Ep 18 - Is community engagement outside of your research worthwhile? - Propelling Careers Podcast

Welcome to Propelling Careers podcast episode 18. In thisepisode, Jim and Lauren would like to focus on the importance of being involved in your community outside of your research activities.  This involvement can increase connections and enable you to develop soft and sometimes hard skills outside of your research.  These activities could also increase diversity and inclusion depending upon which organizations you are involved with.  We thought this would be timely given the focus ondiversity in June and also the importance of contributing positively to your respective community.  We will share a few of our involvements as well as highlight a few that we have seen recently in resumes covering these points below and more. Jim has emphasized a few times during the podcast series that we are all human beings doing human things  and involvement is a great way  to show this! We hope you enjoy listening!    Engagement in your community is important You can gain skills and experiences through involvement in your respective community that help you build skills outside of your day to day work You can be energized  by these – therefore you could be less likely to burn out Sometimes these activities can enrich and inform your “day job” You can increase your network and perspectives   You can gain leadership and management skills. You may learn something new Ask yourself why do you want to do it and  how can I go about doing that, and what you can draw from the experience to help you plan what to engage with. Seeing this on a candidate’s CV or resume is often seen as a positive We talk about a few examples that we have seen to help the audience with perspective here such as - Involvement in local chapters of national org's - Involvement in specific groups at universities - Founding an organization to serve a need you see - Involvement in community wide organizations It is important to draw parallels to the skills you are gaining through involvement and how these can impact your “day to day” work Lauren Celano, CEO of Propel Careers and Jim Gould, the Director for Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard Medical School, launched this podcast as a way for us to share our advice, insights, and reflections to help others navigate their careers.As we develop new episodes, this podcast will provide insights regarding career advice to help listeners navigate career choices and become more confident in their decisions. We look forward to busting myths and providing real life, timely, and accurate advice. Jim and Lauren work heavily with Ph.D. trained scientists, but the advice we provide can be applicable to other audiences. We hope you enjoy listening!