Thread by @DavidJohnBaker

Just finished a 2 hour workshop for #sysmus20 titled "Turning Your Values into Value" aka a crash course in getting non-academic work for grad students in #musicscience I'll try to summarise what I said (all my opinions) in case anyone else is interested in the workshop!

TLDR Most grad students won't work in academia, but that's OK and I really wanted to brand of the workshop not to be this doomsday fear inducing stuff I see on my twitter feed every day. Of course the competition is stiff, but I just can't stand more doomsdaying.

There were five short (but intense) slide decks (should have been less but had to include it all). First was to show how step number one of getting work is to figure out why someone would even give you salaried job in the first place. We start with mapping out

how academia "works" (what's valued and why) then transitioned that mental model to investigate learning about companies. This sets the stage for really trying to be empathetic about why you should be hired by others. Note I say others as in other people and not

treating companies like faceless corporations (some are) but rather collections of people. You gotta show you get how it all works to be taken seriously. Next we talked about online presence and why I think that's important. Basically (like said in old blog) you

want people to know you before they meet you. Are you who you say you are? Can you point to examples of your ability? Would you be a good fit for the company culture (for better or worse)? It's always more important to show rather than tell what you can do. You say

you can program? Point to a blog where you talk about your code. Say you're a good communicator? Point to example of you talking or writing clearly. The idea is to make life easier for the sceptical hiring manager. We next talked about

Networking and why it's better IMO opinion to think of it as making more friends and why the best networking you can do is people near your academic age. Really tried to make it clear to respect other's time and expertise and that many people do want to help.

We then had a session on translating your work which was more an exercise in empathy and thinking what you actually want to convey in describing your research (talking in a way that conveys the magnitude and scope of your ability)

Lastly we talked about how to prepare for #datascience . IMO doing a PhD really prepares you for the science part of data science and all the technical infrastructure to deal with the big amounts of data since the 1980s can be learned. So try to learn tools in #gradschool that

will make your life and research easier down the road no matter what you do. Learn a language you can get help with given the flexibility you have in grad school compared to working. Then if you want to apply for work in #datascience we talked about how the idea of a portfolio

allows you to put it all together by putting your money where your mouth is.

Of course there are things I'd change for next time but would love to give this workshop again. Already have some great feedback that has made my day <3.

The slides are kind of ugly now (more like place holders than the decks I used to make) but it works well fully online.

Grateful to be able to have shared what I've learned with the new generation of #musicscience grad students.