Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive after my last post, it really means a lot. It can be a little hard to explain the ups and downs of my life as a job hunter/contractor. I do still feel quite lost, but I am trying to enjoy the journey. Today felt like one of those significant days on the journey. I'm not sure how to respond to any of it, so I will just throw it out there.
Some things that happened today:
I woke up early to finish part of a writing contract. Have I mentioned I am really digging my current instructional design contract? I promise to write more on that later, but yeah, it's going really well.
I was at the Hutch to interview a scientist about her job in academic
administration. Very cool job, and she is a very interesting lady. I
will be writing that up for the Seattle AWIS newsletter- I promise to
link to that later.
While entering the Hutch, I was passed by a professorially looking type. While I was filling out the visitor info, I noticed he approached a group of people centered around a young woman who was OmiGushing that she was soexcited, and sohappy, and so couldn't believe this was happening. I figured she must have defended or something. I wasn't paying too much attention until one of the photographers turned and said, "We'd love to get a picture of the two of you by your Nobel Prize." Why hello, Dr. Hartwell.
After the interview, I agreed to meet a contact for lunch in South Lake Union- this is the part of Seattle where most of the biotech and research institutes are centered, and it sits right on the lake. I was stunned to find myself sitting in a much too nice restaurant overlooking a marina and watching the float planes. This was a "what am I doing here?" moment. Turns out, this guy wanted my advice (MY advice) on this STEM program he is thinking about, and how it should be developed and what are the needs there. And he bought me that fancy lunch for the privilege of my opinion. Someone was schmoozing me!
I'm submitting an invoice for the most money I have ever made in a single two week period in my entire life. That's right, my time and effort are valuable.
As I said, it feels like a lot has happened. I learned about a whole new avenue for careers, I've decided I'm actually really loving my current line of work, I miss being starstruck by famous nerds, and somehow, despite spending all week at home in my PJs, people find my opinions and my work valuable. Huh.
Showing posts with label outreach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outreach. Show all posts
Friday, June 29, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Getting press for volunteering
Without a doubt, the best thing I have done as a job hunter was to volunteer with my local science center. It's provided me with many more opportunities then I could have imagined, because I ended up working with a phenomenal team- motivated, bright, well connected, clear vision- who for some reason, really needed what I had to offer at the moment that I walked into their office. As a result, a lot of fantastic work was done (sure, I contributed some, but it wasn't going to be lame without me), and they are very willing to give me credit and props for adding my unique perspective. The nature of their work also requires a little more... contact with media outlets and others in the field. A couple weeks ago, I gave an interview to someone writing a book about informal education. I gave a quote to someone writing an article about the work that led to the funtastic trip to NySci.
It's all been a lot of fun, no doubt, but I think it is really helpful to get plugged into to professionals who are willing to promote me for what I have to offer professionally. I know many scientists feel uncomfortable with self-promotion, either that it feels inappropriate or just difficult to get the chutzpah to do. One way around this is to work with people who will do it on your behalf. And, one way to encourage folks to do this for you, is to do it for them as well. You can give recommendations on LinkedIn, or just talk up your collaborators who have great ideas AND stick to their deadlines. Perhaps I'll have more ideas on this later, but sharing positive experiences is a really helpful way to add some content to your networking.
It's all been a lot of fun, no doubt, but I think it is really helpful to get plugged into to professionals who are willing to promote me for what I have to offer professionally. I know many scientists feel uncomfortable with self-promotion, either that it feels inappropriate or just difficult to get the chutzpah to do. One way around this is to work with people who will do it on your behalf. And, one way to encourage folks to do this for you, is to do it for them as well. You can give recommendations on LinkedIn, or just talk up your collaborators who have great ideas AND stick to their deadlines. Perhaps I'll have more ideas on this later, but sharing positive experiences is a really helpful way to add some content to your networking.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Day 2- STEM Economy
Today was the wrap up of the STEM summit. I heard about STEM oriented K-12 school, STEM/Maker-inspired school programs, and novel ways of building post-secondary education. I worked with a team to develop a short curriculum that could be used in a variety of different ways to teach math, physics, Project Management and communication using a hydroelectric power generation. I even got to be on the STEM Education panel, representing informal education.
We talked about the role and importance of STEM Education, how to make that more engaging and where to draw resources from. What did I choose to highlight? I have feelings on all those things- I talked about how all citizens in a democracy need to have a basic understanding of STEM, including the ability to continue to learn, in order to contribute to our national needs. I talked about how at the Girls Math & Science Program we have refined techniques for getting girls to engage in STEM, and why this (ie- compassion) might work well for other underrepresented groups as well. We know we need to provide mentors who look like our girls, to explain the pathway to entry, and to provide an external motivation (studying hard today opens opportunities in your future, like good pay and fun work). Girls like collaboration, so that's a huge part of how we structure events and activities.
And finally, I talked about drawing on students to be mentors. As I said, my boss doesn't know as much as I do about the workforce right now- he's had his job for 20 years. Someone did a rough estimate that each of these STEM high schools has a graduating class of 150 students every year, that it would be just impossible to find the mentors for all those students. I would argue that one mentor can have relationships with multiple mentees, and that borrowing from people who are farther along in the pipeline (post-docs, grad students), helps those of us in training remember why we got on this crazy train in the first place. My panel also talked a bit about the Grand Challenges in Engineering and Global Health, but I'd like to talk about that more later.
If you are a teacher who wants to bring more hands-on, inquiry-based or different teaching materials into your classroom, here are some of the interesting resources I learned that are available:
Braincake.org- the Girl's Math and Science Partnership that I work with- we have educational games and materials
Fwee.org- Energy related resources
TransitionMathProject.org- changing our math-phobic culture
Firstwa.org - Science Competitions in Washington (I believe this is a national program)
We talked about the role and importance of STEM Education, how to make that more engaging and where to draw resources from. What did I choose to highlight? I have feelings on all those things- I talked about how all citizens in a democracy need to have a basic understanding of STEM, including the ability to continue to learn, in order to contribute to our national needs. I talked about how at the Girls Math & Science Program we have refined techniques for getting girls to engage in STEM, and why this (ie- compassion) might work well for other underrepresented groups as well. We know we need to provide mentors who look like our girls, to explain the pathway to entry, and to provide an external motivation (studying hard today opens opportunities in your future, like good pay and fun work). Girls like collaboration, so that's a huge part of how we structure events and activities.
And finally, I talked about drawing on students to be mentors. As I said, my boss doesn't know as much as I do about the workforce right now- he's had his job for 20 years. Someone did a rough estimate that each of these STEM high schools has a graduating class of 150 students every year, that it would be just impossible to find the mentors for all those students. I would argue that one mentor can have relationships with multiple mentees, and that borrowing from people who are farther along in the pipeline (post-docs, grad students), helps those of us in training remember why we got on this crazy train in the first place. My panel also talked a bit about the Grand Challenges in Engineering and Global Health, but I'd like to talk about that more later.
If you are a teacher who wants to bring more hands-on, inquiry-based or different teaching materials into your classroom, here are some of the interesting resources I learned that are available:
Braincake.org- the Girl's Math and Science Partnership that I work with- we have educational games and materials
Fwee.org- Energy related resources
TransitionMathProject.org- changing our math-phobic culture
Firstwa.org - Science Competitions in Washington (I believe this is a national program)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
STEM Summit- Day 1
For the next couple days, I am participating in a state-wide STEM Summit, aimed at K-12 educators, Community College and Voc. Tech schools. The focus of the summit is more Aerospace and Energy, but it is interesting to hear employers discuss the future of the workforce, and specifically their needs of the mid- and entry-level applicants. Just to be clear, I'm not participating because I think these people should be telling me how to get a job, but because I really believe that Science affords us the engine for innovation, and that STEM careers can and should be open to a wider range of the population to support a strong economy. That being said, I was pretty well baffled when I heard employers (Boeing, Tacoma Light etc.) saying We need people to enter trades! Please!
This certainly wasn't something I heard when I was in high school, but the modern "trade school" is very technical. That's why they earn such a solid salary (average in WA state for all "STEM" professionals, $76,000/yr in contrast to the state average of $55,000- and the jobs are dominated by those that require only a 2 year certificate). But the two major barriers for getting people into these jobs is perception and pre-reqs. Admit it- you kinda think trade school isn't brainy, or doesn't provide middle class jobs. But running a hydroelectric dam doesn't require a degree in engineering these days. Maybe that means that yuppies are paying for college degrees while thse seats at Trades Schools are being filled by those who can't afford it- but those students still need to have gotten a C in Algebra and be capable of learning and performing very technical tasks. Students who go through the two year program are prepared to make twice as much money as that prissy communications degree and in half the time. Not bad, right? We focused on this gap of perception and pre-reqs today- teachers begging for more info to distribute to their students about these very good jobs that don't require a 2400 SAT score, and industry begging the teachers to get those kids the science and math skills they will need to get into those programs. (I hope it was eye-opening for both sides, it was for me.)
Sure, the industry buffs would waffle a little on "what should we train the next graduates to do." The pace that technology changes in these industries is hard to keep up with for those working in it. It's nearly impossible to hone training programs to accommodate that level of fluidity. Ok, so you might not be able to a Nano-Circuitry-Informatics-Fitter Certification from your local community college. But, they kept harping on the same skills that would make a person succeed in the long run at any level.
This certainly wasn't something I heard when I was in high school, but the modern "trade school" is very technical. That's why they earn such a solid salary (average in WA state for all "STEM" professionals, $76,000/yr in contrast to the state average of $55,000- and the jobs are dominated by those that require only a 2 year certificate). But the two major barriers for getting people into these jobs is perception and pre-reqs. Admit it- you kinda think trade school isn't brainy, or doesn't provide middle class jobs. But running a hydroelectric dam doesn't require a degree in engineering these days. Maybe that means that yuppies are paying for college degrees while thse seats at Trades Schools are being filled by those who can't afford it- but those students still need to have gotten a C in Algebra and be capable of learning and performing very technical tasks. Students who go through the two year program are prepared to make twice as much money as that prissy communications degree and in half the time. Not bad, right? We focused on this gap of perception and pre-reqs today- teachers begging for more info to distribute to their students about these very good jobs that don't require a 2400 SAT score, and industry begging the teachers to get those kids the science and math skills they will need to get into those programs. (I hope it was eye-opening for both sides, it was for me.)
Sure, the industry buffs would waffle a little on "what should we train the next graduates to do." The pace that technology changes in these industries is hard to keep up with for those working in it. It's nearly impossible to hone training programs to accommodate that level of fluidity. Ok, so you might not be able to a Nano-Circuitry-Informatics-Fitter Certification from your local community college. But, they kept harping on the same skills that would make a person succeed in the long run at any level.
- Curiosity, passion, excitement for the field (which means staying abreast of those changes, be they in advanced manufacturing or rocket science)
- Project management, team work and collaboration
- Technical communication-"The only classes you take in college that are still relevant 5 years later are technical writing and Public Speaking!"
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Informal Science Education
Last week I was in New York at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) for the Design Make Play conference, which was a conference of Informal Science Educators and facilitators. As I mentioned before, this was a new field for me (informal science education), so I wanted to share a little about the field in general with you. Informal Science education is meant to be any of the learning that takes place outside of a formalized school format, from the Boys and Girls Club to playing with Legos. This was vaguely like what I had heard of called "Outreach" before- giving students positive experiences with science to encourage them to pursue that as a career path. But Informal Science Education is much more-so a field driven by educators, and has less of a specific purpose. Many folks from museums and science centers were there, as well as small organizations that do fun hands-on activities with children and adults.
The keynote speakers addressed the fact that kids spend most of their time not in school, and that this is time that they are still learning. They talked about the "leaky" STEM pipeline, only 2.4% of the adult population has a STEM career- but really is that bad? One of the themes of the meeting was not just that we need more trained scientists, but that what America needs is more innovators, people who can think scientifically and understand how to solve problems, work collaboratively and aren't initimidated by technical problems. Science isn't the only place that requires those skills, but it does provide decent training for these ideas. The conference organizers were aligned with the Maker Movement- you know, the people hanging out at Maker Spaces, Maker Fairs, Hackerspaces and their own little tinker shops who are finding ways to build things like robots out of vacuums, or paints out of household items.
You can picture how this would not only cultivate the skills of innovation, but give a young student confidence and perhaps help a student who is not gifted in the traditional sense realize that they are quite bright afterall. It's very feel good stuff. It also parallels the idea that if we need a more science literate society (say, one who will oppose cuts to NIH budgets and stuff), in order to have an informed citizenry who can address the complex and technical problems our country and and world are facing.
In the informal arena, the measures of success are quite different, and I noticed this immediately in the culture of the people at the conference. Many people took photos of presentations. I never figured out who the Big-Wigs were, since everyone was sharing with everyone. And being a conference about learning by exploration, everyone was very willing to jump in feet first to all kinds of crazy things and really share their enthusiasm. Yes, this arena is generally grant funded, and as I said, dominated by educators. But, when I mentioned that I was a scientist, people would flip! They LOVED that a scientist wanted to get involved in this stuff, and were really supportive despite the fact that all the education/assessment/etc. stuff was new to me. In my dream world, I'll have a solid job as a professional science somebody, and then get to work with groups like this to help them in their efforts to promote play a a tool for education.
The keynote speakers addressed the fact that kids spend most of their time not in school, and that this is time that they are still learning. They talked about the "leaky" STEM pipeline, only 2.4% of the adult population has a STEM career- but really is that bad? One of the themes of the meeting was not just that we need more trained scientists, but that what America needs is more innovators, people who can think scientifically and understand how to solve problems, work collaboratively and aren't initimidated by technical problems. Science isn't the only place that requires those skills, but it does provide decent training for these ideas. The conference organizers were aligned with the Maker Movement- you know, the people hanging out at Maker Spaces, Maker Fairs, Hackerspaces and their own little tinker shops who are finding ways to build things like robots out of vacuums, or paints out of household items.
You can picture how this would not only cultivate the skills of innovation, but give a young student confidence and perhaps help a student who is not gifted in the traditional sense realize that they are quite bright afterall. It's very feel good stuff. It also parallels the idea that if we need a more science literate society (say, one who will oppose cuts to NIH budgets and stuff), in order to have an informed citizenry who can address the complex and technical problems our country and and world are facing.
In the informal arena, the measures of success are quite different, and I noticed this immediately in the culture of the people at the conference. Many people took photos of presentations. I never figured out who the Big-Wigs were, since everyone was sharing with everyone. And being a conference about learning by exploration, everyone was very willing to jump in feet first to all kinds of crazy things and really share their enthusiasm. Yes, this arena is generally grant funded, and as I said, dominated by educators. But, when I mentioned that I was a scientist, people would flip! They LOVED that a scientist wanted to get involved in this stuff, and were really supportive despite the fact that all the education/assessment/etc. stuff was new to me. In my dream world, I'll have a solid job as a professional science somebody, and then get to work with groups like this to help them in their efforts to promote play a a tool for education.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Seriously professional networking
One skills I have been working very hard on these last few months is networking. I'm not going to claim to be a genius at it now, but I used to be the type to go to a conference and only talk to the people I went with. The horror. I had occasion to go to a professional conference recently, and since I am reading Keith Ferrazzi's book (Never Eat Alone, I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but these are the concrete skills I am trying to put into practice), I wanted to rock the networking. This was the conference I attended as a result of my volunteer work, which is in a fairly new field for me. Perfect timing, I'll try everything I can think of, and if I totally blow it, this isn't a field where I have a reputation, or even know that I want one, so I can be as brave and brazen as I can stand. I promise another short post about the content of the meeting since informal science is so fun, and Makers seem like cool people- but for now, networking.
Two days before the conference, a list of attendees was mailed out. My former grad student self would have been too harried to open this file, but as a job hunter, I've got nothing but time. So I flipped through and Googled just about every single person in attendance. I didn't get too creepy deep on the info gathering (in Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi recommends trying to figure out what hobbies potential contacts might have), I just wanted to know their job function, because I was trying to get a sense of the hierarchy of the meeting. Turns out, there were have a dozen folks from Major Funding Agencies, so I made a note and shared this with my colleagues. I also found some people who had overlapping functions to the program we were presenting, as well as people in my geographical area. Basically, I wanted to have some clue about the type of people who would be there, and to be prepared to recognize when I was speaking to someone who might be a good contact.
We were at this meeting to present a workshop, which was a lot of work to put together, frankly, so we really wanted to share our work with people who could help us in the future. We had post-card sized info sheets about the program (the Click! Spy School through the Girls Math Science Program at the Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh) which my colleagues were using like business cards. This conference was really great, being in workshops with people was very disarming, and it was a diverse group without a previously established hierarchy (unlike, say, conferences on virology). This made it very easy for us to walk up to the woman with deep pockets from Time Warner Cable, interrupt her email and invite her to our workshop. This turned into a friendly conversation about how Time Warner Cable got into the informal science arena (they started the Connect a Million Minds project, to connect parents and teachers to informal science resources). Honestly, I was shocked that this worked- she came to our workshop, and loved it.
I also approached several other people I didn't think I would have the guts to- like the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was totally cool. The two things that worked really well for me here were 1) knowing who I was talking to, and 2) Having something to say to them. Part one doesn't take much mastery, just prime yourself to recognize the types of people you'd like to meet. Part two is a little harder, and something I will keep working on, having a clear, succinct message that is sincere and interesting to the person you want to connect with. Not to ask for a favor, but to share relevant information.
I was not so strong on the second part- sure, talking about our workshop was a good fall back, but I really wanted to say "even though I am presenting this workshop for Pittsburgh, I am a volunteer there, and btw, I live in Seattle where I am looking for a job." This is a more complex message then I felt comfortable conveying. But I did make good contacts with an editor at a major publishing house (who might be able to connect me with more freelancing?), and a researcher at the UW.
Oh, but this brings me to the third thing that I had never tried tactically before- being emotionally honest. Usually, in this type of setting, I would have on my grown-up face, and speak in that mellow, 'professional' tone of voice like I am channeling and NPR jazz radio host. But, I want to be remembered, and I want to be remembered well- and I was having a crazy good time. So, yeah, I blathered a little about how excited I was about our workshop, and I bragged on some of my favorite exhibits in the hall of science and I said exactly how much I appreciated talking with these people (in one case, that came out "You are my hero!"), and every single one of the follow up emails I sent has been returned. Awesome!
Two days before the conference, a list of attendees was mailed out. My former grad student self would have been too harried to open this file, but as a job hunter, I've got nothing but time. So I flipped through and Googled just about every single person in attendance. I didn't get too creepy deep on the info gathering (in Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi recommends trying to figure out what hobbies potential contacts might have), I just wanted to know their job function, because I was trying to get a sense of the hierarchy of the meeting. Turns out, there were have a dozen folks from Major Funding Agencies, so I made a note and shared this with my colleagues. I also found some people who had overlapping functions to the program we were presenting, as well as people in my geographical area. Basically, I wanted to have some clue about the type of people who would be there, and to be prepared to recognize when I was speaking to someone who might be a good contact.
We were at this meeting to present a workshop, which was a lot of work to put together, frankly, so we really wanted to share our work with people who could help us in the future. We had post-card sized info sheets about the program (the Click! Spy School through the Girls Math Science Program at the Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh) which my colleagues were using like business cards. This conference was really great, being in workshops with people was very disarming, and it was a diverse group without a previously established hierarchy (unlike, say, conferences on virology). This made it very easy for us to walk up to the woman with deep pockets from Time Warner Cable, interrupt her email and invite her to our workshop. This turned into a friendly conversation about how Time Warner Cable got into the informal science arena (they started the Connect a Million Minds project, to connect parents and teachers to informal science resources). Honestly, I was shocked that this worked- she came to our workshop, and loved it.
I also approached several other people I didn't think I would have the guts to- like the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was totally cool. The two things that worked really well for me here were 1) knowing who I was talking to, and 2) Having something to say to them. Part one doesn't take much mastery, just prime yourself to recognize the types of people you'd like to meet. Part two is a little harder, and something I will keep working on, having a clear, succinct message that is sincere and interesting to the person you want to connect with. Not to ask for a favor, but to share relevant information.
I was not so strong on the second part- sure, talking about our workshop was a good fall back, but I really wanted to say "even though I am presenting this workshop for Pittsburgh, I am a volunteer there, and btw, I live in Seattle where I am looking for a job." This is a more complex message then I felt comfortable conveying. But I did make good contacts with an editor at a major publishing house (who might be able to connect me with more freelancing?), and a researcher at the UW.
Oh, but this brings me to the third thing that I had never tried tactically before- being emotionally honest. Usually, in this type of setting, I would have on my grown-up face, and speak in that mellow, 'professional' tone of voice like I am channeling and NPR jazz radio host. But, I want to be remembered, and I want to be remembered well- and I was having a crazy good time. So, yeah, I blathered a little about how excited I was about our workshop, and I bragged on some of my favorite exhibits in the hall of science and I said exactly how much I appreciated talking with these people (in one case, that came out "You are my hero!"), and every single one of the follow up emails I sent has been returned. Awesome!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Post-doc at the Museum?!
Let me get you up to speed, my train of thought went a little like this: I like thinking about how the public interacts with Science. One place where that is really positive is at the museum. I wonder if there are jobs at the Carnegie Science Center? Maybe an outreach position? Wait,...you can post-doc at the Museum?!
Awesome post-doc!
And that's how we got to here. Yes, this is a research position, and no, I don't know much more about it. Count on the Natural History Museum to make even post-docing sound like a fun adventure. And for the record, there are some part time outreach positions available at the Science Center. But does anyone know about what it's like to be a researcher at a museum?
Awesome post-doc!
And that's how we got to here. Yes, this is a research position, and no, I don't know much more about it. Count on the Natural History Museum to make even post-docing sound like a fun adventure. And for the record, there are some part time outreach positions available at the Science Center. But does anyone know about what it's like to be a researcher at a museum?
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