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Welcome

Welcome to the July 2022 edition of the Science Graduate Career Services newsletter. Each newsletter will collect the latest resources, job opportunities, articles, career development supports and more—all in one easy to find place.

This month features more professional development opportunities for the summer, academic writing help, and some networking basics.

Looking for extra support as a graduate student? Join the Graduate Mentorship Program!

The Graduate Mentorship Program (GMP) is a Faculty of Science-wide initiative connecting McMaster’s science graduate students with faculty and postdoc mentors. A mentorship is an excellent way to

• receive extra support on personal matters outside of your supervisory relationship

• receive academic, research and career advice

• increase your network and develop closer ties to the McMaster community

• increase social and academic confidence

Joining the program is easy—just visit the GMP website and fill out an application. The GMP is ongoing, so you can join at anytime.

Professional Development Opportunities

Useful websites to add to your job search, certificates, and more!

Save the date: MCGSS Summer Series July 18th - 22nd

MCGSS (McMaster Chemistry Graduate Student Society) will be hosting a Summer Series from July 18th to 22nd with talks from early career researchers and government and industry representatives. Each session will last 1 hour with a Q&A session to follow.

The Summer Series is open to students from any department or level of study and is an excellent opportunity to get your questions about jobs in academia, government or industry answered directly from professionals currently working in those areas!

For more information and Zoom links to any of the scheduled talks, please email MCGSS directly at gsamcgss@mcmaster.ca.

Find your next job opportunity in conservation with Work Cabin

Work Cabin lists internships, full-time and part-time positions from top employers in the conservation and environmental industries. Work Cabin features job listings from across Canada and is highly recognized as one of the country’s leading sources for conservation jobs.

Browse Work Cabin’s 20+ job categories or post your resume to their database by clicking the link below.

SCWIST opens doors for women in STEM

SCWIST (The Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization providing opportunities and support to women in STEM. In addition to promoting the participation of women in STEM, SCWIST features

• a job board with STEM positions from across Canada

• regular networking events and workshops

• IWIS (Immigrating Women in STEM) - a program with events, workshops and resources for women in STEM who are newcomers to Canada

In addition to the above, SCWIST provides special benefits for members such as networking opportunities, skill development workshops and savings on SCWIST events. As a student, you are entitled to a discounted rate of $25 for 1 year. Follow this link for more information on memberships.

Explore careers in Earth Science with the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences

The Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences (CFES) represents Earth Sciences related associations and societies across Canada.

CFES takes an active role in promoting careers in the Earth Sciences by hosting informative resources such as career profiles and a self-assessment tool to compare your skills to the requirements of a typical position in the Earth Sciences.

Visit the website below to start exploring today!

Water Without Borders’ combines science, service, policy, and practice in an innovative program for graduate students

Water, health, and the environment are the core issues that Water Without Borders (WWB)—a joint graduate certificate program in collaboration with United Nations University—aims to address. There is a tremendous need for this research, which investigates issues of water security and water resource maintenance and requires multiple disciplines of knowledge to work together.

This program is open to any masters or PhD level student currently attending McMaster and requires the completion of 3 courses. If interested, visit the website below to apply. The deadline for applications is July 15, 2022. There is limited enrolment, so act fast!

Learn about the latest biotech innovations in this unique webinar

Science.org is hosting a webinar sponsored by the BioInnovation Institute titled ‘Leveraging life science innovation to benefit planetary and human health’. The webinar’s panelists will discuss the recent impacts that biotech research has had and explore the challenges currently facing the field.

The webinar takes place Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 12 noon.

Writing Resources

Resources for improving your academic writing. For help with cover letters, check out ‘Cover Letter Writing Tips’ in last month’s newsletter.

Writing supports available for graduate students

McMaster’s School of Graduate Studies has collected valuable writing resources specific to graduate students for your next academic writing assignment. Resources include:

• Scheduled appointments with a trained graduate-level writing advisor for guidance on your writing skills—bookings available through OSCARplus

• A thesis writer’s toolkit—tips for time management, writing, editing, and wellness

• A guide to writing abstracts

To access the above supports and more, visit the link below.

Write like the best with ‘Writing Well Is Hard’!

Do you often find yourself comparing your writing to the work of others? Well, comparison might be the key to improving your writing.

In her career advice column, ‘Ask Dr. Editor’, Letitia Henville suggests that writing can be enhanced by finding the best authors in the same discipline as you and comparing their writing characteristics to your own.

To simplify this process, Dr. Henville and a small team have developed ‘Writing Well Is Hard’—a free tool that allows you to analyze and compare your writing side-by-side with another piece of writing and receive feedback on metrics such as average sentence length, prepositions, and passive voice usage.

For a breakdown of the tool and how to use it, read Dr. Henville’s article ‘Writing well is hard: how to write like the best writers in your discipline’ and visit the Writing Well Is Hard tool below.

“We’re not qualified to place all writing on a linear scale from “best” to “worst”. Most of the editors I know would reject the idea of a single scale for all writing, or the idea that there is a single way to write well. Instead, we can make suggestions for how you might alter your text to increase its readability, persuasiveness, and efficiency” - Letitia Henville, Writing well is hard: how to write like the best writers in your discipline

Networking Basics

This is a brief overview of some basics to get you started with networking. For a more extensive overview, check back next month for an announcement around Fall term Career Service programming—including a Networking workshop!

Make your LinkedIn profile stand out

When it comes to networking, LinkedIn is always identified as a necessary tool. Whether you’re creating a LinkedIn profile for the first time, or already have one, here are 5 easy tips to follow to ensure you have an up-to-date, eye catching profile.

1. Have a Great Profile Picture - Your profile picture doesn’t have to be taken professionally. A well-lit headshot featuring your smile is often enough to get the job done.

2. Grab Attention with Your Headline - Your headline is a brief, specific summary of who you are and the position you are seeking. (Examples)

3. Elaborate on your Accomplishments in the Summary - Use your summary (aka the “About” section) to share more about yourself, your interests, and goals. (Examples)

4. Leverage Networking for Scientists - Make connections by joining groups that are relevant to the work you’d like to do and participate in group discussions.

5. Presenting Education, Publications and Presentations - Highlight your education, awards, publications, certifications, and skills (LinkedIn features a skills quiz if you’re unsure!) in the appropriate subsections.

For a more detailed explanation of each of these tips, click the link below.

Once you’ve made a connection through LinkedIn, your next step might be an informational interview or a cold e-mail.