Suggestions
Sonali Majumdar
Associate Director of Professional Development - connecting PhDs to diverse careers & challenges in society - strategist & designer of programs & processes - RNA biologist
Sonali Majumdar, PhD is a professional in higher education with a focus on graduate student professional development. She previously served as the Associate Director of Graduate Professional Development at the University of Virginia, where she led the development and implementation of PhD Plus, a program designed to advance professional development for doctoral students.15
Currently, Dr. Majumdar holds the position of Assistant Dean for Professional Development, likely at Princeton University.35 Her work involves empowering PhDs to create successful career paths and providing guidance in various key areas including Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Computational Biology, Economics, and Behavioral Sciences.2
Dr. Majumdar is also working on a book project titled "Thriving as International Scientists" to be published by UC Press.3 Her LinkedIn profile suggests she is actively involved in mentoring and educating graduate students, with a particular emphasis on professional development and career services for PhDs and postdoctoral researchers.46
Highlights
My latest piece on Inside Higher Ed's Carpe Careers column (work of Graduate Career Consortium writing group) is out today. In it, I advise graduate students and postdocs to lead with curiosity and creativity in their careers, as in research. In short: Careers in our times are non-linear & squiggly (courtesy: Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis)- full of uncertainties, but also opportunities. And squiggly careers favor the curious and creative.
How do we approach these squiggly careers?
- begin with acknowledging 'you don't know what you don't know'. get excited for the world of unknowns
- embrace curiosity & creativity.
- curiosity: cultivate systems-thinking, investigate factors contributing to macro and micro-trends & connections between them. -creativity: leverage the connections between factors that you find through systems thinking. Like Google Maps, create multiple routes to your desired destination/s, add a few pitstops that may lead interesting places.
- anchor your curious & creative pursuits by being problem-focused or issue-focused (e.g. climate change, global health), also aligns with your interest and values. Also, center job functions over sectors and titles.
- but, where is the time? you have to make time, consistently and over long-run.
#phd #postdocs #highered #professionaldevelopment #research #careerdevelopment #curiosity #creativedesign #systemsthinking
