The Postdoc Academy: Building Skills for a Successful Career

The Postdoc Academy provides skill development for postdocs as they prepare to transition into their next career step. Using inclusive, active-learning approaches, participants will build skills to (1) inform your approach to leadership, (2) build and supervise a team, (3) manage projects, (4) apply teaching skills beyond the classroom, (5) develop strategic communication skills and (6) prepare successful job application materials. Connect with other postdocs nationally and share your experiences within a second professional development MOOC built specifically for postdocs and created with postdocs. This course was created with funding from the National Institutes of Health grant number R25GM121257.

• Describe the key attributes of leadership frameworks and apply to a current or future role.

• Reflect on and practice supervision strategies you could use to build and manage an effective team.

• Apply concepts of project management to your own project or position.

• Describe effective teaching skills that are applicable in multiple workplace environments and apply them to several professional scenarios.

• Apply your assets and strengths to create engaging and strategic responses to common interview questions.

• Reflect on how to communicate your strengths to potential employers in the job application process.