GradPathways and ICC Hold 15th Annual Career Symposium

GradPathways of Graduate Studies and the Internship & Career Center (ICC) hosted the 15th annual Pathways Career Symposium for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on Jan. 25, 2014. The all-day event began with a continental breakfast and welcome from Associate Dean for Graduate Students Lenora Timm and Blacutt-Underwood Distinguished Professor and Director of ICC Subhash Risbud. The main event sessions, held in Wellman, were comprised of 12 workshops and an hour-long networking luncheon held at the Coffee House on campus.

The workshops were divided into four time slots, each with three concurrent sessions, and focused on a variety of career development topics for graduate students and postdocs in all areas of study. The Pathways Career Symposium divided the career development talks into two focuses, providing guidance for jobs within academia and beyond academia.

Many of the lectures that focused on careers beyond academia featured multiple panelists to effectively discuss different aspects of competition and strategy in the job search, general sharing of expectations and work experiences, as well as the pros and cons of working outside academia. Single-panelist lectures focused more on how to navigate specific steps of the career search process, such interview etiquette. The last hour of the symposium included a demonstration of a mock interview. Distinguished panelists included professionals from academia, industry, government, and business.

At midday, the networking luncheon was held at the CoHo to provide a space for panelists, guest speakers, faculty, staff, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to connect, ask questions, seek out others with similar interests, and develop personal and professional relationships.

The symposium aims to further these interactions so that graduate students and postdoctoral scholars can apply their academic achievements to future success. "The journey is done when you have found success; if you haven't found your success yet, then the journey is not over," assured Director Risbud.

The Pathways Career Symposium could not be made possible without the collaboration and co-sponsorship between the Internship & Career Center and Graduate Studies and the event's coordinators: Gwynn Benner, Darlene Saunders, and Jeanne Shelby.

An extra special thanks to all the speakers and panelists who devoted their time for Pathways Career Symposium:

• Dr. Chris Benner, Community & Regional Development, UC Davis
• Dr. Nicolas Bruque, Grass Valley USA
• Dr. Ebony Coleman, Postdoctoral Scholar, Molecular and Cellular Biology, UC Davis
• Dr. Ryan Cox, Los Rios Community College District
• Dr. Steve Culberson, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• Dr. Claire Dawkins, Online High School, Stanford University
• Dr. Jeff Dunn, Intel, Small Business R&D
• Dr. Kevin Gee, School of Education, UC Davis
• Dr. Jennifer Gregson, California Home Visiting Program Branch Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Division, California Department of Public Health
• Ms. Robin Wortley Hammond, Hammond Works
• Ms. Andrew Hanson, MA, Internship & Career Center, UC Davis
• Dr. Leslie L. Hartzell, California State Parks
• Dr. Cara Harwood, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• Dr. Mehdi Hayat Shahi, Postdoctoral Scholars Association and Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Surgery and Radiological Sciences, UC Davis
• Dr. Shawn Hayes, HealthCorps
• Dr. Phillip Jardon, Elanco Animal Health
• Dr. Anne Megaro, California State Senate Committee on Agriculture
• Mr. Donald Palm, Los Rios Community College, Davis Campus
• Dr. Pamela Reynolds, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, UC Davis
• Dr. Matthew Salveson, California State University Sacramento, Engineering
• Dr. Kirsten "Kiki" Sanford, science Journalist, This Week in Science, dedicated to making science accessible
• Dr. Janet Tien, Genentech
• Dr. Anne Visser, Community & Regional Development, UC Davis
• Dr. Mien Yip, Sandia National Laboratory

A full schedule of the day's events and details can be found here: http://icc.ucdavis.edu/graduates/pathway.htm