By Christopher Arnette

The focus on meeting communities where they are is not only something IMOD is utilizing for our external relationships, but also a principle that underlies our efforts with graduate students and postdocs within the Center. This year, we have sought to really understand the needs of our community, and overwhelmingly the response has been more engagement with our partners, specifically in the form of continued professional and technical development, and access to real-world experiences that will allow them to better position themselves. Our community just does not feel as prepared as they could be to become a competitive applicant.

To serve the needs of our community, IMOD developed a taskforce, composed of students, postdocs, and management, to develop a series of professional development workshops focused on various topics. Our inaugural workshop was a month-long series focused on “Getting a Job” and included teaching skills on how to network, how to succeed in an interview, and provided opportunities to review and improve resumes. Other topics for this year include, Inclusive Science Education, Selling your Science: Creating, Protecting, & Commercializing IP, Grant Funding & Fundraising”, and more. The idea behind this professional development is to not only make our community more knowledgeable, but also position them to apply for the external opportunities that IMOD has also been developing over the last few months.

IMOD has been diligently working to establish a direct pipeline to our industry partners by developing an internship program. Our partners have been extremely responsive to the needs of the Center and have been working with us to develop the IMOD Internship Portal (IIP), where we can list the various opportunities that our partners have to offer. Our hope is that these internships will allow IMOD members to gain insights into the research being done in industry, while also providing them with new technical skills and an extended network they can use in their own research (e.g., collaborations) or when applying for positions. Currently, we are on track to have two internship positions for summer 2024, and the excitement is palpable as the benefits can have a major impact on our Center and the members. Importantly, several of our industry partners are looking to expand their workforce, so this represents a unique opportunity for IMOD and our industry partners to work together to enhance the quantum workforce while preparing our members for their future.