January 30, 2025: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Dr. Leslie McLees

Talk summary:

Academics are well-prepared to support students navigating an academic career. We tend to be less prepared to help students articulate their skills to careers and life outside academia. Often, graduate students feel overqualified for jobs or are so focused on their research that they are only looking for jobs and careers in that content area, unaware that the vast skills they develop in graduate school are highly sought after in the government, non-profit, and private sectors.

This talk will provide:

• ways of seeing the personal and professional strengths and skills that you have,
• some tangible and effective job-search strategies, and
• help you focus on what you can do 

The goal is to empower you to understand who you are and what you can do, regardless of where you are in your grad school journey.

Bio:

Leslie McLees is a Senior Instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon. She co-developed and co-teaches the UO’s first college-wide course that links liberal arts to career readiness. She has held workshops for undergraduates and graduate students to empower them to reflect on and realize the skills and strengths they develop throughout their university careers. After all, if we tell students they need a certain degree to be successful in their professional and personal lives, we should be able to show them how that degree contributes to that success.