Johns Hopkins University Postdoctoral Association Presentation

Thursday, May 20, 2016 | Baltimore, MD – What a pleasure it was to return to Baltimore to give a talk at Johns Hopkins University this May! It’s been quite a while since I’ve spent any considerable time in Baltimore, so I was happy to accept the invitation to speak at this year’s JHU Homewood Postdoctoral Association (HW-PDA) Retreat, while also making time to spend with family and friends in the local area.

My workshop, “Building Your Academic Reputation: Developing Your Blueprint to Success During & After the Postdoc – Academically, Personally, and Professionally“, engaged scholars to think beyond their current circumstances as postdocs, but rather, to hone in on their tangible short, mid-range, and long term goals in order to aim toward the careers–not simply the “jobs”–they wished to attain.

Interestingly enough, while it can sometimes be difficult to present the same message to scholars from a multitude of disciplines at once who often see their concerns as either paramount to, or mutually exclusive, to other disciplines, it never fails that the same questions, fears, and challenges are shared amongst them. For this audience in particular, made up of newly minted PhDs, they seemed relieved to hear someone tell them that they had the capacity to give themselves the permission to develop their own process within and beyond the confines of academia and otherwise.

Overall, I enjoyed meeting all of the scholars and wish them the very best in pursuit of their next endeavors!