Application

The UKC 2023 Fostering Innovation in Rising Experts (FIRE) Symposium is where participants from both industry and academia will present and share their experiences, lessons learned, insights, and best practices in professional development topics. We invite working professionals with ≤ 15 years of experience, graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty to apply. We strongly recommend you become a KSEA member and pay the membership dues before applying to UKC FIRE to receive registration fee discounts. The deadline to apply is May 15th, 2023. 

If you wish to discuss technical topics in your field of expertise/research (e.g. cancer therapeutics in medicine, machine learning in computer science, battery science in chemistry, etc.), please instead apply to the respective Technical Group Symposium (TGS) via 1 page paper on the UKC website. You cannot apply to both TGS and FIRE, as the sessions are at the same time; choose one. You cannot switch between TGS and FIRE after applying. You must attend FIRE sessions during UKC if you apply to FIRE. However, if you are a poster presenter at TGS (Fri 7PM), you may attend FIRE sessions (Thu/Fri 4-6PM, Sat 8-10AM).

Professional Development Topic Examples

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• How I got a promotion/raise

• How I landed my dream job/internship/postdoc/faculty position and what I learned

• How and why I switched jobs/labs/companies/institutions

• How to negotiate salaries with managers

• Criteria to choose among job offers

• Unique career paths: ex. starting with engineering then working in consulting

• Returning to school after building work experience

• Balancing my passions with career realities

• Dealing with difficult situations with my manager/PI, co-workers/labmates

• Maintaining good mental health

• Overcoming impostor syndrome

• Why and what it was like to take a sabbatical from work

• Why and how I chose my major/lab

• What I am struggling with at school and how I plan to persevere through it

• What I want to learn and achieve from my dream job/internship

• Acing an interview

• Elements of a great resume and how to build your CV

• Improving presentation and public speaking skills

• Setting proper expectations and managing your manager

• Surviving layoffs and how to move forward

• Enhancing everyday productivity with AI tools

• Maintaining ethics and integrity under financial and temporal pressure

• Characteristics of an empowering leader

• Navigating the American workplace/university as a Korean/Korean-American

The application is divided into five sections:

I. General Applicant Information (<5 min): Collection of basic information

II. Proof of Student Status (<2 min): For students only, we require an upload of your transcript as proof of your status.

III. Participation Option (<2 min): Applicants may choose to present (with registration fee discount, travel/lodging/meal support), or not present (higher registration fee, no travel/lodging/meal support) at FIRE. 

IV. Presentation Avenues (~40min+): For presenters only, applicants detail their professional development lessons they would like to share at FIRE. Applicants may indicate their presentation avenue preferences, and are required to pay a $20 application deposit (refunded after presenter registers for UKC, or if the applicant retracts their application / decides not to register for UKC by May 29).

V. Additional Applicant Information (30min): All applicants indicate their career growth needs and skills they wish to learn about at FIRE. We also collect resume/CVs, photo ID, and attendance information.