Past Conferences

2009

The Inaugural UC San Diego PhD Career Conference was held on May 16, 2009 and was an amazing success with 130 of the university's top, PhD students and 25 PhD alumni panelist in attendance. 

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Penny Rue, welcomed the students and Sandra Dijkstra (PhD, ’76 Literature) Founder, and President of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency gave a inspiring and practical talk titled “The Wealth of Opportunities in Your UCSD [PhD] Degree.”
                                                                 
Popular PhD cartoonist, of Piled Higher & Deeperfame, Jorge Cham (PhD mechanical engineering, Stanford) concluded the conference with a keynote address attracting an additional 300+ UC San Diego PhD and Master’s students. 

Upon conclusion of the keynote address, all registered students, panelists and guests gathered on the Price Center’s East Ballroom Patio for a networking reception to continue conversations and build upon relationships initiated during the day-long event.

*Overheard at the conference:

• “I enjoyed the [So You Want to Become a Professor] and post-doc panels I attended. They gave me a better idea of the process required to follow that route.”
  
  
• “I found the professors' explanations of what search committees are looking for the most useful. It gave me insight into how I should design my application.”
  
  
• “I liked the postdoc panel - good to get info from people who have lived through it. I also liked that I was able to network during the lunch - with one of the postdoc panelists - and ended up sitting with some of the professors, which allowed me to ask a lot of questions.”
  
  
• “I really enjoyed the "So You Want to Be a Professor" panel; I thought the speakers were really candid and helpful. It's the sort of brutal honesty that you usually only get once it's too late to do anything about it.  I feel like I got a secret glimpse into a meeting of a search committee.”
  
  
• “The panel involving professionals from outside academia was particularly useful, as their perspective is generally difficult to come by in the academic environment.”
  
  
• “The panel discussions on career planning/transitioning were very helpful. It is great to hear the perspectives of people who are going through or have already gone through the same process I am considering.”
  
  
• “The ‘Beyond Academia’ discussions on career planning/transitioning were very helpful. It is great to hear the perspectives of people who are going through or have already gone through the same process I am considering.”

*Administered and compiled through UC San Diego Student Voice, 2010