The Emissaries for Graduate Student Diversity Program held an informational workshop led by five scholars: history professor Peter Guardino, Senior Assistant Director of Specialized Career Advising Jan Van Dyke, assistant professor in the folklore and ethnomusicology department Javier F. León, assistant dean of IU’s graduate school Yolanda Treviño and professor and chair of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies Valerie Grim.
Scholars advised minority students about interviewing, networking and professionalism in the job market.
Conferences and presentations are important for graduate students because the students are given an opportunity to establish themselves and make connections, León said.
During the workshop, León emphasized the importance of polishing presentations before conferences.
Guardino gave a presentation on interviews, advising students to “consciously be who you are, without feeling self-conscious.”
He told students to be enthusiastic about what they are researching and what they want to do.
The scholars gave students a walk-through of typical conferences and interviews, telling them what to expect.
“The beautiful thing about this is that it is a series of workshops where [students] will be able to continue to grow,” Treviño said.
Treviño shared growth statistics of career opportunities in different fields of the job market.
She highlighted the importance of developing “Ph.D.-transferable skills to non-academic careers.” These skills included ways to broaden skill sets to open a wide variety of career opportunities.
She explained that being multilingual opens up doors to potential employees that someone who only speaks one language may not have.
Van Dyke advised students to practice the interviewing process as well as “becoming perfectionists about resumes, CVs and other professional documents of yourself.”
She gave in-depth tips on how to perfect the essential paperwork of the professional world.
Grim shared with the students some of the trials and tribulations of her own growth in the professional world.
She offered pieces of advice concerning ways to thrive in graduate school and beyond.
“You can’t thrive in isolation, and you can’t grow without criticism,” Grim said.
She told students there will be times where they, as a minority, will face adversity.
She explained the importance of maintaining a professional demeanor when facing them.
All speakers emphasized the importance in becoming as refined and versatile as possible in research topics as well as personal endeavors.
They provided students with information about standing out in a crowd of people when interviewing and presenting.
After the speakers’ presentations, students were given the opportunity to ask questions and share personal experiences about the professional world.
The series is a semester-long sequence of workshops to help minority graduate students prepare and succeed in the job market.
“Hearing personal experiences and advice from these scholars that you don’t get in the classroom is so valuable,” Julian Carillo, a graduate student studying anthropology, said.
He said he feels the professional advice from people who have been through or are going through the academic and non-academic job search is as important as the material they study in the classroom.
The next event of the series will be Feb. 27 and again will be hosted with IU Latino Studies Program, La Casa Cultural Center, Latino Graduate Student Association and the emissaries for Graduate Student Diversity Program.
