4 Tips to Achieve Your New Year’s Career Resolutions

The new year often brings reflection and resolutions in all aspects of our lives, including our careers. Following through on these career resolutions can sometimes feel daunting, but there are some simple things you can do to get started:

1. Keep your resume and LinkedIn profile focused.

These days people are often trying to say a lot in their resumes or on career sites like LinkedIn. It’s understandable to feel you need to say a lot in order to cover every possible contingency. But resumes and LinkedIn profiles are storytelling tools, and it’s important to focus your story. Highlighting field- and job-specific keywords is a great way to make it easier for potential employers to figure out if it’s a good match. At the upcoming “Build your All Star Resume and LinkedIn Profile” event and webinar on Monday, February 11, Josh Henkin, PhD can teach you to build a strong LinkedIn profile.

2. Explore your prospective field before applying for a specific job.

An informational interview is one of the least utilized tools for job seekers looking to explore potential careers. Informational interviews allow job seekers to learn about a field, get advice on a similar field, and network. On Tuesday, February 5, Dr. Rebecca Nebel is hosting “Using Informational Interviews to Find Your Dream Job,” a webinar in which she will offer advice for using informational interviews to explore your career options.

3. Expand your skillset and save time by learning to code.

With ever-increasing demands on young scientists, it’s crucial to be as productive and efficient as possible with your lab time. A key way you can do that is by learning to code. Interested in learning how to automate tasks using the Unix shell; how to track and share work using version control; or how to write software in Python or R? Attend our course “Introductory Coding for Researchers” facilitated by Software Carpentry on Friday and Saturday, January 26–27.

4. Don’t wait, start flexing those grant writing muscles now.

Being able to write a successful grant proposal is more important than ever with shrinking university budgets and increasing competition for external funding. For that reason, students, postdoctoral fellows, and young scientists need to start applying for funding early. To learn about what funding is available to you and how to write competitive applications, Dr. Jaime Rubin will present “Grantsmanship for Graduate Students and Postdocs” on Wednesday, March 20 at the Academy’s headquarters.

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