Engineering Career Exploration Workshop Series
Welcome to the Engineering Career Exploration Workshops information page. This workshop series is hosted by the College of Engineering Office of Graduate Education. Please use the information provided on this website to learn more about these workshops and how to prepare!
Why You Should Attend
Engineering Career Exploration workshops are a series of career-themed sessions designed specifically for students pursuing advanced degrees in engineering. Each workshop aims to help participants better understand a particular career path, learn best ways to gain experience, plan critical milestones for development, and work with mentors to become a competitive candidate for a particular career field. These workshops complement other programs offered on campus focused on graduate student professional development.
Who should attend?
- Master’s students
- Doctoral students
- Professional education students
- Post-doctorates
Workshop Themes
Engineering Career Exploration workshops cover four major topics:
- Engineering Professorship at a Research I Universities
- Engineering Professorship Focused on Undergraduate Education and Teaching
- Industry Careers
- Government Agencies or National Laboratories*
*Limited career options may be available for participants who are not US citizens or Permanent Residents.
Fall 2022
Registration for this workshop is open.
Registration for this workshop is closed.
What to Expect
Structure:
These workshops are being held synchronously online, though each session will be recorded for those who are unable to watch them in real-time or want to watch them again later. The Engineering Career Exploration series consists of four workshop themes (see above). In each workshop guest panelists provide a short introduction, and then the rest of the time is devoted to Q&A format based on participants questions about these types of careers.
Please come prepared with your questions!
Panelists:
The panel provides insights on experiences you should have as a graduate student or post-doc to prepare for a career in one of the aforementioned areas and offers tips on making yourself a more competitive candidate. Panelists are often engineers holding an advanced degree with substantial experience evaluating and/or hiring applicants with graduate degrees in engineering. Having panelists from diverse backgrounds and a variety of professional experiences makes these Engineering Career Exploration workshops impactful for our student participants.
How to Gain the Most from a Workshop
- Have some knowledge of the career path you are interested in pursuing, as this will help you ask more valuable questions (Example: Read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about finding the right post-doc position).
- Write down 2 – 3 questions that you would like answered during the workshop. Ask your questions and listen to the answer if someone else has asked your question.
- Take notes. Don’t rely on your memory alone!
- After the workshop, discuss what you learned with friends and colleagues to get additional insight.
- Discuss what you learned with your faculty advisor or a mentor and outline a Individual Development Plan.