Career Development Series Fall 2022

The OACD provides an annual series of professional development workshops for doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees. This fall 2022 series covered a range of career development topics critical to your professional success and the foundational content applies across all disciplines.

August 3, 2022 How to Write a Resume for a Nonacademic Job

Provided via Aurora by Beyond the Professoriate

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Virtual
Description: PhDs and Postdocs often approach resume writing as a self-reflective exercise- simply translating their academic accomplishments from a CV into a 2 page resume. But this is the wrong approach.

A resume is actually a persuasive document, designed to convince a hiring manager to contact you for an interview. An effective resume then, is one that focuses less on your list of accomplishments and more on describing how you can help meet the needs of a manager.

Join the Beyond the Professoriate team to learn how you can draft an effective resume, while avoiding common mistakes we see PhDs make. After attending this webinar, you’ll be able to:

Identify the purpose of a resume for each stage of the job search process.
Recognize common resume mistakes.
Apply strategies and tips to avoid making mistakes.
Identify resources in the Beyond Prof training platform that can help you write a draft of your resume.

August 17, 2022 How to Write an Academic CV

Provided via Aurora by Beyond the Professoriate

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Virtual
Description: Your CV serves as a comprehensive record of your educational background, teaching experience, academic research, and scholarly service. This document represents your academic credentials when applying for postdoctoral positions or for faculty positions at four-year institutions.

Join the Beyond Prof team to learn how to write an academic CV that will help you stand out in the hiring process. After attending the webinar, you will be able to:

Define the purpose of the CV in the faculty application package.
Describe the components of an academic CV and the appropriate format.
Create a plan for writing, updating and maintaining your academic CV.
Identify resources in the Beyond Prof training platform that can help you write your academic CV.

August 24, 2022 Certification in STEM Teaching: Pitt-CIRTL

Time: 3:30-4:30pm ET
Location: Zoom
Presenter: April Dukes, Ph.D.
Description: Are you interested in pursuing a career in academia and/or enhancing your teaching, mentoring, and advising skills?

The University of Pittsburgh is one of over 40 higher education institutions that partner with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) to provide professional development to STEM graduate students, postdocs, and new faculty. In this information session, learn about the free local on-campus (Pitt-CIRTL) and online (CIRTL) programming and certification program designed to help you explore the skills needed for a professional career in STEM.

Presenter Bio: Dr. April Dukes is the Institutional Co-leader for Pitt-CIRTL at the University of Pittsburgh and the Faculty and Future Faculty Program Director for the Engineering Educational Research Center (EERC) in the Swanson School of Engineering. April collaborates on the national educational research initiative, the Aspire Alliance’s National Change, to support systemic changes towards excellence and inclusivity in higher education. April's research and teaching goals are to improve the learning, development, and experiences of undergraduate and graduate students during their academic and professional pursuits.

September 7, 2022 Graduating This Year? Here’s What You Need to Know about Preparing for a Nonacademic Job Search

Provided via Aurora by Beyond the Professoriate

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Virtual
Description: You’re graduating this year and considering going on the academic job market AND applying for nonacademic jobs. But you’re not sure about what a nonacademic job search will take, and you don’t know where to begin.

Join the Beyond the Professoriate team in this webinar where you’ll learn how to plan and prepare well in advance so that you can make a successful career transition. Because here’s the thing: a successful career transition into a nonacademic job takes planning and preparation. Start now and you’ll be confident in your decision and knowledgeable about the steps you need to take.

After attending this webinar, you will be able to:

Explain the importance of the stages of PhD Career Transition.
Identify the components and timelines of an effective job search.
Develop SMART goals and a plan of action for your job search.
Identify resources in the Beyond Prof training platform that can help you in your job search.

September 13, 2022 How to Build a Meaningful Career after Your PhD or Postdoc: Information Session with Beyond the Professoriate for Pitt Trainees

Time: 12:30-1:30pm ET
Location: Virtual
Presenter: OACD hosts Beyond the Professoriate, exclusively for Pitt trainees
Description: How can PhDs build meaningful and impactful careers after their degree or postdoc? Now more than ever, PhDs work in a variety of career fields, leveraging their education and training wherever smart people are needed. But how exactly do PhDs successfully job search? What are the proven strategies you can apply to successfully build your career?

As a student or postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh, you have access to the PhD Career Training Platform, a one-of-a kind resource where you can explore career options and learn how to job search in academia and beyond. Through self-paced courses and live webinars in the Training Platform, you’ll learn how to launch a successful job search.

Join us on September 13, 2022, where you will learn how to use the PhD Career Training Platform as part of your job search.

After attending this presentation, you'll be able to:

-Describe the challenges PhDs face in their job search
-Identify the resources in the PhD Career Training Platform that can help you
-Apply tips and strategies to confidently begin your career exploration and job search in academia or beyond

Presenter: Beyond the Professoriate

September 21, 2022 How to Put Together a Teaching Portfolio if You Don’t Have Any Teaching Experience

Provided via Aurora by Beyond the Professoriate

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Virtual
Description: A teaching portfolio is a document providing evidence of your teaching experience and effectiveness. It is an integral part of your application package for faculty positions. But what if you don’t have any teaching experience? How can you put together an effective teaching portfolio that demonstrates your teaching potential and convinces a hiring committee to contact you for an interview?

Join the Beyond the Professoriate team to learn how to create a teaching portfolio that highlights your skills and qualifications, whether you have teaching experience or not.

After attending this webinar, you will be able to:

Define the purpose and content of a teaching portfolio.
Identify appropriate items to include in an effective teaching portfolio.
Develop a plan to collect relevant materials and examples.
Identify resources in the Beyond Prof training platform that help you in creating a teaching portfolio.

September 27, 2022 Applying a Research Framework to Career Exploration

Provided via the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA)

Time: 3-4:15pm ET
Location: Virtual
Presenter: Tina Solvik, Ph.D., Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Description: For many postdocs, career exploration can feel like an indefinite, never-ending challenge; how do you explore the unknown, learn about the vast number of career options available, and feel confident that you’ve identified a career that fits your needs and preferences? By reframing career exploration as a research project, postdocs can apply their well-developed skill set in designing a research question, collecting and analyzing data, and forming conclusions to the process of identifying careers of interest. In this workshop, you will dive into how to perform each part of the career research process, gain tips on how to collect career data, and develop a plan to manage your career research.

September 30, 2022 Mentoring Academy Part 1: Introduction to Mentor Training

Time: 12-2:30pm ET
Location: Zoom
Presenter: Joe Ayoob, Mentoring Faculty Fellow, University of Pittsburgh
Description: Introduction to Mentor Training. This session will launch the fall sessions for the Mentoring Academy. The first of three, this session will provide an opportunity to discuss the different roles that mentors and mentees play, and covers the first four competencies in the Mentoring Academy (Introduction, Communication, Aligning Expectations, and Assessing Understanding). Participants will have an opportunity to discuss the principles of effective mentoring through interactive case studies. Participants can attend one session or choose to attend all sessions to complete all eight competencies and earn a credential, based on the National Research Mentoring Network curriculum.

October 14, 2022 Mentoring Academy Part 2: Addressing Equity and Inclusion

Time: 12-2:00pm ET
Location: Zoom
Presenter: Joe Ayoob, Mentoring Faculty Fellow, University of Pittsburgh
Description: Addressing Equity and Inclusion. This is the second of three sessions in the series for the Mentoring Academy. This session will, through interactive case studies, provide an opportunity to discuss best practices in Addressing Equity and Inclusion (Competency #5). Mentoring Academy members, who are trained faculty recognized for their contributions to mentoring at the University of Pittsburgh, will facilitate the session. Participants can attend one session or attend all three sessions to complete all eight competencies and earn a credential. The Mentoring Academy builds upon the curriculum provided through the National Research Mentoring Network,.

November 4, 2022 Mentoring Academy Part 3: Fostering Independence, Promoting Professional Development, and Articulating Your Mentoring Philosophy

Time: 12-2:00pm ET
Location: Zoom
Presenter: Joe Ayoob, Mentoring Faculty Fellow, and April Dukes, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
Description: This is the third and final session of the fall series for the Mentoring Academy. This session will provide an opportunity to discuss best practices in Fostering Independence (Competency #6), Promoting Professional Development (Competency #7), and Promoting Professional Development and Articulating Your Mentoring Philosophy and Plan (*Competency #8). Sessions are conducted through interactive case studies. Mentoring Academy members, who are trained faculty recognized for their contributions to mentoring at the University of Pittsburgh, will facilitate the session. Participants can attend one session or choose to attend all sessions to complete all eight competencies based on the National Research Mentoring Network curriculum.

November 9, 2022 Information Session: Katz Courses & Leading People in Organizations Business Microcredential for Postdocs

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Zoom
Moderator: Laura Miller, Ph.D.
Panelists: Fathima Mohamed Ali, PhD, Muhammad Muaaz Aslam, PhD, Tammy Dennis, COM, Daniel Jacobson Lopez, PhD, MSW, LCSW, and Arthi Shridhar, PhD
Description: Learn about Katz graduate courses that were designed for busy, working adults like you! Take one, two, or all four courses, which will earn you a Leading People in Organizations microcredential from the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business. A panel of your peers will answer questions about the courseload, the value of the individual courses, the advantage of a business microcredential, and more. Tammy Dennis, from the OACD, will explain everything you need to know about the application process and how Pitt tuition benefits work. Join us for this comprehensive information session to learn about the unique opportunity to gain formal business training while working fulltime as a postdoc at Pitt. No matter whether you're ready to apply, undecided, or have never heard of a microcredential, this session is for you!

Moderator Bio:

Laura Miller, Ph.D., is the Associate Director of the Office of Academic Career Development (OACD) for the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences. Dr. Miller graduated with a PhD in Medical Neurobiology from Indiana University School of Medicine, completed postdoctoral training in the field of behavioral neuroscience at Baylor University, and earned the "Leading People in Organizations" professional credential from the Katz Graduate School of Business. She combines her passion, educational background, and experience to create transformative programming in support of the University of Pittsburgh’s role as a national leader in biomedical research.

Panelist Bios:

Ashrifa Ali, Ph.D., formerly a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, has broad research interests related to human health and disease, particularly, harnessing the power of gene therapy in ameliorating human diseases. Dr. Ali is focused on understanding retinal regeneration using a zebrafish model to prevent irreversible blindness by activating prosurvival genes via CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing techniques. She believes that current health care problems require creative solutions utilizing cutting-edge technologies and interdisciplinary research. To this end, she has spent the last decade amassing knowledge and experience in various aspects of biomedical research including cell and molecular biology, mass spectrometry, high resolution microscopy, 3D tissue-engineering, and microbial techniques. She also believes that in addition to scientific prowess, sustainable organizational behavior, good communication, balanced emotional intelligence, and diligent leadership must be fostered in a scientific setting to allow discoveries to move from bench to bedside in record time.

Arthi Shridhar, Ph.D., has a unique background in the clinical translation of biomaterials, and has managed several high-profile government grants through the Department of Defense and helped acquire FDA 510(k) clearance for a range of early stage start-up companies through her industry-facing post-doctoral position at University of Pittsburgh in the lab of Dr. Stephen Badylak. Currently serving as the Scientific Program Lead and Senior Scientist at X-Therma Inc., Arthi oversees the R&D (Biology) Applications at X-Therma Inc. where her major contribution is toward end-to-end experimental development and implementation for a host of regenerative medicine applications. She also serves as a project manager for all of X-Therma’s collaborators and partners, providing scientific guidance, tracking and monitoring progress towards milestones, goals and deliverables, including early identification of potential problems and developing solutions to maintain on timeline progress.

M. Muaaz Aslam, Ph.D., is working as a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), the University of Pittsburgh since 2021. He got his Ph.D. degree in the field of Healthcare Biotechnology from the National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan in 2021. During his Ph.D., he received a research fellowship in the field of human genetics and worked at GSPH for four years. Broadly, his research expertise includes the genetics of complex diseases. During his Ph.D., he worked on the genetics of autoimmune diseases (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Type-1 Diabetes). His current research area of focus includes the genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), related endophenotypes, cognitive decline, and AD in Down Syndrome. Exploring new avenues for the application of basic research motivated him to attend Micro-credential courses.

Tammy L. Dennis, COM, is the Associate Director for the Office of Career Development, Center for Postdoctoral Affairs in the Health Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She oversees the postdoctoral appointment process, tracks postdoctoral career outcomes, prepares postdoctoral data reports, generates various institutional data reports, and oversees the postdoctoral career development and progress assessment process. She also oversees student services (admission, registration, tuition assistance, and troubleshooting any other issues) as it relates to postdocs enrolling in graduate courses as non-degree seeking students.

Daniel Jacobson López, PhD, MSW, LCSW, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Boston University, School of Social Work. Dr. Lopez is also Visiting Faculty at Yale University, School of Public Health and REIDS fellow at CIRA at Yale. He is also a Boston University Diversity STARS Fellow. His research examines how socio-political systems engage with gay Latino and/or Black sexual assault survivors and the health services provided to them. He also researches the effects of COVID-19 on people living with HIV/AIDS and most recently, reducing stigma against Ghanaian MSM.

Dr. López was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Pitt Public Health, where he was selected as a CEED diversity scholar. He was the first ever Latinx PhD graduate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and is the founder of the University of Pittsburgh’s first Latinx graduate student group. In 2020, he was appointed as the inaugural chair of diversity and inclusion for the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association.

He has received awards from Black Men at Penn and the Center for Hispanic Excellence from the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Master’s degree. Dr. Jacobson López has a doctoral certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and a certification from Katz Graduate School of Business at Pitt. He is a former intern with the United Nations Development Programme, a Schweitzer Fellow Alumnus and a SAMSHA CSWE Doctoral Minority Fellow alumnus. In addition to his scholarship and research, Jacobson López is a certified sexual assault counselor, a licensed certified social worker, and an anti-bias facilitator with the Anti-Defamation League.

Arthi Shridhar, PhD, has a unique background in the clinical translation of biomaterials, and has managed several high-profile government grants through the Department of Defense and helped acquire FDA 510(k) clearance for a range of early stage start-up companies through her industry-facing post-doctoral position at University of Pittsburgh in the lab of Dr. Stephen Badylak. Currently serving as the Scientific Program Lead and Senior Scientist at X-Therma Inc., Arthi oversees the R&D (Biology) Applications at X-Therma Inc. where her major contribution is toward end-to-end experimental development and implementation for a host of regenerative medicine applications. She also serves as a project manager for all of X-Therma’s collaborators and partners, providing scientific guidance, tracking and monitoring progress towards milestones, goals and deliverables, including early identification of potential problems and developing solutions to maintain on timeline progress.

November 16, 2022 How to Prepare for a Video Interview for an Academic Job

Provided via Aurora by Beyond the Professoriate

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Virtual
Description: You’ve submitted your faculty job applications and are now anxiously awaiting to hear back about interviews. Maybe you’ve already booked your first screening interview and you’re wondering what to expect. What kinds of questions will be asked? How should you best prepare for a virtual interview? How can you answer vague questions while keeping the focus on you and your accomplishments?

Join the Beyond the Professoriate team for this webinar to learn how best to approach a screening interview and how to most effectively pitch yourself as a top candidate for the role. After attending this webinar, you will be able to:

Identify the types and content of screening interviews.
Prepare for virtual screening interviews.
Create a platform of important information that you want to communicate to interviewers.
Identify resources in the Beyond Prof Training Platform that can help you in your initial interviews.

Aurora's webinar is sponsored by the Global Higher Education division of ETS®.

December 7, 2022 SCIENCE Career Symposium

Time: 3:30-5pm ET
Location: Zoom
Description: This annual symposium is designed to enhance the professional development of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students by providing you with direct access to PhD professionals who have successfully made the transition to exciting careers covering a range of employment settings and job sectors! *NEW* in 2022 will be a special breakout room to address the concerns of international trainees interested in finding employment in the US.

Career Breakout Room Hosts:

Jessica Jarvis, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Lawrence Andrews, PhD, Staff Research Scientist, University of Pittsburgh
Erin Kirschmann, PhD Associate Professor, Immaculata College
Jessica Moon, PhD, Executive Director, Stanford University
Michelle Zorrilla, PhD, Associate Director, Technology Translation, University of Pittsburgh
David Gau, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Pittsburgh
Alex Prokopienko, PharmD, PhD, Senior Clinical Pharmacologist, Takeda Pharmaceutical
Karen Carney, PhD, Product Manager, Elsevier
Kristine Ojala, PhD, Medical Science Liaison, Genentech
Natalie Ernecoff, PhD, MPH, Associate Policy Researcher, Rand
Jennifer Signore, PhD, CER Associate, Global Regulatory Writing & Consulting
Arundhati Gupta, MSc, PhD, UPPDA International Chair, "Employment for International Trainees"

December 14, 2022 Lessons Learned from 2022 and Ways to Plan for 2023

Provided via Aurora by Beyond the Professoriate

Time: 12-1pm ET
Location: Virtual
Description: Join the Beyond the Professoriate team as they examine what has been learned about the job market and job searching in 2022 -- and how to employ best practices for a successful 2023.

After attending this webinar you’ll be able to:

Identify strategies and skills that helped job seekers on the market this year.
Outline a manageable plan to aid in your career development.
Evaluate the steps you need to take next year in your professional development and career transition.
Identify resources in the Beyond Prof Training Platform that can help you in your job search.

This webinar is sponsored by the Global Higher Education division of ETS®.