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How to Have Productive Career Counseling and Pre-professional Advising Sessions

Many of our NIH post bacs, postdocs and graduate students ask the question, “What can I expect from my counseling or advising meeting?” To answer this question fully is to realize that the route to having successful counseling and advising sessions, like any relationship, is a two-way street.

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The services that these career services professionals provide to you will come from one direction. For example, review the OITE blog post on reasons to seek career counseling. You may want to meet with a pre-professional school advisor who provide advice and suggestions for strategizing your approach to applying and gaining admission to the graduate (PhD) or professional schools (MD, MBA, JD, MPP, MS) programs. Often these are professionals who possess the degrees for which they are advising and/or give advice on school choice, entrance exam testing (i.e.: MCAT, DAT, GRE, etc.), course selection and prerequisites, personal statement review, and practice interviews for specific professions. What you bring from the opposite direction (as a trainee) will truly enhance your experience, help you to meet half-way, and work together towards achieving your career goals. Here are some suggestions about how you can prepare to make the most of your sessions. Ask good questions: review basic information before coming to the session

Visit the OITE webpage and review the various resources.
Read OITE Career blog, related to the topic for which you are seeking counseling and advising.
Visit the OITE webpage for prior events and videos on job search strategy topics such as, networking, CV and Cover Letter writing, and information on a variety of career paths for scientists.
Review OITE resources for applying to MD, PhD, MD/PHD, programs or taking the MCAT, GRE.
Attend and NIH sponsored programs that are advertised by the various institutes of health.

Bring updated hard copies of documents to your session

Print and bring a copy of documents such as CVs, resumes, cover letters personal statements, teaching philosophies and research statements, etc. Advisors like to write on them directly.
Follow suggestions and make any recommended changes/edits before your next meeting.
You will need to make the changes to your documents so it is in your own words. This is in your best interest so the document is genuinely from you.

Prepare for mock interviews beforehand

Review OITE video casts and blogs on interviews for medical school, graduate school, academic, or industry jobs, etc.
Ask for help answering questions that you are having difficulty with.
Schedule a practice interview at least one month prior to beginning actual interviews. This will give you time to practice after receiving constructive feedback.
Continue to practice your answers after your mock interview implementing any suggestions made by the advisor/counselor.

Do your homework

Follow any suggestions for next steps and referrals provided by your advisor and counselor. Attending workshops or visiting websites, conducting informational interviews, and meeting with alumni are other opportunities that career professionals may suggest.
Make any recommended changes to your documents before your next session.
If you are having difficulty, be sure to tell your advisor so we can continue to help you.

Of course, we recognize that sometimes it isn’t easy to determine the specific reasons why you are coming in. So, if you are having difficulty with any of these suggestions, then just answer the question, “What brings you in?” Rest assured that your counselor or advisor will “take you where you are” and happily guide you towards your goals.

Staying Sane During the Waiting Game for Professional School Admission

We are going into the archives to re-post this blog for those of you who are in the process of applying to professional schools.

Writing the Teaching Statement

As you prepare a your written application materials to use when entering the Academic Job Market, in addition to the standard Curriculum Vitae (CV), Cover Letter, and a diversity statements, you may be asked submit a Teaching Statement . In general, teaching statements help search committees gain an understanding about how you approach teaching courses in your academic discipline. This statement, that will include your philosophy towards teaching science, will give the reader a concise synopsis of the underpinnings and origins to your approach to teaching followed by the strategies you plan to use, and examples and evidence of your success. The authors of, The Academic Job Search Handbook (5^th Edition), write that the Teaching Statement can be described as, "...a brief essay that will give a hiring committee an idea of what you actually do in the classroom. You will need to make some general statements but be sure to give some examples of things you have already done, or at least seen in practice, rather than give examples that are entirely hypothetical.”. The NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE) recommends that you watch our video casts on the Academic Job Search Process before writing your statement. Strong teaching statements will:

show clear evidence that you can “walk the walk”.
communicate that you are student-centered.
showcase your ability to teach to diverse learning styles
demonstrate your ability to reflect about your role as a teacher.
convey your enthusiasm for teaching.

For beginning instructors, Science Magazine provides some specific tips to the academic scientist who is starting the job market. The AAAS makes several suggestions to impress the search committee that include tailoring it to the institution, drawing form your personal experience learning science, and discussing what courses you would like to teach. To help you get started, jot down your responses to the following reflective questions as you begin or re-evaluate your teaching statement:

Think back …Who or what experiences have influenced your approach to teaching?

How do you teach science? How do you motivate students to learn?
Do you teach differently to undergraduates, graduate, professionals?
What methods, materials, techniques, technology will you use to support your teaching goals
How will you teach to diverse audiences?
Describe creative methods to teach in your field?

If you are new to teaching or need more experience teaching, the OITE offers the course Scientists Teaching Science that is an excellent program to help you begin to strategize and develop the skills for teaching in the profession including developing a teaching philosophy. If taken, this can be included as training in your teaching statement and on your CV.