NUWorkWell

Hear from Dr. Mihir Bhagat, Senior Consultant in Life Sciences with Guidehouse, as he reflects on his own career path and how it began in his doctoral studies. Mihir shares insight not only on his experience as a consultant, but how he sought opportunities to develop as a professional during graduate school and advocated for his professional development from the early stages of his PhD. 

In this episode, guest Dr. Jennifer Ferrer, shares her journey and experience exploring non-negotiables and developing boundaries at different stages of her career. As an individual committed to growth and the growth of others, Jennifer discusses how she approaches service, leadership, and mentorship in professional organizations, as well as informal connections forged along the way.  

In the first episode of our third season, we chat with Marshall, Gerstein, and Borun Technical Specialist, Dr. Rose Njoroge. Join us as we discuss the job search process through different stages of her career, how she approached boundary setting through the pandemic, how she defines well being, as well as the challenges navigating the search as an international job candidate. Through our conversation we chat about adaptability, work place culture, and the importance of self awareness for success in work and life. 

One year into a full time role, we check-in with Scott Cambo about the transition from doctoral candidate to data scientist. Dr. Cambo allowed us to follow him during the late stages of his doctoral experience and shared his approach to juggling research, the job search, and family. Join us now as Scott shares about his new role with a growing start-up, developing new boundaries, lessons learned, and strategies for managing the challenges of 2020.  

Discussion with Dr. Alyssa Westring, coauthor of recent book "Parents Who Lead: The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose, Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life." In honor of National Work and Family Month, Dr. Westring speaks more broadly to graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff about where to focus and take control professionally and personally during COVID-19.

Join us as we chat with Niamba Baskerville, Sociology PhD candidate and current Optimization and Innovation Analyst at Kepler Group. She shares her career exploration process, as well as how she structured her internship and full-time searches around her own criteria and motivators. Prior to beginning with Kepler Group, Niamba completed a strategy internship with Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners. Her research involves qualitative methods, in which she collects, analyzes, and reports on a range of data to generate new insights about social phenomena. Now, she applies her understanding of media and cultural trends to help brands optimize their campaigns.

In our interview with Dr. Kim Rapp, Assistant Vice President for International Relations at Northwestern University, she shares invaluable insight about being on both sides of the hiring process as an advanced degree professional. Additionally, Dr. Rapp provides advice for keeping goals, skills, and values at the core of your search.

In the second part of our conversation with current doctoral candidate, Scott Cambo, we chat about his approach towards navigating the full-time search, boundaries he's placed to integrate his personal and career goals, and challenges he faces.

Join us as we follow a current PhD candidate as he navigates the full-time job search. Listen as he shares his experience as a non traditional student, and discusses his approach to integrating work and life as a grad student, partner, and parent.

Welcome to our second season! Here are some tips and considerations for self-care during uncertainty, along with advice for managing current job search processes.

Elysse and Lesley take a look back at the guests and conversations from this past year. From networking to prioritization, we revisit the challenges and high points of finding the first post-graduate position.

Dr. Zhang joins us to talk about balancing her full-time job search as a PhD, incorporating personal and professional priorities, and her status as an international student. She shares invaluable insight on her experience developing professional relationships throughout the process. Xiaomi is a recent Northwestern alumna, and former VPD group member in Materials Science. Prior to accepting a full time position with Apple, Dr. Zhang's research focused on characterization of energy materials, especially thermoelectric and battery materials using S/TEM.

Join us as we chat with Alvita Akiboh, recent addition to the University of Michigan's Society of Fellows. Dr. Akiboh discusses her efforts to normalize open conversations around professional development, and wellness and mental health in particular, among graduate students and faculty in the History Department. Her research focuses on the history of U.S. overseas colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific. During her time at Northwestern, she served as Professional Development Coordinator in the History Department.

On this episode, we sit down with recent alumni and soon to be consultant with BCG, Rebecca Menssen. Rebecca talks about how she discovered management consulting as a field, evaluated fit with different firms, and some tips for navigating the advanced degree recruitment process.

On this episode we talk to Lauren Woods about her past postdoctoral fellowship appointments and how she managed the transition from graduate student, to trainee, to administrator. Lauren Woods is Assistant Director of CIRTL at Northwestern. She helps develop, run, and evaluate CIRTL at Northwestern programming including the Searle Teaching-As-Research (STAR) program and Mentored Discussions of Teaching (MDT). Prior to joining the Searle Center, Lauren was a postdoctoral researcher at Davidson College. She holds a B.A. in Zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, and Population Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. CIRTL, or the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning, is an NSF center that seeks to train STEM graduate students in order to develop a national STEM faculty committed to advancing effective teaching practices for diverse student audiences.

Join us for a conversation about the academic job search, interview and decision making process with Marlon Twyman, a current Ph.D. Candidate at Northwestern University’s Technology and Social Behavior program. His current research interests include studying the emergence of new collaborations through team assembly. Marlon merges perspectives from social networks, organizational behavior, and computational social science to understand this phenomenon. Marlon recently accepted a tenure track position at the University of Southern California.

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Olivia Hoskins, staff psychologist at Northwestern University's Counseling and Psychological Services. Olivia shares stories from her job search processes after graduate school, tips for maintaining balance through the search, and resources on campus to help manage stress throughout graduate school and the job search process.