Sharon Engbrecht, PhD candidate, Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia, will be speaking next Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 12:30 p.m. with a talk entitled Bridging Gaps: Curating Your Graduate Degree to Work for You.
DATE: Wednesday, January 25, 2023
TIME: 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Zoom
REGISTER NOW ON ZOOM
About the Talk
Graduate school is a big decision, and as you venture deeper into your academic career, you may wonder if it was the right one. This talk focuses on the different ways you can curate your graduate degree to work for you, whether you want to continue on in academia, researching and teaching, or branch out into other economic sectors. Beyond academia, employers are desperate for the soft skills graduate students have, especially in the humanities.
Drawing on their own experience, filling in their knowledge gaps, Sharon will discuss the different Work Integrated Learning (WIL) opportunities they’ve done during their PhD at The University of British Columbia. Each experience has influenced their expectations and choices around how they want to shape their degree program and their career. During their talk, they’ll also touch on the leadership skills many graduate students bring with them as researchers, especially as many of our professional and executive functioning skills are highly sought after both within universities and beyond.
Learning Outcomes:
- List alternative and para-academic opportunities available to compliment your graduate studies.
- Recognize both academic and alternative career opportunities using graduate experience.
- Interpret research skills into transferable skills used both within and outside of academia.
- Estimate the value of doing co-op, entrepreneurial, and career training programming during your graduate degree for more career flexibility.
Presenter Bio
Sharon Engbrecht is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English Language and Literatures at The University of British Columbia. Their current research focuses on queer love and novels that challenge the “straightening” devices of romantic scripting. When not writing, Sharon works as the Marketing and Communications Coordinator for the scholarly journal Canadian Literature. Their previous experience includes working with UBC’s Academic Convenor for the Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Congress 2019, PhD co-op placements with the Vancouver International Film Festival and Canadian Literature, as well as entrepreneurial training and short-term (WIL) contracts through UBC’s Arts Amplifier.
