Tag Archives: graduate school

Year-by-Year Self-Care for Graduate Students: Part 3 of 4

For Third-Year Students: This year is all about knowing when to plug in and when to unplug. With two years under your belt, you can not only identify your strengths but are also likely to be able to identify the people and places that make you stronger. Make this year about capitalizing on the connections you’ve made, and don’t forget to add a little something new along the way!

(Source: GotCredit on Flickr; some rights reserved)

Develop support systems.

After two years in your doctoral program you are likely to have been exposed to both happy and more trying moments. In those moments you’ve probably taken note of who was with you during those easy and hard times, and how they contributed to your experiences. Remember those people, and keep in touch with those who make you the happiest. Some of these people might be in your own research lab or weekly seminar. Others might be friends of friends who are not in graduate school, but manage to force you out of your apartment on a Saturday night on a strict “no-thinking-about-your-research” policy. Whether in your cohort or off-campus, these are the people who get you through. Know who they are and make time to be with them.

Take a vacation! Or just temporarily vacate.

Take a seat, or get moving...either way find time to relax away from work (Source: Willemvdk on Flickr; some rights reserved)

Take a moment, or get moving…either way find time and space away from work (Source: Willemvdk on Flickr; some rights reserved)

Sometimes a great getaway is just a bike ride rather than an expensive plane ticket, away! Remember to bring along your important people and hit the road. (Source: Kamal Zharif on Flickr; some rights reserved)

It is likely that limited finances and long hours of studying, teaching, data analysis, or conference preparation will all be viable reasons for not taking the breaks we would like to take. It is this writer’s opinion, however, that you don’t need to be 100% settled in life to take a 100% rest. When and however you can, build in time to get away from your program. Getting away does not necessarily need to look like everyone else’s vacation. There are, however two requirements: (1) no checking email (yes, I said it); and (2) leaving the vicinity that you currently live or go to school in. As long as your mind is not on work and you are off the grid, you are resting. For example, even if you do not have the option of going on a trip that requires spending money and a passport, you can still pool your options for going someplace new—even if it is only for a weekend.

Some doctoral students prefer to save for a one-to-two week trip. Others may benefit more from shorter weekend trips. Whichever way you travel, allow yourself the escape. The more able you are to take a break, the easier it will be to look forward to getting back to work with a clear head.

Editor’s Note: This is the third installment of a 4-part series. View part 1, dedicated to the first-year graduate school experience, and part 2, dedicated to the second year.

A Cog Neuro Student Nabs an Industry Internship

The author found himself interning here at Electronic Arts for 10 weeks one summer, thanks to a fateful TED-like video and a LinkedIn suggestion. (Source: nickstone333 on Flickr. Some rights reserved.)

The author found himself interning at Electronic Arts for 10 weeks one summer, thanks to a fateful TED-like video and a LinkedIn suggestion. (Source: nickstone333 on Flickr. Some rights reserved.)

Editor’s note on the term “internship”: Doctoral students in clinical, counseling, and school psychology may hear “internship” referenced in this post and immediately think of the yearlong field placement in a therapeutic setting that is required just prior to earning the doctorate. Here, author Stephen Gray refers to a different kind of internship–one that may interest students in science and research fields who are considering non-academic experience prior to graduation.

A leg up

Internship. It may be a strange word to weathered doctoral students who have done nothing but tirelessly toil away on research studies for years, but in a world where there are an increasing number of PhDs and a decreasing number of tenure track jobs, it may become something to consider as the job market continues to shift. And while the term may invoke images of demoralized undergraduates getting coffee for high level CEOs, rest assured that there are plenty of companies and organizations interested in taking advantage of the unique skills a graduate student in psychology has to offer.

Although giving up a summer of research may slightly delay the timing of your degree, an internship offers invaluable experience in knowing what research in the “real world” is like and may allow you to determine if it’s a good fit for you. Having an internship on the resume gives you a leg up compared to other industry-bound students when applying for jobs, and in some cases, may even result in a permanent job offer from the company at which you intern.

Finding my way into an internship

To be completely honest, I didn’t come into the summer before my fifth year as a doctoral student with intention of finding an internship – things just sort of worked out that way.

It started a few years ago, when I stumbled upon a TED-style online talk by Dr. Jeffrey Lin, the head of social systems at Riot Games. Dr. Lin, who has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Washington, spoke of the research Riot Games was conducting to reduce negative player behavior in the game League of Legends. As a passionate online gamer myself, the idea that I could use my skills as a researcher to study how people interact with video games was enticing.

Per Dr. Lin’s recommendation, I joined a LinkedIn group called “Games User Research,” and came in contact with dozens of individuals with psychology degrees who were now using their skills for the gaming industry. Desperate to get some hands-on experience myself, I made a post introducing myself and asking about opportunities for freelance work.

To my surprise, I received quite a few responses, although the one that stood out to me was a Consumer Insights internship at Electronic Arts (EA) in which I would be working for an individual with a PhD in social psychology. After submitting my application and a series of interviews, I was soon headed to Los Angeles to begin my summer as a researcher at EA.

My favorite part of industry research is its blistering pace…I was also fortunate to receive a hiring recommendation

Turning an internship into a potential job

The experience I gained was invaluable. My favorite part of industry research is its blistering pace; I was able to dabble in six different projects while I was at EA in ten short weeks. I conducted literature searches, analyzed large sets of survey data, and presented my results to stakeholders and executives. I was also fortunate to receive a hiring recommendation, meaning that I have a potential job waiting for me when I finish my PhD next year.

The industry world is not for everyone – there are plenty of students (and advisors) who scoff at the idea of doing anything but academic research, and that’s okay. For the rest of you who are on the fence about what to do with your degree, I would highly recommend seeking out an internship that fits your passion. Even you dislike the experience, it will provide critical information about the right career path for you.

Editor’s note: Stephen Gray is a PhD student in experimental psychology, focusing on cognitive neuroscience, at the University of Chicago. Stephen is completing a two-year term on the APAGS Science Committee.

A resolution for a new academic year

Approaching a new academic year is a lot like New Year’s Eve: It offers much of the same excitement, anticipation and hopes of good fortune that a new calendar year has come to symbolize. It’s also a time when we develop resolutions, consciously or not. We want to do well in our programs, we want the best for our clients and students, we want successful (and publishable) research and we want to be part of a thriving profession.

There’s one resolution that I think could benefit all of us in graduate school, whether student or teacher: being more open to receiving and delivering thoughtful, meaningful and constructive feedback. I am continuously struck by the stories I hear in which feedback is simply omitted or is delivered in a way that hurts rather than helps students. But such feedback is critical to our individual growth and development. After all, we are in school to learn and what better way to learn than through constructive feedback?

How can we as graduate students foster a culture shift in how feedback is delivered and utilized within psychology graduate training? Here are a few suggestions:

Listen like you believe. Obviously, not everything that is said to us throughout our training is going to fit with personal goals, values, and the way we operate as individuals. However, it is amazing what might be discovered when we are open to suggestions and areas of growth. You might just discover something that helps advance your career in incredible, unexpected ways! Listening as thought you believe, opens your mind to exploring alternatives and ultimately deciding what pieces fit for you and what does not. And on the flip side, when you provide feedback to others, whether they are peers, students or faculty members, deliver a message you believe. Be honest and genuine. If necessary, use the classic feedback sandwich structure: positive, constructive, positive.

Be concrete in your feedback and anchor it with behavior. We have all had experiences with vague feedback. For example, “You need to work on your professionalism.” There is no way to know what that means or how to improve it without concrete, actionable steps. So while providing your honest genuine feedback, be sure to anchor it. This also helps in delivering feedback in a constructive and digestible way. When you are receiving feedback, be sure to ask for and clarify the behavioral anchor so you know what to work on.

Set a timeline and check back in. Whether you are providing or receiving the feedback, it is important to evaluate your progress. Write down how you are going to incorporate feedback and set timelines where necessary to keep yourself on track. Enlist support and accountability from others if needed. Thinking over feedback and talking it over with those you’ve given it to is essential to continued professional growth and development.

Celebrate Accomplishments. When you have reached a goal of successfully incorporating feedback, go celebrate! Too often we keep our nose to the grind tackling one task after another chasing a moving cart. It is okay to stop, breathe and take a moment to embrace life through celebrating your accomplishments. Don’t forget to celebrate the accomplishments of others to whom you have given feedback! Some of my favorite ways to celebrate include taking a day off from working, reading a book for pleasure, going out to dinner or hosting a potluck with friends, going to the movies or indulging in a guilt-free Netflix binge!

I hope these steps help you to engage in the feedback process in a meaningful way. If you have more tips or an experience to share, we would love to hear about it! Sign up to be a guest contributor to the blog and share your story. Happy “New Year”!

Living at the Intersection: Reflections on the Graduate Student Experience

Finding a Cultural Identity: An Intersectional Autobiography

Guest columnist: Christian Chan, George Washington University

Writing about my own personal lived experiences is a meaningful action to extract, understand, and interpret the complex experiences of culture across my journey as a graduate student. I entered a professional journey as a graduate student in a Master’s program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and, later, a doctoral program in Counseling with a keen interest for developing more culturally competent interventions. What I realized most is the limitations of my own worldview, as I see through my own lived experiences and navigate my interpretation of privilege and oppression.

While I knew that multiculturalism and social justice were emphases of my journey and what I hope to contribute as an emerging scholar, leader, and educator, this interest evolved more than I had ever visualized at the beginning. I began my goal of starting a doctoral program with interests in multicultural counseling and supervision; ethnic identity development and socialization; intergenerational conflict; and acculturative stress. While those constructs still capture my interests and my view of multiculturalism, it was my own personal growth that grasped a largely missing component in the counseling profession’s research and practice. For far too long, I noted throughout my graduate training that there were still missing gaps in research and practice despite the major advances and emphasis to meet the needs of diverse populations.

My passion for intersectionality grew because I could no longer just view our treatment of clients within the limitations of cultural identities as distinct silos. What is the experience of a disabled lesbian Asian American cisgender woman? The intersections of these identities continue to grow in this discussion, but they are absolutely necessary if we are to grow as helping professions and enhance our paradigm of research. My own personal lived experiences rung through the curriculum. As a second-generation bisexual Asian American male of Filipino, Chinese, and Malaysian heritage, I also realized the intersections of my other identities as an able-bodied Catholic cisgender male who grew up in a middle-class family as the child of two immigrants. I sought for more questions and answers that moved beyond how privilege, oppression, and mental health are impacted by one identity.

Through these intersections, a pivotal moment in my doctoral program taught me so much about the negotiations of my own privilege and oppression. My initial driving force to enact multiculturalism and social justice into training, curriculum, and research was my own oppressed identities as an ethnic and sexual minority. However, my colleague confronted me about my perspectives of career development and social class. I stated that individuals could utilize their experiences from each position to hopefully move to another position. My assumption, however, is that not every individual has this choice, as they encounter several barriers in career development. I certainly have choices in my life due to my own social class, which prompted a negotiation of my own privileges. As I reflect upon those moments, I recognize that I must negotiate my privileges as lifelong learning with each step of my professional journey.

This column is part of a monthly series highlighting the experiences of students and professionals with diverse intersecting identities and is sponsored by the APAGS Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity and the Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Are you interested in sharing about your own navigation of intersecting identities in graduate school? We would be happy to hear from you! To learn more, please contact the chair of APAGS CSOGD (Julia Benjamin, jzbenjam@gmail.com) or CARED (James Garcia, jjg0136@gmail.com).

Year-by-Year Self-Care for Graduate Students: Part 2 of 4

For Second-Year Students: One year into graduate school, you are likely to meet feelings of adjustment with recognition that you are (somehow) only getting busier. Here are some tips on how to manage your new-found groove while facing even newer challenges and tasks–you can do it! (View Part 1 of this series, dedicated to the first-year graduate school experience.)

Change up where you work.

Studying may not sound like it has much to do with self-care, but after a year in a doctoral program it is as important to continue to stay diligent as it is to make time to play and have fun—this means it is it’s a good idea to match your growing focus with an occasional new discovery, such as a new place to hit the books! There are several gains associated with finding new study spots.

Many students like to find new and interesting places to hit the books (Source: Neo II on Flickr. Some rights reserved.)

Many students like to find new and interesting places to hit the books. Studying in various locations can help with focus and recall. (Source: Neo II on Flickr. Some rights reserved.)

Research has begun to consistently point to evidence that switching where you work or study can be helpful for your memory, concentration, and performance habits. In addition, finding different places to work familiarizes you with where you live, and can build in organic breaks to your work (for example, a coffee shop closing, the proximity of your local library to a friend’s house or movie theater).

It’s of course important to have a good work space at home and at school, but having other options may allow you to perceive working as less of an inevitable chore and as more of a chance to explore where you live while you develop more flexibility and resilience in your work style. An important disclaimer to this, however, is to be mindful of privacy issues in relation to data, clinical work, and teaching courses!

Begin to shift your focus from “student” to “trainee.”

You are not only a student but a professional in training–don’t be afraid to own it! (Source: University of Exeter on Flickr. Some rights reserved.)

Whether training to become an academic, a public servant, or to work as a clinician, your passion and commitment to your training is your first priority in graduate school. For first year students, this commitment can be daunting to focus on with such primacy amidst moving to a new place, meeting new people, and forging new professional relationships, all while managing a course load. It can feel counter-intuitive (and ultimately can be counterproductive) to try and immediately fully align your priorities to your research, clinical work, or other professional training opportunities during you first year. It may be wise to acquaint yourself with the level of difficulty and expectations around coursework in your doctoral program.

Once you have two terms worth of grades under your belt, however, it is time to make the sometimes awkward shift from over-achieving student to ambitious scholar. This means that caring for yourself while in training will mean caring about what you are there to be trained in.

Let go of perfectionism. Embrace the stumbles, risks, and uncertain steps forward.

By the time you are a doctoral student, it is likely that you are already a high-achieving student, and consequently the tendency may be for doctoral students to initially care more about their performances in their courses than anything else. You should find, however, that your advisors, supervisors, and mentors care about your professional development and scholarship more than they do about your grades. This means it will be up to you to manage coursework with your other responsibilities.A part of this management will mean letting go of the perfectionism common to aspiring graduate students and embracing the stumbles, risks, and uncertain steps forward affiliated with training on the doctoral level.

Uncertainty will not always make you feel good right away but it is far from your enemy. With your sense of self on one side and social support in the other, lean into your training and allow yourself some distance between you and your image of what it means to be the best student—you have bigger fish to fry.

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