Workshop Reflection

The Career Development 101 workshop gave me a lot of good insight on what it might take to start a career, especially since I do not know exactly what I want my career to be.  I learned a lot about how important networking is, no matter what I pursue.  We have always been told that you "don't have to know what you want to do with your life" but I learned at the workshop that it is still important to be proactive and put myself in a position where opportunities will present themselves.  It was interesting to hear about how such opportunities can come at any time and that I always have to be prepared to talk to anyone.   I will never know when I will meet someone or see something that could change how I develop my career so I learned to always be open-minded and prepared to present myself.

The Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published workshop also gave me a great deal of insight on something that I have not been very exposed to in my research experience so far.  I started research with this glorified idea of how easy it would be to get published as long as I put the hours in, but my experience this year has taught me otherwise, and the workshop solidified that.  I was interested in hearing about the general timeline of getting published and how it will take months to complete a process that may not even end in a published article.  It was also interesting to hear about the emotional side of getting published and how it can be a very frustrating and defeating process, but that it is also very rewarding and exciting.  It was a good way to mentally prepare for taking on the task of writing something of such importance.

Both workshops were a good way to hear about the potential future of my research experience, wherever it may take me.