For years, it's been clear that there are many more non-academic career options than traditional academic positions for science, social science and engineering grads. But finding and preparing for those options has largely been an effort by each individual graduate. It's still the case that non-academic career paths are largely ignored - or worse, actively discouraged - by many professors and departments. Now, a group of graduate students at UC-Berkeley have gotten together to highlight and promote non-traditional career choices in the second annual Beyond Academia conference scheduled for Feb 20 and 21.
The mission of Beyond Academia is to educate graduate students and postdocs on the wide variety of nonacademic career options available to them, and to make them aware of the strong translational skills they've developed during their graduate/postdoc training. Beyond Academia strives to help PhDs identify what the next step is in their career development and how to market themselves to employers. It's also a tremendously powerful support group for students who are uneasy about leaving the academic environment in which they've functioned for the past 20+ years.
"Beyond Academia was founded in 2013 by Els van der Helm and Bryan Alvarez, who envisioned an event where PhD students and postdocs could get their career questions answered in an open and welcoming environment." said Mariana Garcia, an sixth-year grad student in Vision Science, who is one of the organizers of this year's conference. "The 2014 conference is organized around a series of panels and workshops. The panels are in Q&A format where the speakers can candidly share their experiences and career progression, while the workshops offer the opportunity for active engagement with other attendees." Two networking events help foster interactions between attendees and speakers, forging new professional relationships and reinforcing the fact that the search for a nonacademic job should not be a solitary endeavor.
Another organizer, Sahar Yousef, who is a second year grad student studing Visual Neuroscience points out that "the conference isn't about encouraging people to leave academia, rather, it's about educating students about the opportunities and challenges of finding a path between interest in industry and a love of research."
I'm proud to be offering a new workshop during the conference "The Enjoyment of Employment" which helps to match attendees' work personalities to different workplace cultures.
Putting on a conference like this is no small endeavor - they are expecting about 400 grad students and post-docs to participate. And although volunteers pick up a lot of the work, conference expenses are not fully defrayed by the registration fee ($20). Claire Oldfield, another grad student organizer (fourth year in Neuroscience) told me "Beyond Academia is generously funded by several UC Berkeley departments and a few corporate sponsors. Contributing departments include Neuroscience, Molecular and Cell BIology, QB3, Visiting Scholars and Postdocs Affairs, Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Vision Science, Plant and Microbial Biology, Linguistics, Bioengineering, DLab, and Psychology. Our corporate sponsors currently include Bayer, Cold Spring Harbor Press, and Dreaming Tree Wines."
The success of the 2013 conference encouraged the students to expand the conference this year and they are eager to share their experiences beyond Berkeley. "There is a strong need for career education conferences for grad students and post-docs around the country. We are very interested in working with other universities and student groups to organize Beyond Academia on other campuses", according to Claire. "Find someone on campus to help advocate for you and don't be afraid to ask for help. Most importantly, send out surveys to assess students' needs. The survey is important; you want the project backed up by as many students as possible for the administration to be receptive."
Mariana added: "Don't be scared! There are so many things you can do with your PhD, and most people are very happy to share their advice with you. Reach out to them, be creative, be brave, and don't underestimate your abilities."
I am glad to see grad students finally taking control of their careers. You can register for the conference, or to get more information, contact the organizers at info@beyondacademia.org.
