Earlier this evening, I accompanied my spouse, a PhD candidate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, to the reception at her discipline's major regional conference (akin to our Eastern APA). As I was chatting with her advisor, he mentioned the previous day at the conference. I was a bit surprised, as my spouse told me the conference began today. So, I asked him, "Wait, how many days is this conference?" He told me the conference was three days long, beginning today–but that there were also two pre-conference days. I'd assumed that the pre-conference days were probably special workshops (i.e. invited mini-conferences on hot topics), of the sort common in philosophy these days. Still, I was curious, so I asked him what was the deal with the two pre-conference days. He said, "Oh, those are the pre-doc and post-doc consortium days?" Because I had no idea what that meant, I told him, "I have no idea what that means." That's when he told me.
Apparently, the first day of the annual pre-conference (the pre-doc consortium) is an entire day of workshops for undergraduates and Masters students considering applying to PhD programs. The discipline's organization (i.e. their "APA") arranges for professors from all different kinds of programs around the country to hold seminars on applying to programs, what to expect if you get in a PhD program, how to succeed in PhD programs, what the facts are about academic and non-academic job markets (so that people know their job-prospects before applying to PhD programs), and so on.
That's the first day. The second pre-conference day (the post-doc consortium) is an entire day of workshops for current PhD students and job-candidates, where professors from programs from around the country hold sessions on finding academic jobs, finding non-academic jobs (including networking), succeeding in research, developing teaching skills, and many other things too apparently.
In other words, their discipline devotes two entire days of its major regional conference to educating and mentoring junior members of the profession–job-candidates, PhD students, MA students, even undergraduates–about the profession and how to succeed inside and outside of academia.
I have to confess, I was totally blown away by this, and said as much. My spouse, who overheard what we were talking about, interjected, "Yeah, the consortium?", she said, "that was so helpful. I thought I told you about that!" I'm pretty sure I would have remembered. Apparently they've been doing this for the past twenty years or so, and their discipline's overall growth and job-placement rates are absurdly good. I have a feeling this is not a coincidence…
Suffice it to say, I can't help but think that our discipline might benefit from doing similar things. Educating undergraduate and Master's students before they apply to or join PhD programs would not only benefit them (giving them a clearer picture of what the realities are in PhD programs and beyond). It would also probably benefit the profession by better preparing them. Similarly, workshops for PhD students and job-candidates would not only help better prepare them to get academic and non-academic jobs, and succeed as researchers and teachers; it would also help even the playing field. Over the past few years, I have met more than a few students from PhD programs that give their graduates little or no mentoring for the job-market (hence our mentoring program). Students from programs like these are at a clear disadvantage relative to programs that mentor their students well–so conference workshops like these might significantly reduce that kind of gap.
Just some food for thought!
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