Professional Development

Event Description

This workshop is designed for biomedical PhD students and postdoctoral fellows seeking to differentiate themselves in a competitive job market. Participants will learn from Penny Pearl of 2Actify how to strategically build and leverage professional networks, articulate a clear professional brand, and communicate their skills and interests with intention across academic, industry, and nontraditional career paths. The session will cover practical approaches to networking, informational interviews, online presence, and personal branding statements, along with strategies for maintaining authentic, meaningful professional relationships. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to increase visibility, confidence, and impact in their career search.

Event Description

This active learning workshop for PhD students, Postdoctoral Fellows and faculty will use techniques and case study discussions in breakout sessions to teach tools and skills to better mentor undergraduate students in a research setting.  Attendees will also reflect upon approaches they would use to mentor trainees and employees when they are running a lab or research group in the future. An opportunity to earn a Microbadge in Mentoring Undergrads will be available for those who wish to follow up with additional activities.

Event Description

The seminar delivered by Manisha Sinha, PhD will cover the following core themes that are unique to industry compared to academia and will help you transition to an industry role:

Time as a critical resource; Designing “killer experiments” for go no-go decisions; Planning for efficiency; Cross-functional collaboration; Framing results in the context of program strategy; Working within constrained budgets; Developing a product (not project) mindset; Early-career habits that accelerate impact and advancement in industry settings. Join us to shift your mindset to that of an industry professional!

 

Event Description

Note: This is a 2 day in person workshop. You only need to register once, however attendance at both days is required from 9am-5pm. 

Data Carpentry workshops are for any researcher who has data they want to analyze, and no prior computational experience is required. This hands-on workshop teaches basic concepts, skills and tools for working more effectively with data.  The focuses of this workshop will be working with genomics data, and data management & analysis for genomics research. They will cover metadata organization in spreadsheets, data organization, connecting to and using cloud computing, the command line for sequence quality control and bioinformatics workflows.

IN PERSON ONLY International Center for Public Health (ICPH) auditorium, 225 Warren St, Newark, NJ 

Lunch will be served

 

Event Description

This workshop will help PhD students and postdocs learn the professionalism behaviors needed to succeed in both academic settings and industry roles. Participants will explore expectations around communication, workplace etiquette, teamwork, accountability, and ethical conduct. The session will also address navigating feedback, understanding organizational culture, and presenting oneself professionally in a work setting. Through discussion and practical examples, attendees will gain tools to build credibility, foster respectful working relationships, and confidently transition between academic and industry settings.

Event Description

Are you curious about what it is like to work at a biotech start up or even become a future founder of one?  Come to hear from Viraj Mane, PhD who is himself an entrepreneur to learn how and why startups can build and iterate in ways established companies can't or won't. Start ups are more likely to hire fresh PhDs without industry experience so they are a great place to start your career. Dr. Mane will share what a lean start up is, how to do customer discovery to determine market needs, how to build in clarity, and how to do things that don’t scale.

Event Description

Learn how to start those difficult conversations such as with your PI on wanting to do an internship or changing something about your thesis project. You can also use the skills we will learn with your future boss about compensation packages or a project not getting completed on time. Finally, we sometimes have conflicts with our peers which need to be managed before they make the work environment uncomfortable. CAPS counselor Dana Simons will help us approach these difficult situations so that we can advocate for ourselves as well as have a pleasant and productive work environment.

Lunch will be served

Event Description

Schrödinger has pioneered a physics-based computational platform that enables the rapid and accurate discovery of high-quality, novel molecules for drug development and materials applications. Their platform is deployed by users worldwide to enable the discovery of novel therapeutics and materials more rapidly, at a lower cost, and with a higher likelihood of success. Come to NYC to see their offices and meet the life science PhD employees who work there and are transforming the drug discovery process. They are always hiring scientists into various roles and you could be part of this amazing company!

Event Description

This free workshop will be presented by the Financial Planning Association (FPA) of New Jersey to educate graduate students and postdocs on student loans, budgeting, cash flow, debt, and taxes. We know that living on a grad student stipend or postdoc salary can be challenging and many of you also have families to support. The skills you gain in this workshop will help you navigate your financial situation and plan for your future.

Event Description

A resume gets you the interview but the interview will get you the job so having excellent interviewing skills is of utmost importance when you are on the job market. Whether you are applying for roles on or off the bench, at this workshop you will learn tips from Rudrani Gangopadhyay, PhD the Senior Assistant Director of Graduate Student Career Pathways from Rutgers Career Exploration and Success. We will cover how to effectively communicate your scientific expertise and transferable skills, tailor responses for industry roles, and navigate common interview formats, including behavioral, technical, and panel interviews. The session will also cover how to research companies, prepare impactful examples using industry-relevant language, ask strong questions, and follow up professionally. You will leave with practical strategies to confidently present yourself and succeed in pharma interviews.