Your Professional Self
Your path is your own.
You decide what you care about. You decide the timeline that will work for you. We'll help you get there by putting yourself on paper, preparing for interviews, and the other items between now and then. You got this.
Don't forget about your university's writing center and career center (Portland State University Writing Center: https://www.pdx.edu/writing-center/. PSU Career Center: https://www.pdx.edu/careers/)
Get Ready: Establishing your professional self
Level 1: Getting set up; no experience needed!
Establish a Professional Email Address
Not your personal account. Or a university account.
What email address are you going to use for all your future professional correspondence? Make sure what you pick is professional. Avoid adding year of birth to the user name.
Establish your ORCID account
You are a unique scientist.
Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCID ID) that you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You can connect your ID with your professional information — affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more. It's free, easy, and you control content.
Explore ORCID
Head Shot Photo
You will need a professional picture of yourself that you can share online. Friends can take these. Family can take these. We can help you take these. Or use the timer on your own camera.
Ensure a neutral background where you stand out
Dress professionally, but as yourself
Be mindful of the context if you're using existing photos.
Get feedback from others on if your photo looks professional.
Remember NOT to put a photo on your resume or CV. Use it for professional social media, websites, conferences, etc.
Lab staff professional contract_draft.docxProfessionalism in your Experiences
It's hard to know if you're doing something right and what the expectations are for a shadowing experience, internship, or lab placement. EXITO alums in the Marriott lab drafted a document describing professional expectations for new members of the lab, though it is broadly applicable across contexts (Alvord & Paris, 2022).
Remember, mentors are learning, too. For transparency around the mentoring process, here's what they're given:
- A Guide to Academic Advising for STEM Faculty (National Science Foundation/Aspire; requires form completion, but it's a pretty comprehensive document; No cost)
Ultimately, it's all about professional communication
Level 2: Establishing Interests and starting to network
Individual Development Plan
Define your interests and what you know. You may not have all the answers, that's ok! These are frames to help you think through.
- American Psychological Society IDP (PDF)
- Electronic version with feedback via AAAS/Science (the "values" assessment is especially good): https://myidp.sciencecareers.org/
Explore Action Plans and IDPs
Mini BioBlurb
Website blurb about professional self. Often, it will be accompanied by a photo of you.
Robin Champieux's professional bioblurb formula: explain what you do, establish credibility [give examples], describe academic interests, brag a little, end with a call to action example, like how they can learn more about you)
Letters of Recommendation
Your word isn't the only thing programs go by - they also want to hear from professionals who have worked with you and have reason to think you'd do well in this opportunity.
Think early about three individuals and start cultivating relationships with them. When you're ready, ask them if they could write you a strong letter.
Explore Letters of Recommendation
Putting yourself out there
How to Network
A guide to successful networking: Getting started with networking and maintaining connections.
Explore How to Network
Interviewing
An interactive assessment of how well you'd fit with a program, job, or organization-and vice versa.
Explore Interviewing
LinkedIn
This is where many employers are starting to look. You can direct folks to your ORCID page to make it easy to maintain.
Just set it up so there's a landing page for you. You exist in science!
Use your professional email address to make logging in easy.
Get Set: Evidence of Preparation
Level 3: Putting your Professional Self on Paper
There are a million ways to highlight your best self professionally, and it can be overwhelming to know what's worth your time and how to do it. Read on to see some of our recommendations for the best and most helpful things to help you show the world how great you are!
CV overview.pdfCV (Curriculum Vitae)
A long list of professional experiences (paid or not), achievements, and skills; you define your profession. Everything you've done that matters to it. Most often used in universities. You don't need to get far at all - but first step is to create the start of the document so you have something to drop items into it as you go.
- Level 1 Goal: Create the document; add your name and education
- Later:
Explore CVs
Personal Statements
What experiences led you to apply for this next professional step? What makes this program a good choice for your interests, needs, and goals? What do you want to do with this experience or degree?
Explore Personal Statements
E-Portfolios
Two different topics are covered here: application portfolios and personal websites/professional social media.
Explore E-Portfolios
Cover Letters
Highlight the ways your skills and experiences match what the employer is looking for in the job.
Explore Cover Letters
Go!: Doing research & getting funding for next steps
Evidence of Research Preparation
You're doing it! Kudos! Here are the Hallmarks of Success that NIH has for EXITO scholars and undergraduate researchers in general. They're a good estimate of what training programs will want to see and develop in their trainees. These are some things that you can show in your professional portfolios
Scientific Presentations
Give a presentation about your work. Often you'll start by writing an abstract of what it's about.
Conferences | Student Symposia | Talks
Explore Abstracts
Don't forget there are lots of ways to show you're developing in the area:
Professional development sessions
Internships and shadowing
Certifications and trainings
Public education and training materials
Leveling up: Next steps in research
Get fellowships and grants to continue your work! Explore finding funding!
NIH Commons ID (or NSF)
Register for a username (called a commons ID with NIH; NSF has its own ID registration).
EXITO helps their scholars set it up a NIH commons account, typically in Induction. You likely already have this and may be worth doing an email search for it.
NCBI Bibliography
You can record your presentations and other CV items in a centralized place that allows you to build funding documents more easily later.
Explore My NCBI through the National Library of Medicine
NIH Biosketch
Down the road, this will help you get grants to stay funded. It shows your qualifications. You will need a biosketch (biographical sketch) for grants and training grants. You can now set it all up online!
The Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv), which serves as an interagency system designed to create biosketches for multiple federal agencies. SciENcv pulls information from available resources making it easy to develop a repository of information that can be readily updated and modified to prepare future biosketches.
Explore Biosketches on SciENcv
Above and beyond
Personal Website
You can create your own website, for free, using Google Sites, Wix, or other platforms.
Some examples:
Angela Ozburn (OHSU researcher; behavioral neuroscience)
Lisa Marriott (OHSU researcher; public health)
Peer mentor Shanthia Espinosa also has a BEAUTIFUL personal site.
Metrics
How do you know your reach? There are research metrics used to understand impact. You won't need this until way later, but it's interesting for understanding how scientists determine "impact"
Page by Medina Lamkin and Lisa Marriott. Last updated November 3, 2022