Workshop Reflection

The "Career Development 101" workshop was very informational, and taught me how to present myself in an effective and professional manner when dealing with future employers. It was very helpful to learn about all of the services that the career center offers to help students with resumes and cover letters. The examples presented in seminar gave me a better idea of what a professional cover letter and resume should look like. The most helpful aspect of this workshop was the instruction on networking. In research, it is crucial to collaborate with others and opportunities arise through the connections one makes. It was very useful to practice "pitching myself" to other people, and since this workshop, I have been able to use these techniques to branch out and talk to other researchers in my lab about the work they do. This has helped me get a better perspective on different forms of research and has allowed me to make contacts for the future.

The "Writing Academic Articles and Getting Published" workshop also presented a lot of new material that was instrumental for writing a paper. It was nice to get a perspective on the publication process from someone who had been through it, and it gave me a new appreciation for all of the effort that goes into a research article. It also stressed the importance of reading the articles of other researchers in the field to get an idea of how articles are presented and organized. The workshop provided some useful resources through the Sweetland Writing Center and suggested some pertinent books on writing academic papers. The tips and advice will all be very helpful in constructing my abstract for the UROP symposium and for any future papers I may try to write in the future.