The Society seeks to engage professionals in all stages of career development. To support the career focuses of our members, the Career Development Committee (CDC) will recommend and carry out activities related to the training and career development of ASHG members, as approved by the Board, and with an initial focus on career needs during training and early-career periods. The Committee met in early 2020 to determine its action plan, which offers year-round professional education and training/development opportunities specific to members’ career stages and professions. The committee is currently developing the Career Toolkit, which has been approved for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021). Through the next few years, the committee will explore AJHG content, implicit bias training, and a mentorship database.
Career Toolkit
ASHG members, no matter their career stage, will receive resources in the form of a Career Toolkit. The CDC will curate existing content and create new ASHG resources in the form of templates, interviews and webinars. The toolkit will be organized by career stage and will provide resources which address transitioning into a new career, academic and non-academic opportunities for grants and fellowships, and a member communication platform to communicate career-related opportunities. Content from this year includes Career Development Day at the ASHG Virtual Meeting, Career Interviews, ASHG webinars, and the Genetically Speaking podcast series.
American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) Content
The CDC will explore curating content from the trainee newsletter, the Nascent Transcript, to create a 1-page career development article in AJHG.
Implicit Bias Training
The committee is discussing providing Implicit Bias Training and Mentoring Across Cultures trainings for mentors and mentees. This content would provide information on how to recognize our own biases (including visual and non-visual) and what can be done to mitigate these biases. Additional resources would guide mentees in fostering the mentor relationship. Content provided in 2020 includes the ASHG Career Development Day session “How to Have Difficult Conversations”.
Mentorship Database
The committee will look into creating a list of ASHG members who are willing to mentor members year-round and/or at the Annual Meeting based on career field, research, and career transitions.
Since the start of this year, the CDC has hosted a webinar about preparing for careers in computational genetics/bioinformatics, molecular genetics, and research & development, and hosted its first Virtual Career Fair. ASHG members can look forward to even more content through the year that focuses on preparing the largest workforce of human genetics and genomics researchers and clinicians for different careers.