Faculty Career Advancement Groups
The Faculty Career Advancement groups focus on preparing postdocs for the faculty job application process. Participants are encouraged to attend the “Future Faculty Job Search Academy Series” through the Center for Teaching to develop application materials (e.g., cover letter, CV, teaching statement, diversity statement, research statement). Postdocs meet to build a peer support network, provide and receive peer feedback on application materials, discuss strategies to tailor application materials, and practice interviewing techniques.

 

Peer-facilitated Career Exploration Groups
The PhD Career Ladder Program uses curriculum from the Professional Development Hub (pd|hub) Collections, which are nationally sourced educational models focused on professional development and career exploration for PhD students and postdocs. Postdocs meet to build a peer support group, assess their skills, values, and interests, research careers of interest, practice communicating their value to future employers, and set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) goals for a successful job search.

 

Leadership and Management in Action (L-MAP)

L-MAP originated from Washington University in St. Louis and introduces postdocs to the interpersonal and psychological foundations of leading teams and managing people. It responds to the unique position of postdocs, who may be practicing leadership for the first time and who typically lack formal authority within the research environment. Using real-world scenarios and current research on leadership and team dynamics challenges that postdocs regularly encounter in the scientific research environment, L-MAP highlights professional behaviors and communication strategies that can be used in a variety of leadership and management scenarios.

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Project Management
Project Management introduces postdocs to the project management process, i.e., project initiation, planning, risk management, execution, monitoring, and closing. Participants develop a project charter, work breakdown structure, project schedule, communication plan, risk and opportunity registers, and a post-project report for a current research project and receive feedback from peers.