On November 16th and 17th, the Waterloo-York Career Development Workshop in Urban Studies and Geography was held at the University of Waterloo. For the 35 PhD and Post-Doc participants, this two-day event featured panel discussions on a variety of topics from work-life balance, to academic applications and publications, and careers beyond academia. The intimate nature of the workshops offered ample opportunity for networking, a welcomed feature noted by many of the students. As well, individuals were particularly pleased by the volume of tangible and candid solutions given by the 14 professors serving as panelists. One student stated, “I almost never take notes at conferences, but I filled…” (proceeded to show me half a dozen pages full of notes). Another expressed,”this conference could have been used for PhD students in almost any field, perhaps it could be expanded”. We received funding for the workshop from the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo, the Waterloo Environment Student Endowment Fund, and the Graduate Student Endowment Fund and thank them for their generous support. We would also like to thank Markus Moos and Linda Peake for conceiving this event and for their assistance, our 14 wonderful panelists, and the Faculty of Environment staff members who helped with logistics.
