Friday, July 13, 2018
By:
"All physicists are awkward. There are like four different categories of awkward, but we all fit into one of them." -Brad Conrad explaining the story behind yelling "Thumbs up for Science!" before every physicist photoshoot (example below).
I had a pretty mind-blowing experience this week during a résumé building workshop with Danielle! The workshop's purpose was to demonstrate strategies for effective résumé writing and emphasize that a résumé should always be catered to the position for which you are applying. After seeing a few well-composed examples, Danielle passed out some job applications that she believed would be suitable positions based on each specific interns' career interests. We were tasked with editing our own résumés in a way that succesfully catered to the applications she supplied to us. The (summarized) description of my assigned application was:
Graphic Designer | Central Intelligence Agency
$53,088 - $78,703The Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Analysis is looking for talented graphic designers to produce visual products that convey intelligence analysis for US policymakers, law enforcement officials, warfighters, and executives charged with national security responsibilities, including the President of the United States. Graphic designers are responsible for conceptualizing, designing and producing visual solutions for a wide variety of formats and dissemination outputs. Graphic designers are responsible for a wide-range of routine-to-complex projects such as: charts and graphs, flow diagrams, infographics, presentation visuals, illustrations, publication design, cover designs, brochures, posters, logos, and exhibit design.
Minimum Requirements: a bachelor's degree in graphic design or fine arts with a strong emphasis on graphic design, and with a GPA of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale). In depth knowledge of Adobe creative tools (InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, etc.) is required. Familiarity with digital conveyance, and a comprehensive knowledge of graphic design principles and production methods are also needed.
What blew my mind was not the job description--although creating effective visual interpretations of data is a challenging and in-demand service that I've had a lot of experience with as a physics major--but the job requirements. 'A depth of knowledge of Adobe creative tools...comprehensive knowledge of design principles' are skills that I've been tirelessly working to develop for the past few semesters of college. I may not have a fine arts degree, but the key to creating comprehensive visuals is being able to understand the information on an intricate level so that you may precisely summarize it for policymakers, executives, the President, etc. What blew my mind about this application was the seamless marriage of STEM and Communication.
After the workshop, Brigette gave us a tour of her intern site The Optical Society, where we met a few of the employees and got the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the CEO. After the tour, I had an engaging conversation with the OSA Chief Scientist Gregory Quarles about the difficulties of communicating between scientists and non-scientists. One of the unique qualities of a High Point University education is that there is a huge emphasis on learning communication/interpersonal skills; the ever-growing group of STEM majors graduating from HPU is conveniently equipped to not only perform research, but also broadcast that research to diverse audiences.
On Thursday we were lucky enough to get a tour of the US Capital from Sam and Sarah, where we got to visit Senator Tammy Duckworth's office and the Minority Office for The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, attend a Committee hearing on Big Data and AI (where I snuck a "thumbs up for science" on the official CSPAN recording), meet Dr. Bill Foster (the only current PhD physicist in Congress), and sit in on a testimony from an Ohio senator from the view of the official Senate Gallery! We also took a pit stop in Senator Bernie Sanders office where I left the message "You have the support of the physics community!" in his contact notebook.
We were out of the office a lot this week but we're still working hard to prepare for publishing JURP and the Observer, distributing the SPS Fall Mailer and SOCK, and coordinating events at the upcoming APPT Summer Meeting here in DC. Unfortunately, it's time to start thinking about final, end-of-internship presentations, but there's still plenty to do! Here's a logo I designed this week:
Michael Welter