How my Graduate School Experience Prepared Me for a Career in Academia

 In my last post, I described the five major reasons why I chose to pursue a career in academia.  I knew that I wanted to pursue this career path when I entered graduate school, and fortunately, my graduate program was structured with the goal of producing well-rounded graduates who would be competitive in the academic job market.  Graduate school was rigorous and challenging, and while it wasn't always pleasant, it has shaped me into the academic professional that I am today.  Below, I describe six major ways that my graduate school experience gave me solid preparation for a career in academia.  

1.  Teaching experience

Part of my graduate student stipend came from working as a TA, and all of us graduate students were required to accumulate a certain number of teaching experiences before we graduated.  Since I realized early in my PhD experience that I wanted to pursue a career in academia where teaching was the primary focus, I strove to get as much teaching experience as I could.  While I did act as a TA for a couple of my professors, I also got to teach a couple lecture and laboratory courses on my own as the primary instructor.  I am really glad that I was able to accumulate a sizeable amount of teaching experience as a graduate student because it prepared me for the adjunct instructor job that I took right after graduation which in turn, prepared me for my current faculty position.

2.  Experience with presenting and publishing research

Research experience is a large part of graduate school, and I was required to gain research experience in both my masters degree and PhD experiences.  Most certainly, my masters thesis and PhD dissertation were rigorous research experiences, but I also helped my other graduate student and faculty colleagues with some of their research projects.  I presented at scientific conferences at least once per year as a graduate student, whether it was at a regional conference or a national conference.  And the peer-reviewed publications that came from my time as a graduate student involved papers where I was the first author as well as papers where I was a co-author.  These experiences not only "looked good" on my CV when I was applying for faculty positions, but they also prepared me for continuing these scholarly activities myself as a faculty member, and for helping my own students navigate their way through these experiences.

3.  A very challenging dissertation project experience

I will admit that I didn't fully appreciate my PhD dissertation experience when I was in the midst of it (see my previous post entitled, "How I experienced the five stages of grief while completing my PhD dissertation").  My dissertation focused on examining natural killer cell and stress hormone responses to acute aerobic exercise in women with a history of breast cancer, and it required that each study participant complete three separate laboratory visits.  The instrumentation and equipment that I used to collect participant data during these sessions was complex, and required a good amount of set-up and clean-up time before and after each session, respectively.  The blood samples that I collected during these visits had to be processed in a certain way afterwards, because some of my biomarkers of interest had to be analyzed immediately whereas others were to be analyzed later.  And speaking of these biomarkers, I had to learn (and become proficient in) multiple techniques including flow cytometry, cell culture, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in order to analyze and interpret my natural killer cell and stress hormone parameters that comprised my study's main outcome variables.  

My dissertation project was complex and very time-consuming (e.g. 12-hour days in the lab, late nights, weekends), and it took me a long time to complete the data collection phase. There were definitely times when I wanted to throw in the towel, or wondered if all this work was really worth it.  Looking back, it absolutely was.  The knowledge and skills that I gained through my dissertation experience meant that I knew exactly what lab equipment I wanted to purchase with my start-up funds that were given to me by my university when I was hired into my faculty position.  It meant that I could continue with that line of research as a faculty member, which provided new opportunities for the students in my academic unit, and led to new cross-campus collaborations with faculty from other departments.  I believe that my prior experience with this type of physiological research and biomarker analysis is one of the reasons why I was an attractive hire, because I brought a new scholarly avenue to my academic unit that hadn't existed previously.

4.  Exposure to diverse coursework

My masters degree is in Exercise and Sport Science and my PhD is in Human Movement Science, both with concentrations in Exercise Physiology.  As such, I took a wide variety of courses, including general human physiology, exercise physiology, statistics and research methods, sports nutrition, laboratory techniques, epidemiology, cancer pathobiology, biomechanics, and neuromotor control.  Some of these were one-semester courses whereas others were multi-semester courses.  Having taken a wide variety of courses as a graduate student meant that I graduated with a well-rounded knowledge base.  It prepared me for the adjunct instructor position that I took right after I graduated with my PhD, because I ended up teaching a wide variety of undergraduate exercise science courses in that job, which included biomechanics, neuromotor control, research methods, epidemiology of physical activity, and exercise physiology.  It certainly prepared me for my current faculty position because the largest component of my teaching load involves teaching physiology, pathophysiology, and exercise physiology courses to the Doctor of Physical Therapy students in my academic unit. And the statistics and research methods training that I acquired from both my graduate coursework as well as my graduate research, prepared me for continuing my own research agenda as a faculty member, as well as serving as a resource to my student and faculty colleagues who need help with their own data analysis and interpretation.

5.  My PhD program's doctoral seminar series

Once per week, all of the students and faculty in my PhD program would meet for our Doctoral Seminar course.  Throughout this course series, we learned a bit about grant writing, we presented research, we covered various professional development topics, and we learned about the process for applying for faculty positions, among other things.  For those students who were finishing their PhD and getting ready to apply for jobs, they practiced their research presentations (e.g. "job talks) in front of the seminar group in order to receive feedback.  Being exposed to these topics and experiences throughout my time as a PhD student were transformative and valuable.  They shaped and reinforced my desire to pursue a career in academia, and gave me an idea of what to expect when applying for jobs.  The grant writing exercises and research presentations that we did gave us opportunities for giving and receiving feedback on each others' work and our own work, which like it or not, is part of academia.  And getting feedback on my own practice "job talk" allowed me to make adjustments before I got to the job interview stage.

6.  Participation in a Future Faculty Fellowship Program

During the summer before my 4th year in my PhD program, I applied for and was selected to participate in UNC-Chapel Hill's Future Faculty Fellowship Program. This was a week-long intensive seminar that was coordinated by UNC"s Center for Faculty Excellence, and involved graduate students from multiple disciplines.  We engaged with topics and activities designed to improve our abilities as independent course instructors and increase our understanding of the roles and responsibilities of faculty members in higher education.  It was another experience that shaped and reinforced my desire to pursue a career in academia.

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The 6.5 years that I spent in graduate school were indeed transformative. They gave me a solid foundation which made me successful in obtaining my tenure-track faculty position, and becoming a successfully-tenured Associate Professor.  The grit, tenacity, determination, work ethic, and resilience that I developed as a graduate student have shaped me into the professional and person that I am today.  Graduate students, I know grad school life can be very challenging.  It takes patience, persistence, a thick skin, a willingness to let go of perfection, and a willingness to problem-solve your way out of tough situations.  Know that these experiences are training you for your post-graduate professional life, and they will contribute to your long-term success in whatever route you choose to take.

If you are an academic, what graduate school experiences to you believe prepared you for your current position?