DEIThe Promotion Headquarters, as part of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Diversity Research Environment Realization Initiative (Female Leader Development Type)" subsidy program for developing science and technology human resources, will provide partial financial support for seminars and other events aimed at providing opportunities for female undergraduate and graduate students to consider their own career development, and to encourage women to pursue doctoral studies."Support for organizing career events for female undergraduate and graduate students"We are doing the following.
Thanks to this support, an event titled "What Can We Do After Learning Physics?" was held on November 25, 2024, by Professor Natsuno Kobayashi of the Institute of Electronic Science.
Below, I will introduce the report.
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[What was done]
Program
15:10-15:15 Greetings and Overview
15:15-16:00 Ayumi Ito "Hokkaido University Women's Student Career Seminar: Personal Experiences on Working in Companies and Universities"
16:00-16:30 Asami Honda "Hokkaido University Physics Department Career Seminar"
16:30–17:30 Informal discussion
Due to delays in Kobayashi's lessons, the event was held slightly later than planned, but it proceeded as described above.
First, Kobayashi introduced the lecturers and gave a brief overview. Following this, Professor Ito from Tokyo University of Science spoke about career choices and the differences between companies and universities, drawing on his own experiences. His presentation was particularly interesting, as he discussed the advantages and disadvantages of his experiences working at a large corporation as his first employer, a private research institute after a career interruption, and his academic work at a university after obtaining his doctorate. The students seemed a little nervous and didn't ask many questions, so the session moved on to a lecture by Mr. Honda from Oxide. He frankly shared his experiences as a student at Hokkaido University, including how he considered his career. In particular, he introduced a system available to doctoral students at Hokkaido University when seeking employment, which I believe was useful information for the students. The doctoral students were aware of its existence but didn't know the details, so it also served as an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of public relations activities.
After the two speakers' presentations, the group was divided into two main groups, and the instructors joined each group for questions and discussions. There was a lively exchange of opinions and questions in each group, and it continued past the scheduled time (17:00) until around 17:40.
[Results]
There are approximately seven female students each in the Department of Physics (Faculty of Science) and the Department of Condensed Matter Physics/Astrophysics (Graduate School of Science), as well as in the Applied Physics Course (Faculty of Engineering) and the Applied Physics Department (Graduate School of Engineering). However, since there are only a few students in each year group, they often do not know each other. We hope that this event will encourage more interaction among the students, as many of them exchanged contact information.
The survey revealed opinions such as it was an opportunity to think about careers, as well as positive opinions about pursuing further education. Some also commented that they realized they didn't need to limit their career possibilities. Beyond career-related comments, some appreciated the opportunity to meet female students from different year levels within their department, and were glad to talk with students from other departments. This suggests that regular exchange events may be necessary.
