Postdoctoral Appointees - Training and Development

Development Discussion with Advisor

Each new postdoc should fill out a “Postdoctoral Initial Discussion Form” with his or her advisor. This is an opportunity to define career objectives, discuss how this postdoctoral appointment and its related research focus can contribute to those objectives, and identify opportunities for professional development while at Argonne .

Performance Evaluation Process

On or around their anniversary date, all postdocs are required to complete a “Performance Evaluation Form”. This is an excellent opportunity for postdocs to summarize their accomplishments and future plans and for Division management to provide valuable feedback on both areas of strength and areas of potential growth.

Seminars

• Survival Skills for Career Success - Packaging Your PhD to Find a Job (HR 406)
• Outline
• Non-Academic Careers
• Survival Skills Workshop
• Careers in Industrial Crystallography
• Survival Skills for Career Success - Multi-Discipline Collaboration (HR 407)
• Collaboration - M.M. White
• Development of Collaborations through Scientific Discussions at Meetings in Interesting Places - R. Winans
• The Wire Development Group (WDG): Teaming Up to Make High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) Wire - V. Maroni

Courses & Workshops

Argonne encourages postdocs to take advantage of the many classes and workshops offered at the Laboratory. Some courses many postdocs find valuable are listed below:

• The Art of Effective Feedback
  The goal of feedback is to ensure employee success in achieving the goals and objectives of the work group, division, and Laboratory. Feedback is like a compass – it can reinforce people to continue doing the right thing or redirect them to get back on track. Many of us dislike giving and receiving feedback, especially if it's a difficult conversation when things are not going well and need to change. Develop productive and positive approaches that can increase your confidence when you give or receive feedback.
• Cross-Cultural Communication
  Argonne 's multinational character brings the strengths of the best scientific and technical minds and a diversity of cultural backgrounds that contributes to the vibrant nature of the Laboratory. That multi-national character can also bring with it a set of communication challenges. This lecture will present some of the communication norms that vary from culture to culture and with which cross cultural communicators need to be familiar to increase communication and decrease misunderstanding.
• English as a Second Language (ESL) Series
  Argonne 's rich cultural diversity attracts employees from all over the world. While many employees for whom English is not their first language have an excellent command of English, some could benefit from additional training. English as a Second Language helps non-native English speakers improve writing, language fluency, and conversational self-confidence in their professional and social interactions here at the Laboratory.
• Presentation Skills
  The ability to present ideas and information at meetings, conferences, and seminars is an essential career skill for many persons at the Lab. Increase your success and confidence as a presenter by learning and practicing techniques to look, sound, and feel confident, organized, and effective. Apply techniques for planning and organizing your information in a targeted message for your audience. Enhance your presentation by applying the fundamentals for effective slide design. Develop an approach for handling Q&A, even for the most difficult questions. Practice delivery methods that add value to your presentation and help overcome some of the natural nervousness when speaking before a group.
• Scheduled Courses

Brown Bag/Guest Speaker Presentations

These gatherings provide an opportunity for postdocs to socialize, network, give presentations on their work at Argonne, and attend career development presentations by Laboratory management, former Argonne postdocs, and other guest speakers.

Below are some presentations given during the Post-Doc Survival Skills Series:

• LDRD
• A Tale of Two LDRDs
• The Laboratory-Directed Research & Development Program ("LDRD") at Argonne National Laboratory
• Surviving that First Internal Proposal Submission at ANL
• What is a Good LDRD?
• Visibility
• Patent and Perish?: How to Publish, Patent, and Survive
• Communicating Science to the News Media
• Doing Business with the News Media
• Building Visibility for Post-Docs at Argonne and Beyond
• Creating Budgets for Grants

Announcements on the topics to be covered and location of the presentations will be posted on Inside Argonne and sent via the postdoc listserve, postdocs@anl.gov. If you have interest in a topic not shown here, contact Geralyn Becker at gbecker@anl.gov or Giselle Sandi at gsandi@anl.gov .

Online Toolkit for Postdocs

Science Magazine offers an online Career Development Center for Postdocs . One particularly valuable feature is the Toolkit for Academic Scientists , a comprehensive online career resource for young academic scientists. It addresses issues such as:

• Getting Hired
• Getting Funded
• Research Grant Sources
• Publishing
• Managing Your Time
• Managing Your Lab
• Managing Your People
• Tenure and Other Professional Issues

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute provides a number of resources for the development of early-career scientists (useful not only for the medical sciences careers, but for other scientific and engineering disciplines). The publications and links on this Web site can help new investigators "make the right moves" and assist those who take on the important task of providing early-career researchers with scientific management training.

You can download the second edition of “ Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty ”. On the same url, you can download a video of a keynote talk delivered by Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech. The video presents discussions about obtaining a faculty position and achieving tenure, leading a research team, mentoring students, and balancing research and teaching.

The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) website contains a wealth of information about obtaining funding, resume building skills and information on alternative careers.