It's a question that plagues anyone about to finish school: What are you doing after graduation? While avoiding people who ask that question at family gatherings or cocktail parties is a one strategy, at some point, you have to make plans for the future.
At Bitesize Bio, Dhivya Kumar shares her tips for figuring out what to do after graduation. Kumar, a PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut Health Center, says that speaking with her advisor was helpful — she didn't figure out what she wanted to do just from an hour-long meeting, but came out of it "relaxed and hopeful." Some people, she notes, might want to speak with a mentor who is not their advisor, or someone they know has experience in a field they are considering.
Talking to other grad students, she adds, can also be helpful as they are in the same situation. That's how Kumar learned about a course offered by the business school that's she's now taking.
Other possible classes could be in science policy, public heath, intellectual property, or science writings, she says. "This is a risk free way of figuring out if you would enjoy learning more about something or hate it completely," Kumar says, adding that an internship could also offer a taste of an industry position and starting a blog could be a way to test out science writing.