Communicating Your Skills for the Non-Academic Job Search

A graduate student workshop with Dr. Thi Nguyen

This workshop led by Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Development Thi Nguyen will address the following question: How does your PhD education translate into skills that are valued by an employer beyond academia? You have honed your ability to find information, communicate your research with academic and lay audiences, manage projects, teach complex ideas, mentor students, and work with diverse individuals. These are examples of talents and capacities that you can communicate in your application materials and during an interview.

Agenda and learning objectives for this session:

12-12:30pm,  Lunch

12:30-1:00pm, Communicating your skills in resumes

- Identify your talents and capacities

- Write bullet points for the resume that communicate these skills

1:00-1:45pm, Talking about your skills

- Explain the goals of different stakeholders in hearing your "pitch"

- Practice communicating these transferable skills with peers

1:45-2:15 pm,  LinkedIn

- Define your personal online narrative

- Update your LinkedIn with your new bullet points

- Take photos (Thi will bring her fancy camera), optional but encouraged!

PLEASE RSVP to this workshop by October 5 (e-mail rolaughlin@wustl.edu)