Making a “Junk Drawer” CV

How can the things you normally leave off of a CV help you navigate the job market? What if you made a list of all of the highs and the lows of your academic journey? Kate Stuart explains the benefits of doing this, including:

• The key differences between a CV and a Junk Drawer CV.
• How to write your Junk Drawer CV.
• Why thinking about what matters to you is important for your career path.
• How examining the highs and the lows of your career will help you.
• What to do with all that self-knowledge in a job interview.

Our guest is: Kate Stuart, who is the Associate Director for the Office of Career Development ASPIRE Program within the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She coaches biomedical science PhD graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, coordinates the Beyond the Lab podcast and video series, and teaches seminars specifically on Cover Letters and Professionalism. Kate is a Gallup certified Strengths Coach and enjoys incorporating StrengthsFinder into career and professional development. Kate is also the Director of Strategic Affairs and Events for the BRET Office. Kate has been with the BRET Office of Career Development since 2012 and at Vanderbilt since 2007. Prior to her time with BRET, Kate coordinated undergraduate student-alumni career engagement with the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association. Besides spending time with her husband and children, gardening, and coaching elementary school basketball, Kate loves to carefully craft clever out-of-office messages to make emailers laugh when they miss her.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

• The Employability Journal, by Barbara Bassot
• Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
• The Designing Your Life Workbook, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
• Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists, by Peter S. Fiske
• Building a Career in America’s Community Colleges, by Rob Jenkins
• Putting the Humanities PhD to Work, by Katina Rogers
• Next Gen PhD: A Guide to Career Paths in Science, by Melanie W. Sinche
• Academic Life episode on leaving academia
• Vanderbilt Beyond the Lab Podcast series: https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/career-development/beyond-the-lab-see-listen/

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.