Alumni on Success | Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

Hana Al-Bannay

Start looking early. Seek assistance from Career Counselling for your resume. Pick your referees carefully and make sure that they will provide you with all the support you need in your applications.

Georgina Martin

I suggest that students monitor and research the labour market early to develop their interests and possible entry points to enter or return to the labour market. Participating in conferences and publishing is great, but I feel that adding extra efforts to join or rejoin…

Suzanne Scott

Learn everything you can, volunteer, be a team player and when the opportunity comes MAKE THE LEAP!

Jordan Guenette

Have clearly defined goals and a plan to achieve those goals. The sooner you know what you want to do with your degree the more likely you are to succeed.

Lianping Ti

Something I prioritized throughout my studies and continue to do in my career is to have a balanced lifestyle. It's so easy to devote all of your time to your career, and while it is not necessarily a bad thing to focus on your work for a period of time, it is important…

Sandra Lauck

My first advice is to step up. Nurses have immense potential to increase their visibility and contributions as clinician scientists. The road is not well mapped yet, but there are encouraging signals that the need is increasingly recognized. As doors start to open,…

Hannes Dempewolf

Keep on the lookout for opportunities to familiarize yourself with different career paths. There are a lot of jobs out there that are very enjoyable but don't necessarily follow the classical progression up the academic ladder. Often these kinds of jobs can be quite…

Lauren Irving

The Nurse Practitioner community is still quite small – remember this and never miss an opportunity to make connections. Take every opportunity you can to work with others. Be outgoing, and jump at chances to spend your clinical hours in different practicum sites. If the…

Elitza Tocheva

Get to know yourself, and find a place that fits you. There isn't one answer for everybody, and we can all contribute to different aspects of science.

Sam Bradd

Be useful, do good work, and stay true to your values – this will help you find career happiness.

Xin Huang

All the work you have done will be recognized and will help build your future.

Catherine Sabiston

Be creative; embrace autonomy; accept any opportunities that are presented to get involved in research of all methodologies, theories, and practices; expand skills for teaching and research; work with your fellow graduate students to develop new ideas and collaborative…

Lauryn Oates

Be curious about everything, but find a niche where there is a gap in knowledge and develop very focused expertise in that gap. Know a little about everything but a lot about one thing.

Marshall Chasin

Talk to someone who has been doing your proposed future career and ask them if they still enjoy going to work every day.

Patrick Edwards

My advice would be to develop your resilience. This can be done a number of ways. Broadening your horizons through travel is probably the most enjoyable. Failure is the least. But those who do well in the end have often failed along the way, learned from their mistakes,…

Ella Furness

For me the best advice that I had is "If you don't apply you can't win." My supervisor Harry really encouraged me to try to be confident and apply for grants, submit articles to journals, and reach out to people working in the same area. I had no idea that people…

Swamy Yeleswaram

Have patience and perseverance when things do not go according to plan (and that always happens!); it is these challenges that build character. Have an open mind with regard to careers, as it is difficult to know all the possibilities sitting in graduate school (even in…

Jill Zwicker

Choose your research topic and supervisor wisely. You will be dedicating several years to your graduate studies, so you want to enjoy it! Study something about which you are truly passionate.

Glen Foster

Work hard and play hard. To be successful in the academic setting you need to be driven and ambitious. Never turn down an opportunity.

Andrew Ibey

Check in with yourself with everything you do. What do you like, what would you want to change? Keep moving your career towards your interests. Getting to where you want to be takes persistence. Be patient with yourself as you move through your journey.

Erin Tranfield

Oh this is not an easy question – I suppose I will be brutally honest and say that biological science is broken at the moment. There are too many post-docs, not enough positions for PIs, funding is scare, and all you are evaluated on is the number of papers you…

Juliana Negreiros

I would suggest that current graduate students dedicate their coursework, research, practicum, and internship experiences to topics, populations, and types of interventions that they are most passionate about. Having such academic and applied background in a specific…

Gary Lopaschuk

Work hard and be up to date on the scientific literature in your field.

Michael More

Get involved as much as you can during your graduate program, especially with activities spearheaded by other graduate students: informal research talks, Three Minute Thesis, student-led conferences, social events, the works. These are your future colleagues or mentors (…