Past Events › Academic and Career Development

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS: From Skills to Results: Re-Seeing Your Skills Through Non-Academic Eyes   Dr. Paula Chambers is  Founder of Versatile PhD, a leading web-based career resource that helps graduate students and new PhDs envision, prepare for and excel in nonacademic careers.  After briefly telling her own post-PhD story, Dr. Chambers reveals what the PhD career pipeline really looks like (it is a branchingpipeline) and contrasts academic and non-academic understandings “results.” Then she leads attendees through a well-organized sequence…

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS: Making the Leap: Key Factors That Get PhDs Hired into Non-Faculty Jobs Dr. Paula Chambers is  Founder of Versatile PhD, a leading web-based career resource that helps graduate students and new PhDs envision, prepare for and excel in nonacademic careers.  It’s become commonplace to say that PhDs have many skills that are valued outside the academy. But what gets new PhDs hired into non -academic jobs, really? Drawing from a significant corpus of qualitative data, Dr.…

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS: DATA LITERACY: BUSTING MYTHS OF BIG DATA PART 1 Dr. Nairanjana Dasgupta, Boeing Science/Math Education Distinguished Professor in Mathematics and Statistics In this workshop we will focus on learning about the what, when, how and whys of data.  Data is pervasive these days and like it or not we have to use data to make decisions or others will make them for us.  In this workshop we will start from the basics and talk about…

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS: RESUMES AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS   Dr. Isaiah Hankel (The Cheeky Scientist) This section details how to tailor an industry resume, for industry jobs. We will highlight the main mistakes that are made on a resume and how to overcome them. We will show job-seekers the right transferable skills that hiring managers and recruiters are looking for industry. In addition, the layout of a resume must allow the reader to gather information within 7 seconds. We will show career professionals what that layout looks…

The Latin American and Iberian Graduate Student Association and the Professional Development Initiative Present:   RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT WSU   The purpose of this seminar is to inform international students about the resources available for them at WSU. We will make particular emphasis on resources for English as second language (ESL), visa related information, and tax management. This workshop will provide participants key tools for having a successful experience as graduate and professional students. Some of the…

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS:  SUBMITTING YOUR THESIS AND DISSERTATION   You’ve spent years on your dissertation and it’s time to turn it in to the Graduate School. What happens then? Daniel Vickoren and Kelly Caraher from the Graduate School will teach students how to understand and navigate WSU’s thesis and dissertation formatting requirements. Daniel will also debut a new thesis/dissertation template and give additional tips on the title page, abstract, chapter headings, using previously-published work, and much more. The…

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS: Networking and Building Your Linked In Presence Dr. Isaiah Hankel (The Cheeky Scientist) This section is created based on the networking strategies of some of the most strategic networkers in the world and also goes into the science of building rapport and why this is important for the job seeking professional. While this topic tends to be popular, it seems people are still not using it effectively and thus we have detailed specific action steps job seekers can take, and specific scripts…

THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE PRESENTS: WRITING WORKSHOP SERIES: CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES Lorena O'English, WSU Librarian and Tenured Faculty Elitza Kotzeva, Graduate Writing Center Outreach Coordinator The Critical Reading Strategies seminar will focus on active reading techniques in order to improve reading comprehension and facilitate practical application of sources into the writing process. This seminar will feature information on annotation strategies, research techniques, and critical thinking exercises. ***Note the writing workshop series is a year-long initiative! Watch for more sessions in…