Career Central, located within the Exhibit Hall, delivers hands-on sessions on job search strategies, career navigation, and exploration opportunities. Since its inception in 2018, Career Central has continually evolved, and this year’s vision is our most ambitious yet. We’ve expanded the space to host additional employer recruitment activities and curated a daily series of networking events to ignite connections among professionals from diverse sectors. Each day is centered around a broad thematic focus, ensuring valuable opportunities for all participants.
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- The Basic Program
- Career navigation & exploration, resume and CV guidance
- Meeting Our Editors in Chief
- Networking & office hours
- Data Help
- Drop-in assistance from experts
The Basic Program
Our program area covers a wide range of topics in career navigation across different sectors, offering space for both formal and informal networking. We also include daily resume/CV reviews and mock job interviews to provide practical, personalized support. Join our dynamic panels featuring experts from various sectors and ecological career paths.
View the full schedule! Subject to change as participation advances.
Monday: Career Skills
- 10:30 AM
- Elevator Pitches & Scientific Meetings
- 12:00 PM
- The Ecology Entrepreneur: Launching Your Scientific Practice
- Communicating Science: Perspectives from Editors & Communicators
- Resume Reviews (until 3:00 PM) (volunteer or sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 1:30 PM
- Managing Career Transitions
- Find Funding
- 2:45 PM
- Exploring Ecology Careers Integrating Psychology and Mental Health
- Career Growth Through Internships & Fellowships
- 3:00 PM
- Mock Job Interviews (until 5:00 PM) (volunteer or sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 4:00 PM
- Professional Resumes 101
- Job Interviews Outside of Academia
- 5:00 PM
- Informal Networking with Public and Private Sector Ecologists
Tuesday: Academic Fair
- 10:30 AM
- Roundtable with the ESA Early Career Ecologists Section & Journal Editors in Chief
- 12:00 PM
- Thriving in Grad School (and Beyond)
- I Got My Bachelor’s Degree, Now What?
- CV Reviews (until 3:00 PM) (volunteer or sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 1:30 PM
- Bootcamp: How to Get a Faculty Job
- Exploring Academic Faculty Careers
- 2:45 PM
- Beyond Teaching: Diverse Career Paths in Higher Education
- 3:00 PM
- Speed Networking with EICs I (sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 4:00 PM
- Finding (and Thriving) as a Postdoc
- Diverse Research Careers
- Speed Networking with EICs II (sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 5:00 PM
- Informal Networking — Long Term Studies, Open Science and Researchers at Undergraduate Institutions Sections
Wednesday: Cross-sector Careers Fair
- 10:30 AM
- Seeds Alumni Career Meet-n-Greet
- 12:00 PM
- Exploring Careers in the Federal Government
- Careers in Ecological Restoration
- Mock Job Interviews (until 3:00 PM) (volunteer or sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 1:30 PM
- Ecology Careers in Laboratories and Field Stations
- Careers in Climate Adaptation
- 2:45 PM
- Essential Skills for Consulting in Private Sector Ecology
- Careers in Marine Science
- 3:00 PM
- Resume Reviews (until 5:00 PM) (volunteer or sign up at the Career Central Welcome Desk)
- 4:00 PM
- State & Local Government Careers
- Careers in Nonprofits & NGOs
- 5:00 PM
- Informal Networking — Certification in Ecology
Meet Our Editors in Chief
Our journals’ EICs are available for a few different meet-and-greet opportunities during the week. If you have questions or even just want to meet an eminent figure in scientific publishing, make sure to connect during one of these times.
The Early Career Ecologists Section will be holding a networking roundtable with EICs on Tuesday morning, and EIC Speed Networking will be on Tuesday afternoon in two blocks between 3:00 and 5:00 PM.
Though some last-minute spaces may be available, it is strongly encouraged to sign up as early as possible at Career Central.
Additionally, EICs will be available for drop-in visits throughout the week, at the membership booth in the exhibit hall. We will post the schedule in this space once available, and have a copy available at the booth upon arrival in Long Beach.
Data Help
We are organizing open office hours during which our exhibitors, sponsors and members will be available to share their expertise with you! You can find the schedule below, and we will have a copy available at the membership booth as well; participating exhibitors and sponsors will have signs displaying their schedules in their space in the hall.
- Center for Wildlife Studies (Booth 332)
- Jack Hopkins: Coding in R, wildlife ecology
- Wednesday, 2:00–5:00 PM
- Jack Hopkins: Coding in R, wildlife ecology
- GBIF (Booth 620)
- Kate Ingenloff: Applying Darwin Core to biodiversity data, FAIR and open data; publishing to GBIF; accessing & using GBIF data
- Monday, 2:00–3:00 PM
- Tuesday, 10:00 AM–5:00 PM
- Wednesday, 2:00–3:00, 4:00–5:00 PM
- Kate Ingenloff: Applying Darwin Core to biodiversity data, FAIR and open data; publishing to GBIF; accessing & using GBIF data
- iDigBio/Symbiota Support Hub (Booth 514)
- Katie Pearson: Biodiversity data, specimen data, Darwin Core, GBIF data, phenology
- Monday, 12:00–5:00 PM
- Tuesday, 12:00–5:00 PM
- Wednesday, 12:00–5:00 PM
- Katie Pearson: Biodiversity data, specimen data, Darwin Core, GBIF data, phenology
- LTER Network (Booth 521)
- Angel Chen: Coding in R, data wrangling, version control, best practices for scripted reproducible workflows
- Monday, 12:00–1:00, 3:00–4:00 PM
- Tuesday, 3:00–4:00 PM
- Nick Lyon: Version control (i.e., Git/GitHub), R, some Python/SQL/Quarto
- Sunday, 6:30-7:30 PM
- Monday, 10:00-10:30 AM; 1:30–3:00 PM
- Tuesday, 12:00-1:30 PM, 4:00-5:00 PM
- Wednesday, 12:30–4:00 PM
- Angel Chen: Coding in R, data wrangling, version control, best practices for scripted reproducible workflows