BGS Career Development

Making It Count!

Workshops

Career Services: Negotiating for Faculty Positions and Postdocs

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Have you ever negotiated with an employer for salary or a job offer? Have you done it successfully? A Career Services counselor will discuss strategies for what to think about and do when you interview and when you receive an offer. This workshop will address:

  • The basic principles of successful negotiation
  • What can be negotiated
  • How should you respond when offered a position


We also have online resources on negotiating academic job offers, please visit: https://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices//careerfields/academicfaculty.php

When: February 19, 2019, 12 – 1:30 PM

Where: McNeil Building Conference Room 97

Register here

Understanding the Journal Publishing Process for Early Career STEM Authors

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Join us for a conversation with Dr. Kenneth Zaret (Joseph Leidy Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine) as he discusses the journal publishing process for early career graduate students and faculty in the sciences. This workshop will provide a casual, interactive opportunity to learn more about tips and best practices for successfully navigating the world of academic journal publishing from the perspective of a practicing editor.

Dr. Zaret has served as an editor of the journals Molecular and Cellular Biology (1993-1997) and Development (2006-2012), as a guest editor of Methods: A Companion to Methods in Enzymology (1997), Current Opinions in Genetics and Development (2001), and Mechanisms of Development (2003). Dr. Zaret is currently on the Editorial Boards of Science, Genes and Development, Development, and Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Differentiation. (Via the Graduate Student Center)

Register here.

When: Tuesday, February 12, 2019, 01:30 PM – 02:30 PM 
Where: Room 305 (3rd Fl), Grad Center, 3615 Locust Walk

Deciding Where to Publish: Finding Publication Venues that Align with Your Goals

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“Whether it’s your first-time publishing or you are a publishing veteran, deciding where to publish can be a daunting task that will impact you for years to come.  Not only is finding the right “fit” for your scholarship extremely important, but your publication venue also determines other important factors, like where and how you can share your scholarship after it’s published (your personal website, academia.edu or ResearchGate, etc.) or whether or not you can reuse your work elsewhere (conferences, subsequent publications, etc.).

This presentation will help get you started in establishing your publishing criteria, developing a list of journals/publishers, and evaluating those publication venues based on the criteria you develop. The session will also briefly cover some best practices for submitting, reading/negotiating publishing contracts, and sharing your work after it’s published.” (Via the Graduate Student Center)

When: Tuesday, February 5, 2019, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Where: Room 305 (3rd Fl), Grad Center, 3615 Locust Walk

Register here.

PSPDG Workshop: How to Write a Policy Memo

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“Policy memos are the currency of the advocacy world. Used by political staffers, activists, community organizers, corporate lobbyists, and NGOs, they can be distributed to policymakers, the press, and even the general public. They summarize an entire complicated, controversial topic into a few pages, giving the reader the lay of the land and an overview of how you feel about it in just a few minutes.

Anyone wanting a career in science policy will want experience writing policy memos, and we’re hosting a workshop to teach you all about them! The workshop will include tips and tricks from major political advocacy groups, as well as hands-on learning to give you a head start in preparing for your submission to the National Science Policy Network’s Memo-Writing Competition. The winning science policy organization gets up to $1,000 for programming!

Lunch will be provided!” (Via PSPDG)

When: Tuesday, February 5, 2019. 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Where: BRB Room 253

Career Services: Preparing for Academic On-Campus Interviews

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“This program is open to doctoral students and postdocs as part of the Academic Job Search Series.

If you are applying for faculty jobs, and want to be able to communicate effectively during interviews, then plan on attending this workshop to learn about effective strategies you can use during on-campus interviews. We will discuss how to prepare, what questions you might get asked, and share tips and strategies to help shape your answers.” (Via Penn Career Services)

When: Tuesday, Jan 29, 2019, 12-1:30 PM

Where: McNeil Building Conference Room 97 (3718 Locust Walk)

Register via Handshake.

AAAS Social Policy Fellowship Info Session

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If you are passionate about social policy, want to learn more about the field, or are looking to explore career options after graduation this seminar workshop is for you!

Three alumni and a recruiter from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will be coming to Penn to talk to us about the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow (STPF).  This is a yearlong fellowship that provides the opportunity for scientists to learn first-hand about policymaking and contribute their knowledge and analytical skills in the policy realm. Fellows serve yearlong assignments in the federal government (any of the three branches). This workshop will touch on: application process, transition into the fellowship, how to become a competitive applicant, and testimonials from alumni regarding what their day-to-day looked like during the fellowship as well as how the fellowship influenced their career paths.   

Name Branch Placement Current Work
Sutyajeet I. Soneja “Sut” Executive Branch 2016-18 US Agency for International Development (USAID) Consultant, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, World Health Organization
Judith Weis Legislative Branch 1983-84 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Professor of Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, Newark
Peter DeCarlo “Pete” Executive Branch 2010-11 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, as well as the Department of Chemistry, Drexel