Being ProactiveAgain, every second in grad school counts. It may be a good idea to develop a schedule and plan to make sure you’re using your time effectively. You have been advised to do this for balancing your work/academic/family life, but you have to make the time for professional development if you want to make the most of the next two years.
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Create a Planning Document
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In his piece “Life as a Graduate Student: Informed Choices, Positive Attitudes”, Alex Galarza suggests mapping out a planning document: “The idea here is to create some sort of plan, tailored to your own personality and needs…This plan should also be integrated into whatever calendar or system you use to generate automatic reminders about call[s] for papers, conferences, grant deadlines, and professional development opportunities” (214). If you are one who is prone to planning and scheduling, this won’t be difficult to implement into your life, but if this isn’t how your normally conduct your daily life, this might be something you should consider getting used to. This is one suggestion for organizing your professional development, everyone is different and you have to find what works best for you.
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Push Yourself |
For the most part, I’ve been discussing ways in which you can use your connections with other people to get ahead. However, you can’t underestimate the importance of your own abilities and attitude when it comes to developing your professional self. You won’t take the time to seek out mentors if you aren’t confident. You can’t make the case to the busy faculty members that they should take extra time in their days to help you grow if you aren’t persistent. Peters suggests that timidity can be the death of your profession, saying, “It is easy to shrink from pushing yourself forward, but you’ve got to do it. You simply must see your advisor regularly, hobnob with your colleagues” (146). If you don’t email your advisor or mentors, they won’t think you’re interested or determined to work on your thesis, revise your CV, finish the publication, or whatever you’re working on with these faculty members. Galarza affirms the importance of a positive attitude saying, “The graduate students I’ve most admired and from whom I’ve learned the most tend to have two qualities in common that have made them successful both in and outside of academia: positive attitudes and resiliency” (215). Simply making inquiries about publications is a huge start! It is a horrible feeling to be rejected, but as Galarza notes, those who pick up from this and try again will eventually succeed.
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Derra Clark is graduate assistant teaching ENG 101: Freshman Composition and studying English Language and Literature. Her focus is in American literature. She is specifically interested in nineteenth century women’s conduct and etiquette literature.
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