3418 - Preparing for a Career on the Alt-Ac Track

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Description

This session—designed for graduate students and recent PhDs— will discuss the emerging professional field of alternative-academic (alt-ac) employment. Presenters bring experience in a broad range of alt-ac paths including: scholarship and fellowship advising, ESL program direction, honors program management, institutional research and assessment, faculty development, Title IX coordination, diversity and equity consulting, and cultural center direction. Presenters will discuss their experiences navigating the alt-ac career path, the range of career paths that constitute the alt-ac field, and identify skill sets that help make one marketable for alt-ac positions. We will talk about how to go about securing an alt-ac position, including the differences and similarities between the traditional academic and alt-ac job markets, job searching strategies, how to convert an academic CV into a CV for an alt-ac position, techniques for framing professional experience in a cover letter for an alt-ac position, and negotiating alt-ac offers. We will also discuss our experiences of the rewards and challenges of working in alt-ac positions and developing alt-ac professional identities.
Learning Objectives:
• Familiarize participants with the range of alt-ac career paths and specializations
• Provide participants with knowledge about the differences between traditional academic and alt-ac job markets and search processes
• Help participants build alt-ac job search strategies, including identifying positions for which they are well-qualified, converting academic CVs to alt-ac/ administrative CVs, and build techniques for framing relevant experience in the alt-ac cover letter
• Present participants with negotiation strategies and options for alt-ac positions, including strategies for securing support for research and/ or teaching
• Discuss rewards and challenges of alt-ac careers and developing alt-ac professional identities

Sub Unit

• Workshops / Professional Development Workshop

Session Organizer

• Brandy L. Simula, Emory University

Co-Leaders

• Brandy L. Simula, Emory University

• Reese Kelly, Dartmouth College

Panelists

• Shan Mukhtar, Emory University

• Kegan Allee-Moawad, University of Southern California

• Anjulet V. Tucker, Emory University