A student-directed professional development program for doctoral students seeking industry placement

Abstract

Although industry requires young Ph.D.s. with well-rounded professional skills, many new graduates lack these skills. The typical focus for placement of doctoral students, for many universities, is in academia or government research facilities, and so the impetus of skill refinement is often geared towards that end. Skills required for placement in such fields, I.e., research abilities, communication skills, interviewing, and even job searching, while applicable to both academia and the private sector, often are employed in different ways. An example of the nuances between academia and industry preparation is the differences between writing a resume versus writing a curriculum vita. It becomes more difficult for a student with industrial career aspirations to learn the distinctions in how to utilize common skills for different ends, and adapting skills learned for academia to industry often leave the student looking ill-prepared to make the transition. This paper presents steps taken by the graduate students of the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell for professional skill improvement and job placement strategies intended for careers in industry. Prior to this work, no outlined professional development program at the University was focused solely on doctoral student placement in industrial oriented careers. Therefore, the CHN students formulated a professional development program tailored to meet their specific needs. After considerable consultation with industry human resource representatives, university professors, and the university's career counselors, a professional development program was formed to address three main areas of interest: The improvement of core research abilities, the development of skills required for transition from academia to industry, and the necessity of projecting a professional disposition in the workplace. The graduate students organized a yearlong series of workshops in which university and industry professionals addressed each of the three areas of interest. The program was evaluated through a combination of peer and self-reviews, writing improvement rubrics, and industry representative criticisms. The results showed not only a high degree of satisfaction among the graduate student population, but also a general improvement of skills in each of the three main focus areas. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.