics in the Teaching of Engineering, Education, Science, Humanities, Art, and Social Science
• Ethical and Legal Issues in Teaching and Research
• How to Get a Job: Advice from Start to Finish
• How to Write a Distinctive Teaching Philosophy
• Developing an Effective Teaching Portfolio
• How to Write a Winning Vita
• Interviewing and the Job Talk
• Labor Relations and Negotiating Your Salary
• Transitioning from Graduate Student to Faculty
Preparing Future Faculty Program
The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Program offers Northwestern graduate students the opportunity to augment their disciplinary training with preparation in the issues and responsibilities that shape professional life in the academy. Through monthly colloquia on pedagogy, faculty obligations, and academic governance, to year-long faculty mentorship at four diverse regional institutions, PFF prepares graduate students for the multiple roles and responsibilities they will assume as faculty members. The core experience of Northwestern′s PFF program is the year-long graduate course, On the Academic Profession. Through monthly colloquia on pedagogy, professional responsibilities, and the issues that uniquely affect academic careers, graduate students are helped to both assess and realize their pedagogical and professional goals. Colloquia have included seminars on ethical issues in the academy, collective bargaining, and teaching minority students, as well as workshops on interactive teaching strategies, distance learning, and assembling a teaching portfolio. In addition to the core experience, students who become PFF Fellows work throughout the year with a faculty mentor at one of the four area cluster institutions collaborating with Northwestern in the PFF program. Under the guidance of the mentor, Fellows engage in a variety of activities that encompass the three major areas of faculty responsibility: teaching, research and service. By the end of the course, all students will have critically examined their teaching skills; developed an enhanced understanding of how faculty members balance teaching, research, and service; and learned about the challenges and rewards of working in diverse academic environments.Preparing Future Faculty program topics: (Topics are repeated on an annual or bi-annual basis)
• Getting Started: Setting Professional Goals and Considering the Teaching Philosophy
• Faculty Firsts: Untenured Faculty Life and Work at a Liberal Arts College
• Power, Plagiarism, and Professional Dilemmas: Ethics in Academia
• Free Speech or Censorship?: Balancing Personal Politics and Professional Responsibilities
• Innovations and Techniques for Teaching Success
• Landing Your First Job: The Interview in the Academic Profession
• Teaching at a Minority Institution: The Politics and Poetics of Dealing With Difference
• Teaching Portfolios