Understanding Professional Competency in Your Career Planning

The job you're applying for lists 'leadership' as a required skill. No problem - you can say you helped organize the Summer Picnic for your Postdoc or Graduate Student Association. But in the workforce, employers are looking for a level of performance from new hires. Or what we call competence. So how do you demonstrate competency in your cover letter or interview? And more importantly, how do you take advantage of your current opportunities (like organizing the summer picnic) to build your competency and score your dream job?

Speaker: Garth Fowler, PhD, is the former Associate Executive Director for the Center for Education in Psychology at the American Psychological Association, where he directed the APA's efforts in producing resources and information to help psychology graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and mentors improve their training and career success. Before coming to APA, Garth was a faculty member and Assistant Chair in the Northwestern University Department of Neurobiology. His first job after finishing his postdoc was the Outreach Program Manager for Science Careers, the online career resources for Science Magazine & AAAS. Garth has a BA in Psychology from the College of Wooster, a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington-Seattle, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute in San Diego, CA.