How to take care of yourself today while also planning for tomorrow

How to take care of yourself today while also planning for tomorrow Share Share via TwitterShare via FacebookShare via Google PlusShare via LinkedInShare via E-mail Dr. Leah Colvin is the Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. Dr. Colvin has served postdoctoral scholars for a number of years as a member of the Mayo Research Fellows Association and as the president of the University of Minnesota Postdoctoral Association. These positions have provided her with broad experience in postdoctoral policies at national and institutional levels, postdoctoral career development in a range of academic and non-academic careers, and work-life balance for postdoctoral scholars.We asked Dr. Colvin how to best prepare for a career after graduate school and the timeline of when to do so.The first few weeks can be overwhelming for fruchtwein incoming graduate students. What do you believe is the most important thing they need to grasp to start off on the right foot?The first and fore most advice I give to anyone in that situation is to make taking care of yourself a priority. Make sure youre getting enough to eat, make sure youre sleeping well and getting in some exercise because its going to be very difficult focusing on your studies if your mind and body arent healthy to begin with. To absprache with the massive amounts of information flying at your face there is a technique called time flgeling and thats where you break up your day or study time into discrete blocks. One to two hours is a good timeframe for these blocks. And during those blocks, you focus on one specific thing. So Im going to read for this course and for my next block Ill maybe write my paper for this other course. Doing it that wayhas a lot of advantages, first, it helps you over a course of a week make sure you are planning enough time for everything you need to focus on, every course or task. It helps you break up your time so youre not spending too much time on one thing where your attent ion starts to drift. And then I always suggest in between your blocks, getting up, moving about, maybe a 3-5 minute walk or some yoga poses, getting a glass of water, something to refresh your mind and body. And then I also suggest building into those blocks time for self -care and other things that might distract you.I have a half hour block for dealing with e-mail and another half hour block for eating dinner. That really helps. It can increase productivity by 50-70%, by chunking out your time that way.When should graduate students start thinking of career planning?Career planning is really important and the sooner you get into it the better. The more work you do up front the less you have to do at the last minute when youre on the job search, and trying to finish up your dissertation, and trying to publish etc., etc. The more work you can do before it hits that point the better. To get into that I suggest doing an individual development plan. I actually suggest that for even firs t-year graduate students, because what this plan will help you do is set long-term career goals andone-year short-term goals that will help you make steps towards those long-term goals. Identify your skills gaps, skills you need to work on and then formulate a plan to actually address those skills gaps and meet your short-term goals within a concrete timeframe. The other thing this plan helps you do is to start a conversation with your mentor. Your research and graduate advisor is going to be the one who brings you the most opportunities as far as your career development goes. If theyre not fully aware of what your desires and plans are, they are not going to be able to help you as much. This helps you both be on the same page as far as career development. (For more information on setting up an individual development plan,click here)With all that is required from first and second-year graduate students (classwork, research, TA and RA responsibilities), what should students realistic ally be accomplishing now when it comes to career planning?My biggest piece of advice around that particular subject is that you have transferable skills, but not every graduate student has the lexicon to talk about those transferable skills. As far as going above and beyond, I actually think your academic training gives you a great skill set, and good publications,good records and a good broad base knowledge and specific technical skills. To go above and beyond you need to look at what you need to make that leap into a non-academic career if thats the path you end up going into. And we know the majority of graduate students and post-doc training do end up in non-academic careers. And so I suggest going to workshops put on by the graduate school, Career Services and the Office of Post-Doc Affairs and also going to individual counseling to learn how to talk about your skills in a way that people in different job sectors are going to understand. And that will help you stand out and ta rget yourself towards the jobs you want to get into.What would you tell graduate students who are hesitant to ask for help from career services?I would tell them that were here to help. If you are having difficulty making that leap, come in and ask us well help you. Really take the time to go to those sorts of events that are going to help you really learn about the different ways you can talk about yourself that are going to make you stand out above the crowd.CategoriesGraduate StudentsTagsCareer Search - Graduate Students