Next Week: A Symposium on Equity in Search for STEM Jobs

The third annual Equity in the Job Search Symposium will be held next week, Friday, February 15.

Through practical, hands-on workshops, the symposium will provide advice to graduate students, postdocs, staff and Yale alumni on navigating all stages of the STEM job search, as well as to their advisors looking to improve their mentoring efficacy. 

Vicky Karanikola, a postdoctoral fellow in chemical and environmental engineering, said the guiding principle behind the symposium is to overcome bias for everyone. Attendance has grown each year for the event, which Karanikola attributes to a growing realization of the pervasiveness of unconscious bias and other factors that lead to inequity in the job search. 

“This symposium will increase attendees’ awareness on how gender bias influences the job searchby data-guided approaches,” Karanikola said. “We are building on the momentum from the past symposiums, which have been cited by past attendees as responsible for positive change in their departments, and we look forward providing its attendees with skills for a successful job search.”

The symposium integrates practical career advice with data-driven discussions of gender bias to expand the conversation of gender bias to a larger population. One of the goals of the all-day event is to show that everyone benefits from more inclusivity. 

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Laura Hunter, associate diversity officer and coordinator of faculty development at the University of Arizona. 

Panelists for a moderated panel, “Promoting Equity from the Inside,” will discuss ways that individuals with different amounts of authority can improve diversity within their organization, providing attendees with ways to impact their future work spaces and effectively increase inclusivity and diversity.

Dr. Hannah Bowles of Harvard, an expert on how gender influences pay negotiations, will lead a negotiation workshop designed to help participants recognize situational factors that place women at a disadvantage in negotiation and help participants to prepare strategically for important career negotiations.

The afternoon session will include a panel on building mentoring relationships for the job search, led by Mary Geary, past president of the Yale School of Nursing Alumni Association. The rest of the day will feature concurrent sessions, including panels and speakers on job searches for non-U.S. residents and undocumented individuals, avoiding gender bias in applications, and navigating the job search for academic and non-academic positions.

Morning sessions are at the Sloan Physics Laboratory building. Lunch and most of the events after lunch are split between 17 Hillhouse and Mason Laboratory. For more details about the symposium and to register, go to the event’s website.