Inaugural GRADventure Professional Skills Conference

Friday, May 3, 2019

On Tuesday, April 30 Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) hosted the first GRADventure Professional Skills Conference in the Science Teaching Complex!

Monica Munaretto is introduced as the conference keynote.

Sarah Howard from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs introduces Monica Munaretto, the keynote speaker for the GRADventure Professional Skills Conference. 

Nearly 100 graduate students and postdocs attended the full-day conference where they built skills in four key areas: personal effectiveness, leadership, career preparation and communication. Workshops covered a variety of topics within these skill areas including professional use of social media, managing difficult conversations, project management, impostor phenomenon and networking as a work search strategy. 

According to attendees,

"the workshops had relevant material for [their] graduate student career" and they "learned skills and information that will be useful moving forward after graduating." 

The conference also included a keynote from Monica Munaretto, Career Advisor, Centre for Career Action, who spoke about her own PhD research that highlights the skills industry employers are looking for. Finally, at the end of the conference, attendees were invited to stay for a wine and cheese networking event to connect with their peers across campus. 

Thank you to our campus partners in the Centre for Career Action, the Writing and Communication Centre, Information Systems & Tecnology, the Student Success Office, the Centre for Teaching Excellence and the Conflict Management and Human Rights Office for making the first GRADventure Professional Skills Conference a huge success!

For more photos of the event, visit our Facebook page