Thursday, July 10, 2014

Workshop Reflection

The main point of the Career Development 101 seminar seemed to be networking. By the end of that seminar, I was a bit sick of the word "network," but I understand that is very important in the research field. I thought the CNN interview video was helpful in that I learned some useful tips in getting connected with other people without coming across as a stalker. It still seems a little awkward to go into conversations with the goal of "networking," but I guess that's how it is in such a competitive field. The importance of who you know in research can't be underestimated. I also thought it was interesting how having a business card was emphasized. It never occurred to me that it might be a good idea to have your own business card as a poor college student, but I can see why it would be helpful to get your name out there, particularly in the context of research.

The Getting Published seminar was fairly helpful as well. Shelly was a good speaker who managed to make something as dry as publishing scientific research seem somewhat interesting. Some of her tips on writing, particularly getting started, were quite useful. While I don't plan on publishing a paper I've written myself, my lab is publishing a paper on which I would have secondary authorship. It's nice to know how the process works, even though I was only involved on a superficial level with this paper. I wasn't aware that sending the paper to multiple journals is highly frowned upon, but it makes sense in hindsight.

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