2015 ASPIRE Cafe for Postdoctoral Fellows
Thursday, January 22nd , 2015
“Finding Funding: An Introduction to Community of Science’s PIVOT”
Learn how to put a Vanderbilt resource, COS PIVOT, to work for you in finding funding for your endeavors. Learn how to establish your personal profile, do funding searches, set up saved searches to receive weekly updates, use COS PIVOT to manage your applications and more!
Thursday, February 26th, 2015
“Writing a Better Cover Letter”
Learn cover letter basics such as general cover letter structure, what should be/should not be included, & what it means to tailor your letter to the position. We will explore tips for polishing your cover letter, look at some examples of good and not-so-good cover letters, and discuss strategies for making your cover letter stand out. If you dare (!), feel free to bring along your own cover letter, and accompanying job description, to share with the group.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
“Informational Interviewing-your most powerful networking tool”
Have you ever heard of an informational interview? Come learn about one the most powerful, yet underutilized, networking tools available to you. Find out what an informational interview entails, how to set one up, what questions you should be asking, and how this type of activity can help you explore career options while also growing your professional network.
Thursday, April 23rd, 2015
“Crafting a Compelling Elevator Pitch”
What’s an elevator pitch and why would I need one anyway? In this session we will discuss the fundamentals of the elevator pitch, identify places where you would use one and explore ideas about how you might tailor it to specific situations. We will look at examples, craft our own, and take some time to practice them and provide feedback to one another.
Thursday, May 28th, 2015
Special Session 4-5 pm in 350 Light Hall with invited guest speaker Andrea Stith, Ph.D. Asst. Dir. for Interdisciplinary Education, University of Colorado BioFrontiers Institute, Boulder, CO
“Making the Most of Mentoring- How to Develop this Essential Leadership Skill”
Experience and Interest in mentoring others is a strong leadership skill that can help you stand out to potential employers. Learning how to help others learn, grow, and be more effective, will also help you to succeed as well. In this session we will explore what makes a good mentor, how you can get the most out of being mentored yourself, and discuss ways you can develop your skills during your postdoctoral training.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2015
“Emotional Intelligence”– Session led by Mistie Germek, Ph.D., BRET Psychologist
Learn how Emotional Intelligence can help you build stronger professional relationships, obtain a job, succeed at work and achieve career goals. We will talk about how to increase our emotional intelligence by developing self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and professional relationship management.
Handouts: Developing Emotional Intelligence
Emotion Record
Tuesday, July 28th, 2015
“Leveraging LinkedIN”, Kim Petrie, Ph.D., BRET Dir. Career Development
In this session, you’ll learn how LinkedIn can help you explore career paths, research companies and industries, build your professional network, create a professional online presence and find job opportunities.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
“Managing an Online Scholarly Presence”, Ed Warga, Institutional Repository Coordinator,Vanderbilt University Library and Morgan Daniels, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar, Research, Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Social media has been making an impact on all our lives including how we work and maintain a professional network. This workshop offers some ideas for managing your online presence with researcher profiles, researcher IDs, and article level altmetrics. We will discuss options for researcher profiles like Google Scholar, Academia.edu, Researchgate, and Vivo; get started with researcher IDs to help link online content to an individual researcher; and explore how altmetrics allow you to identify important work by tracking citations and mentions of work in blogs, twitter, and other social networks.
Tuesday, September 8th, 2015
“Behind the Curtain: An inside look at Peer Review of F32 NRSAs”, Kim Petrie, Ph.D., BRET Dir. Career Development and Ashley Brady, Ph.D., BRET Office of Career Development
“Think like a reviewer” is advice commonly given to new grant writers. But if you’ve never sat in on a peer review session, how do you do that? In this session, we will watch a video of a mock review of a real F32 NRSA application and discuss how F32 proposals are reviewed. You, too, can learn to “think like a reviewer”.
Handouts: ACS_Making the Cut
BRET_training Environment
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
“Preparing for a Teaching Demo“, Cynthia Brame, Ph.D., Asst. Dir. ,Vanderbilt Center for Teaching
How do you put together an effective teaching demonstration for a job interview? How is it different from a research seminar–and how can you link the two? Come learn about key considerations for developing this important piece of your interview portfolio.
Handout: The Teaching Demonstration; CBE 2013
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
”NIH Career Development (K) awards – which one is right for you?”, Abby Brown, Ph.D., BRET, Director, Outcomes Research
Learn the basics about the different types of K awards, from institutional (K12) to K99 awards.
Handout: Resources Guide
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
“Grant Resources at Vanderbilt”, Abby Brown Ph.D., BRET, Director, Outcomes Research
Learn how Vanderbilt can help you write your grant: a focus on resources for writing career development or R grants. Will cover the many grant writing resources available to Vanderbilt researchers to help produce strong grant applications.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
“What to Expect from a Faculty Position Interview”; (faculty panel: Todd Graham, PhD, Scott Hiebert, PhD, Chris Wright, PhD)
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
“How to Give A Chalk Talk”, (faculty panel: Chuck Sanders, PhD, Tony Weil, PhD, Chris Wright, PhD)