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Workshops

Three hour workshops focus on preparing scientists for a Professional Career

Topics covered:

  • Develop your personal brand
  • Self Assessment
  • ID your top 5 business and social skills
  • Build your network
  • Leave with a career action plan

Our popular SciPhD ½ day workshop helps postdocs and graduate students discover that doing challenging research DOES prepare you for an industry job!  Doing great science is a business process, and how your students work with talent (people) does prepare them for a team centric working environment! They just don’t know to emphasize it or what to call it!!

MODULE I:  The myths and realities of working in industry are introduced and discussed.  Focus is on the critical skills valued by industry, how industry perceives academic scientists, and how scientists can relate their own experiences and the scientific method to the core competencies valued in industry.  This includes building your personal brand that defines your scientific/technical, business, and social identities.

MODULE II:  We examine how to relate core competencies to job requirements and teach participants how to best prepare to respond to job offerings.

Part I:  Looks at extracting all the valuable information contained in job ads.  Most job ads have a tremendous amount of information beyond the scientific/technical requirements for the job.  Learn how to identify and prepare to respond to these other critical requirements as well as how to identify the implicit information contained in job ads.

Part 2:  Focuses on how to translate the “operational competency” language typical of job descriptions into the “core competencies” of SciPhD that form the basis of your industry skill-set.  Learn how to identify your developed core skills and bundle them together into the operational competency language that businesses understand. We also examine ways to build your professional network and use that network to get additional intelligence on jobs, their requirements and how best to connect with the decision-makers who determine who they will hire.

MODULE III:  Online Training Course and Self-Assessment:  All participants have access to the on-line training program and Self Assessment instrument which teaches more about each of the 24 core competencies valued by industry and allows them to self-assess their own skills in each of these areas.  Participants are also guided to develop experience statements for each competency that can be used in developing targeted resumes and cover letters, and in preparing for interviews.

Email us or use the form below to get more information.

Certificate Programs

With the shift in available jobs moving from academia to industry, understanding the skills necessary to compete and succeed in an industry setting is critical.  Our certificate programs introduce the key competencies that are essential for career success.  Based on the SciPhD training program, this course focuses on 24 essential core competencies valued by industry, relates those competencies to activities and behaviors commonly experienced by academic scientists, and demonstrates how those competencies work together to form the operational competencies that are essential in business.  Our typical 40 hour course, offered over multiple sessions will cover:

  • The Business of Science
  • Successful Communications as a Scientist
  • Effective Leadership Styles
  • Developing Your People
  • Negotiation & Finance
  • Strategic Project Management for Scientists
  • Building Effective Teams
  • Networking & Interviewing Skills

The course will also show how to use that information to develop powerful targeted resumes, and prepare for effective interviews.

Despite the fact that these topics are rarely part of the traditional academic research scientist’s curriculum, there are many activities associated with the academic experience that draw on these skills.  One of the most effective and unique features of this program is how the instructors relate these “business” concepts to common research activities as a bridge to a deeper understanding of how their own experiences can strengthen their competitiveness for industry positions.  The course also provides a self-assessment tool that introduces the students to each of the 24 competencies, has them rank their own skill level, and has them develop “experience statements” from their own career that supports their rankings.  A detailed report generated by the assessment tool then maps the student’s capabilities to those that are critical to different kinds of jobs in different industries.

Email us or use the form below to get more information.

Boot Camps / Custom Programs

In addition to workshops and certificates, we offer customized programs.

Email us or use the form below to start designing a program that fits your organization’s needs.

Boot Camp 1 - Getting Your First Job

A 2 day boot camp that focuses on how to finish graduate/postgraduate work, negotiating with an adviser, examining career options, finding and researching interesting jobs, developing targeted resumes, preparing for interviews, and negotiating terms and landing the first job. Students develop their “personal brand” which includes their scientific, business and social identities. Demonstrating expertise in all three of these areas is critical to being competitive professionally and the biggest obstacle for academic scientists being competitive.

Boot Camp 2 - It's about the Team

A 2 day boot camp focusing on what comes after you got the job. Studies show that 60% of new hires are let go in the first 18 months, not because of technical issues, but because they did not “fit in”, assimilate, or become part of the team. This program focuses on those first 18 months. How to prepare for a leadership position in a Professional Career.

Contact us to get more information

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