Career Development

It is my number one priority as an advisor to help you identify and achieve career goals that you are excited about. Both graduate school and postdoctoral positions are meant to be training grounds for you to develop skills that will serve you well in your future career of choice. I view part of my responsibility as your advisor to help you identify what the next step in your career will be, and provide you with opportunities that best set you up for success in that next step. Depending on which path you choose to take, this will look different for each team member, but the following topics apply regardless of your end goal:

• Individual Development Plans - Every team member will complete an individual development plan with me upon joining the lab. These documents will be revisited and revised at the end of every Spring semester to ensure we are on the same page in terms of your progress, my mentoring, and our plans as they relate to your research/career goals.

• Fellowships - I will only hire you if I can financially support you with existing lab resources regardless of the status of additional funding sources. However, both graduate students and postdocs are expected to actively seek out and apply for fellowships. Securing one of these fellowships is great for your career development and will be recognized as a positive reflection of you as a researcher. It is also great practice for you to convey your ideas and plans to an outside audience, and preparing these applications will help prepare you for doing efficient research in the lab, for exams, for interviews, and to become more effective scientific communicators in general. I am happy to work with you to develop/refine these applications.

• Internships - Many companies, fellowship programs, and national labs offer opportunities for internships. If this is something that interests you, let’s have a conversation about whether one of these opportunities would be beneficial for you.