After covering last summer’s project, misadventures and fun experiences, what was the point of presenting the whole summer as a poster in the conference?

That was one way students and scientists in that field shared knowledge to other students and professionals. As scientists, we do research on our subject, collect data, analyze data and examine results. However, we need to communicate our findings to the world through poster session, presentation and journal articles for examples. That is one way we advance our knowledge in any field, including meteorology.

Also, the conference was a prime breeding ground for graduate school, internship programs and job recruitment. During my time there, I came across some internship programs I did not know about until then. Some of those were really interesting.

My perspective on future jobs had changed drastically! I originally considered becoming a severe weather researcher under NSSL until I met the Navy admiral mentioned in my first article. That was when I began thinking about working for the Navy as a civilian, once I graduated with Ph.D.

Here are a few things I learned from the conference:

• Don’t be afraid to exchange your contact information, especially email addresses with prospective employers or someone from a professional organization
• Dress professionally
• Don’t close your mind off to new possibilities
• Share your findings, don’t hide your research from people
• Make a poster or powerpoint look neat and professional if you are presenting your research

On final words for folks in any major, networking is very important, and that helps boost your chances of finding jobs. Sometimes, you have it all planned out in mind until something inspired you to change your mind, and you end up feeling unsure where to go in career path.

That is okay because it happens to many people, and I am experiencing it at this stage. Internships are important because it gives you experiences that classroom’s cannot provide, and you could make money in some internship programs. Make sure the program is credible, however. REU programs are considered as internship too, and there are REU programs for any scientific fields: physics, biology and geology for example.

I am a trained storm spotter and I spent years studying meteorology in my free times.  Those blogs reflect my opinions on weather-related topics with some light humor and commentaries.