Mark Your Calendar: The GCC Virtual Career Expo. Alumni Applicants Welcome!
By: M. Caroline Helms and Sandra Spiroff
For the second year, the Graduate School, with cooperation from the Career Center, will participate in the Graduate Career Consortium Virtual Career Expo (GCCVCE).
GCC Virtual Career Expo Promo
The online event offers University of Mississippi (UM) alums and current graduate students at the doctoral, specialist, and master’s levels a unique and free opportunity to explore diverse career paths. Scheduled annually in the Spring, this year’s Expo will be on Wednesday, March 6th, 2024, from 11 am to 3 pm Central Time.
With over fifty employers participating the previous year, the event attracted applicants from various fields, spanning Social Sciences, Arts, Humanities, and STEM. Notable organizations included the Library of Congressional Research Service, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, New York State Department of Health, Justice Resource Institute, RAND Corporation, and many more.
Likewise, UM graduate students and alums from various fields participated in the event. These applicants either had or were working towards master’s and doctoral degrees from the University and included individuals from Higher Education, Experimental Psychology, Communications and Media, and Public Health, to name just a few.
The Expo aligns with a growing trend highlighted recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education: many graduate students undertake a “dual search” when on the job market, pursuing opportunities in both academia and industry. To this end, the GCCVCE is a valuable avenue for job seekers to explore alternative employment options.
Applicants should keep an open mind to new pathways that might develop for their career when registering and considering potential employers. Dr. Stephen Roberts’ experience is a compelling example of the value of this approach, and his success story is featured below.
Dr. Stephan Roberts
Initially pursuing a Ph.D. in pure mathematics with the goal of becoming a mathematics professor, Roberts had a change of course. Captivated by mathematics during his undergraduate years at Delta State University, he had his ‘aha’ moment and felt struck by the beauty of mathematical theory while taking a calculus class. This realization compelled him to major in the subject, a choice that paved the way for his graduate studies, career, and professional life.
“Mathematics had become not just the subject I was passionate about, but a field I was deeply committed to exploring,” Roberts said. He was drawn to the University’s Department of Mathematics because of its “supportive community and dedication to conducting compelling research. ” Roberts worked in functional analysis, a field of pure mathematics, under the direction of Dr. Gerard Buskes, who retired this past Fall.
Despite receiving multiple tenure-track offers in academia, Roberts remained open to other opportunities. Recruited in 2017 by a start-up in online gambling related to e-sports, he embraced this unconventional path.
He worked for the company for two years and found the experience to be a challenging adventure that utilized his mathematical and analytical training in a different context. Instead of researching the mathematical background of a problem, he analyzed and organized data, and rather than writing proofs, he crafted algorithms.
While at the start-up, Roberts learned of the Graduate Career Expo from the Graduate School and decided to apply. Through this online portal, Roberts discovered the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and decided to submit his materials, seeing a potential, if novel, fit between his experience and strengths.
“After I applied for a position with them through the Expo’s portal, an IDA representative quickly reached out to me. They initiated a series of interviews that included both remote and on-site discussions as well as a research presentation.”
Roberts now works as a research staff member at their headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. This area of work has allowed Roberts to apply his mathematical expertise to various fascinating and impactful projects such as “computational image analysis of explosions, weapons simulations, and radar modeling.” He describes the position he found through the Virtual Career Expo as exceptionally fulfilling. Roberts exclaims that “contributing to work that supports our nation’s security has been both professionally rewarding and personally rewarding.”
The virtual career expo provides a platform for networking and learning about job opportunities. It works like this: the Graduate School, with assistance from the Career Center, provides the names and contact information of 30 employers. Similarly, other institutions across the nation submit their company contacts as well. Then, the students and alums of these institutions have free access to all employers via the Expo. It’s a win-win situation for employers seeking a diverse and talented pool of applicants and candidates looking to connect with new companies and industries nationwide.
The event allows participants to engage in 1-on-1 meetings, upload resumes or other materials, ask questions in a virtual group format, interview online, make easy and efficient connections, and access organization profiles.
All job-seeking professionals, whether current UM graduate students or alums, are encouraged to register for the upcoming free Graduate Career Consortium Virtual Career Expo on March 6th, 2024. We will post information on the Graduate School’s website as it becomes available. Mark your calendars, for you never know what possibilities may come your way!