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Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths

Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths. Gokcen Cilingir 12/02/2011. Who is Grace Hopper?. A ship at port is safe, but that’s not what a ship was built for. Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper

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Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths

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  1. Notes from the Grace Hopper Celebration 2011: Information, Job Opportunities, and Career Paths Gokcen Cilingir 12/02/2011

  2. Who is Grace Hopper? A ship at port is safe, but that’s not what a ship was built for. Grace Hopper • Grace Hopper • developed the first compiler for a computer programming language in 1940s • conceived the idea of machine-independent programming languages -> COBOL • popularized the term "debugging" (motivated by an actual bug removed from the computer)

  3. Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) • Presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) • The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry and academia.

  4. GHC 2011 • Gathered about 3000 technical women in Portland. • Included new investigator research forums, PhD forums, career development sessions/panels, technical speeches, poster sessions. • You can read session notes from their wiki page.

  5. Career fair highlights • About 100 employers from industry, research labs, and academia. • Lots of internship/job opportunities, check out this job booklet for more information. • Some attendees of the career fair: • Adobe, Amazon, Expedia, Facebook, Google, HP Labs, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, Twitter, Yahoo, Thomson Reuters,… • GE Global Research, Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (PARC), Advanced Technology Labs (ATL) of Adobe, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, A2Z Research and Development,…

  6. Rest of the talk… • “PhD says something about you beyond the particulars of your research” • A scientific perspective to job search

  7. PhD says something about you beyond the particulars of your research ! • It is important to know/to be reminded of what you’ll bring to the table having a PhD. • Why? • You can make sure you are gaining the skills you’re expected to possess • Knowing your strengths shapes the way you present yourself • You’ll gain most out of the activities you’re performing, having an “active” state of mind.

  8. Skills that you learn in grad school • Critical thinking • Ability to identify problems and being able to go deep into solving them • Ability to step back from the depth and detail and show how your solution affects the big picture • Communication skills- with people in and out of your discipline. • Time management skills for managing multiple tasks simultaneously

  9. Why hire a PhD? “PhDs become translators between academics and engineers, they built the bridge between cutting edge research and products.” “Critical and analytical thinking about problems can be a hard quality to find in product development work, which PhDs consistently demonstrate.” “PhDs can simplify complex things into something that business/product units can understand and work with” Dr. Monica Martinez-Canales, Principal Engineer at Intel

  10. Job search is a complex process “As a scientist, you are used to tackling complex problems in a systematic way. Finding a job is a complex process requiring a serious commitment of time and smarts.” • Find out what’s out there. • Read job ads, career articles • Find out what you want to do • Talk with people, request ‘informational interviews’, do internships

  11. What is out there? • How to find jobs in science/ research/ academia: • Your network • Career & Job Center of ACM • CRA Job announcements • International (UK-based)

  12. Can you go back and forth between academia and industry? • YES, but you need to play by the rules. • If you stay too long in industry, it is hard to get back into academia • Remedy: Keep reading papers and keep publishing • If you stay too long in academia, it is hard to get back into industry • Remedy: Stay up to date on the current climate in industry, keep your technical skills fresh

  13. Some facts about job search • Expect to send out at least 10 applications to get an interview • Start building your professional network early, company referrals ease your way into an interview • There are so many factors out of your control, so start your search early, be persistent

  14. Some tips for increasing your visibility/credibility • Keep your web presence up-to-date • Make a personal web page • Open a technical blog • Prepare a Linked-in profile • Participate in open-source projects • Check out github – social coding(!)

  15. Interview the company • Asking no questions may kill your interview. • Asking insightful questions demonstrate your critical thinking abilities • A Principal Engineer at Intel explained how she gives her decisions largely based on the questions one asks

  16. Highlights of technical talks • Anne Condon - Some How's and Why's of Programming DNA Molecules • Margareta Ackerman - Towards Theoretical Foundations of Clustering (here is a talk on this work delivered by Shai Ben-David)

  17. Resources • CRA-W workshop slide archive • GHC wiki • Mastering Your Ph.D.: Preparing for Your Post-Ph.D. Career

  18. Thanks for listening! • Any questions or comments?

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