PhD (in Progress) Podcast | Education, Career, Life

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This week, Jason talks to Parag Gupta, 12th-year materials science and mechanical engineering PhD student at Northwestern University about his perspective on graduate school and learning from mistakes.

Resources:

• Parag Gupta’s April 2014 TEDxNorthwesternU “So, Um...12 Years, Huh?!” can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32QCk1fRpfY.
• Robert Fulghum’s Book Excerpt on problems versus inconveniences is attached Robert Fulghum — Uh-Oh
• How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie can be found at your local library, your friendly neighborhood bookstore, or any online retailer. (Parag’s suggestion for a positive outlook and framing)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Dr. Stephen R. Covey can be found at your local library, your friendly neighborhood bookstore, or any online retailer. (Jason’s suggestion for personal productivity and growth)
  
• NASA Academy General Information can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/descriptions/NASA_Academy.html#.U-FtL-NdW2Q and Application Information can be found at http://www.academyapp.com/.

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Discussion points:

• What are informational interviews?
• Understanding what you’re interested in
• Keeping a casual conversation
• Learning about prospects of the company, the culture, how promotions work
• Overcoming being hesitant
• How did you jump into informational interviewing
• Strategies:
  • Leveraging Alumni Network
  • Being earnest
• What roles with companies do PhDs tend to have?
• It is a challenge for PhDs to get involed in industry
• Roles outside of the research

If you have any comments or suggestions about the show, definitely send us an e-mail at [email protected]

We’re also on Twitter @phdpodcast. I love interacting with all of you there, so please say hi.

Our fund sourcing to cover costs associated with the show is up and running. If you’d like more information about supporting us, please stop by Patreon.com/phdpodcast or click the PayPal donation button on our site.
Even a couple of dollars goes a long way towards contributing to the show.

I really want to thank all the listeners again. You’ve been so encouraging. Outside of donating, you can also help us by leaving a rating and review in the iTunes store. We’ll read them on the show, especially the funny ones.

[Episode card adapted from an image by Flickr user Wonderlane and used under the Creative Commons license]

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A very special thank you to Mark Esposito who also runs the Breaking Bio blog found at breakingbio.org.

Mark wrote a guide about creating the career symposium you heard in this show at http://www.breakingbio.org/resources/

Discussion points:

• Understanding your career path and constantly questioning your goals
• Problems with tenure track positions as the default
• How do we approach learning about “alternative careers”
• Steps in initiating a career symposium:
  • 1) Raise money via internal and external grants or donations
  • 2) Connect with potential speakers/guests
    • Ask faculty
    • Use LinkedIn or call companies
    • Ask departmental office
    • Location can be important
  • 3) Logistics for travel arrangement, room availability
• Career areas addressed at the symposium held at Princeton’s Department of Molecular Biology:
  • Policy
  • Education
  • Industry R&D
  • Law
  • Science Communication
• Related Episodes:
  • Using your career services office
  • Beyond the Tenure Track with Fatimah PhD
  • Kelly’s career search

A very special thanks to Mark Esposito. You can find some great, accessible science posts by Mark at BreakingBio.org. We hope you can take some of his advice and start discussions of alternative careers at your school. He was nice enough to write up a summary and supporting materials that you can find at phdinprogress.com/19.

If you enjoy the show, please help support us. The best way to do this is to leave an honest review and rating in the iTunes store. Any comments you have will go a long way to spread the popularity of the show. Also get in touch with us on Twitter @PhDPodcast

If you’re a big fan and want to help increase the quality of recording and distribution, definitely consider becoming a patron by supporting us at Patreon.com/phdpodcast . Even $2 gets us closer to adequate hosting space and equipment. Thanks to Ben McNeil and Sally Ponchak who are currently supporting us.

[Image used under Creative Commons licensing and adapted from original by US Dept. of Education]

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This week, Jason and Kelly talk to Princeton University graduate student Jessica Rowland Williams about starting graduate school with a child and deciding to raise a family.

Resources

• Parenting in Grad School by Andrea Zellner at GradHacker.org
• Grad School and Parenting: If I Knew Then What I Know Now... Jennifer Bengtson at GradHacker.org
• What to Consider Before Mixing Graduate School with Raising a Family by Theresa Phillips at biotech.about.com
• Your graduate school’s student resource page
• Listener Jennifer hosts a new site called Parenting and Academia! Stop by and share some stories.
• Let us know about any resources you come across [email protected]

DO YOU have 10 seconds to help us acheive our goal? We would love 50 reviews and ratings in the iTunes store. When we reach 50 reviews or 100 ratings, we’ll release a bonus outtake episode to everyone AND one reviewer will be randomly selected to either join us on the show via Skype or we’ll use his or her topic suggestion.

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This week Jason, Nikhil, and Kelly discuss productivity resources that have worked for them in their graduate studies.

For more information, visit our blog entry on Productivity Web Tools for Graduate Students. There is more information on Mendeley, Papers, Google Calendar, and Mint.

Resources Mentioned and Recommended:

• Papers (€34 for students) http://www.papersapp.com
• Mendeley (free) http://www.mendeley.com/
• Google Calendar (free) https://www.google.com/calendar/
• Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry
  (Jason personally endorses this book)
• Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson
• Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
• Creative Routines infographic by RJ Andrews
• Pomodoro Technique (Wikipedia): 25 minutes of work then 5 minutes “off”
• Lifehacker has a great article “Why You Should Keep a Journal and How to Start Yours”
• Coffitivity The white noise of a coffee shop! Also useful: Nickelback.

We have a new goal only YOU can help us achieve: we would love 50 reviews and ratings in the iTunes store. When we reach 50 reviews or 100 ratings, we’ll release a bonus outtake episode to everyone AND one reviewer will be randomly selected to either join us on the show via Skype or we’ll use his or her topic suggestion.