National Postdoctoral Association

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On a somewhat larger scale than a workshop series, a career fair or symposium is a chance for postdocs to interact one-on-one with potential employers, and gather information directly from them as to the requirements for future and currently-available positions. They can also be organised in conjunction with sessions offered in a workshop-style format. Using this format, postdocs get a chance to discuss aspects of their future careers, and gather information about the skills required to succeed. This type of symposium generally lasts half a day to a day, which allows time for a break and refreshments for both attendees and speakers. This section of the toolkit offers guidance on:

• Symposium Formats
• Running a Career Fair
  • First Steps in Planning
  • Logistical Considerations
  • Budgeting
  • Planning and Organization

Symposium Formats

When planning a career symposium, the first issue to be addressed is its format. The most common format is for a series of exhibition booths, hosted by representatives from companies, institutions and other groups, often with literature available, to provide information on careers and future opportunities. One feature an institution may wish to consider is whether there will be opportunities for companies to collect resumes (ie will there be job openings available), or whether the symposium is intended to provide only career guidance. In the specific cases of pharmaceutical or industrial companies, a recruitment drive versus a career guidance event may mean that a different representative of the company will be present as an exhibitor. When planning a recruiting drive style of career fair, there are many undergraduate and graduate school models to work from, and several good sources of information, contacts and potential exhibitors:

• Virginia Tech Career Fairs
• Purdue University Campus Recruiting
• UC Berkeley Career Fairs
• Columbia University Center for Career Education
• UPenn Career Services
• Stanford University Career Fairs
• Prospects (UK) Graduate Fairs

Science Magazine typically sponsors two career fairs per year. Details can be found at http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/meetings

The sponsoring institution should determine whether there will only be exhibitors and recruiters, or whether the symposium can be held in conjunction with a series of discussion forums/workshops. These could consist of either plenary (of general interest to all attendees) or breakout style sessions (specific issues that will be of interest to a fraction of the attendees), or both during a symposium. In addition, a single speaker could host these sessions, or alternatively several could be involved in a panel discussion about their specialist topic. Such a career symposium for biomedical scientists is held every two years at NYU School of Medicine, for New York City area graduate students and postdocs:

What can you be with a PhD?

Running a Career Fair

This section is intended to provide an outline of the factors to consider when planning and running a career symposium or job fair. It covers many of the organizational aspects, as well as hints and tips for keeping everything on schedule, whatever the size of event an institution may be hosting. For some back-up advice, there is a useful pair of articles in Science’s Next Wave about organizing career development workshops, as much of the advice (while on a smaller scale) is very relevant.

A useful checklist of the steps and timeline for planning a conference or career fair, distributed as part of a 2006 NPA Annual Meeting workshop, can be downloaded here: Conference and Event Planning Checklist.

First Steps in Planning

As early as possible, the sponsoring institution should solicit interest and support from colleagues and departments internally, as well as other institutions and local organizations that may have a vested interest in this type of event. This will help with two things: firstly, a well-planned budget can be put together for the event if more supporting groups are involved from the start, and there may be more choices from which to select an appropriate venue for the projected number of attendees.

An outline sketch of the topics to be addressed should be decided at the outset. Once this has been addressed, then a list of potential invitees can be put together, both for booth exhibits and for possible speakers. Help can be solicited from many sources for invitees; a panel discussion with people from different organizations, perspectives and backgrounds can give a lot more constructive information to the audience.

Potential Topics:

• Plenary session topics of general interest:
• Academic careers
• Industry careers
• Business or consulting careers

Workshop topics of specific interest:

• Postdoc to PI transition
• The academic funding process
• CV/resume writing
• Working in the non-profit sector
• Writing and publishing
• Careers in establishing policy
• Finding jobs in the US Government
• Reading and playing the Job Market
• Working overseas

Logistical Considerations

These types of workshops can proceed smoothly when presented by two or three speakers from different organizations or companies, giving a ten-to-fifteen minute presentation, followed by a panel discussion involving the audience.

Coordinating the best speakers, particularly if they are traveling some distance, will take some advance notice. For a large career fair (500+ projected attendees), five to six months ahead of time is a reasonable time frame to work with for these early steps.

Get help! Form an organizational committee, with administrators and postdoc members. It is helpful to designate people to take charge of various aspects such as contact information, confirmed speakers and notes from meetings. On the day of the event, these people can serve as well-trained volunteers, to assist with setting-up, and be on hand to answer a lot of the simple but inevitable questions.

Budgeting

Defining a budget is very important, and will depend upon what type of career fair is envisioned. For a small job fair consisting of exhibitor booths, and minimal refreshments, targeted at a single institution’s postdocs, the cost requirements can be quite low, and within the range of the host institution’s budget. Alternatively, for a full-day symposium requiring speaker travel reimbursements and lunch for up to 1000 registrants, hosting a career fair could cost in the range of $20-30,000.

For the latter style of career symposium, it is essential to solicit sponsorship and support from other sources. Other local institutions with postdoc associations, offices and/or graduate programs can be willing to support these events, so that their students and postdocs can participate, and should be approached to donate matching funds. Some companies and organizations can also be a source of financial support, depending upon their potential return for a recruiting drive, for example. Another source of support are commercial vendors, or suppliers of materials to the institution. Company representatives are often willing to co-sponsor an event, in return for an advertising opportunity for a new product at an exhibition booth.

Those career symposia with invited guest panelists and speakers will also need to budget for travel reimbursements, and for some career fairs a fine line may have to be drawn as to who can be reimbursed. Those speakers who are deemed “key” to the success of the symposium, or coming from outside the local area, should be given priority for reimbursement, but locally-based speakers may be entirely on a voluntary basis.

Planning and Organization

General:

• Maintain and routinely update databases of contact information and notes, both electronically and in paper format.
• Establish and coordinate deadlines. Many aspects have different deadlines, for example speaker confirmations and exhibitor registrations should be organized as soon as possible, while any catering arrangements are not necessary until about one month to six weeks prior to the event.
• Communicate regularly and share information. Security and other venue staff need to be aware of what’s going to happen. Inform all speakers and attendees of security and ID requirements.
• Avoid overload. It is much better to start small for an institution’s first event if any organizational pitfalls are unclear, or how many attendees will be interested.

Scheduling:

• Make sure all speakers, vendors and exhibitors have the most up-to-date information and timetables available. This will cut down on the number of unnecessary problems on the day of the event.
• Schedule regular breaks of time in between any workshop sessions. This serves two purposes: it allows people to digest what they have learned, and also permits attendees time to approach exhibitors and speakers for direct interactions.
• Don’t schedule more than two workshop sessions at the same time. Most attendees are likely to have a wide range of career interests, and therefore will want to participate in several different sessions.
• Assign moderators to all panel discussion workshops. A moderator serves many useful functions such as introducing speakers, keeping track of time, and fielding audience questions.

Registration and Advertising:

• Online registration is a very effective tool for getting feedback. Regular monitoring of the simple demographics of registrants will give information about any potential audience that have not been reached effectively, and allow coordination of details such as parking and catering.
• Timing the advertising for the event really depends upon its size and how many attendees the hosting institution is expecting. About three months ahead of a large event is a good starting point. Both e-mail and flyer advertising are very effective, and sending information to departmental administrators and Deans is a good way of reaching different schools. Be sure to include detailed directions to any event location.

One month to go and counting:

• Organize audio-visual requirements and aids with the host institution and event speakers.
• Coordinate any catering requirements. If the symposium covers lunch for participants, don’t forget to accommodate dietary requirements in any registration forms. Accompany any session breaks with snacks and drinks to keep people from wandering too far.
• Arrange parking availability for participants who are traveling by car.
• Compile an event folder for attendees. Include the finalized schedule, any handouts from speakers, maps, room numbers and locations. On the day of the event, post directional signs to guide attendees to the right places.

And finally:

• Assessment of the final product is critical to understanding its success or failure. Event folders should contain an evaluation form, to be turned in by attendees before they leave, and participants should be encouraged to e-mail with follow-up comments regarding ideas for improvement and future subject material.

These guidelines may sound like a lot of work, but this level of effort will result in many fewer headaches closer to the day, and the event itself will run much more smoothly. This will increase the level of satisfaction of the attendees, the speakers and exhibitors, the administration of the host institution, and any event co-sponsors. This will all translate into their willingness to be involved in repeat events, and the professional reputation of the host institution.