Preparing and Attending My First ACS Conference – PhD Week 53

This past week I attended my first American Chemical Society (ACS) conference in Chicago, IL. The purpose of scientific conferences is to share research findings, network with other scientists and potential employers, and obtain professional development. Usually, graduate students attend if they are presenting a poster or talk.

Since it was my first time, I didn’t present a poster or a talk and decided to experience the conference as an attendee only. Despite not having a poster or talk, my schedule was still packed with attending talks, professional development workshops, and career counseling, and a LOT of group bonding.

In this post, I’ll share how I prepared for my first ACS conference, what I did, and 5 things I wished I did instead. I’ll also share some final tips for your first ACS conference.

Here’s how I prepared for my first ACS conference:

I prepared an agenda of events that I wanted to attend.

Since ACS is such a huge conference packed with so many events, I wanted to avoid getting overwhelmed by the schedule when I got there. To make it easier, I looked at the agenda ahead of time and selected events that I wanted to attend. I looked mostly at the POLY/PMSE divisions because those were the most relevant to my current research.

I also searched for networking events and professional development workshops that I was interested in. I added these events to the itinerary in the ACS app and saved it. I also asked my PI and group members for their suggestions. The agenda was not meant to be definitive, but it provided some structure for me.

I signed up for a professional development workshop, career consulting, and a professional headshot appointment.

ACS has a service called Career Navigator, which offered professional development workshops, free 1:1 career consulting, and professional headshot appointments.

The professional development workshops are called Career Pathways. I read through all the workshop descriptions to find one that I thought would be the best fit for me. I skipped the initial Finding Your Pathway workshop because I knew that I wanted to work in industry and was not interested in government or academia. I selected the Careers in Industrial Chemistry:  Identifying Your Role in the Industrial Value Chain workshop. Even though I had some industry experience, I was curious to learn about other job types in industry.

To prepare for the career consulting appointment, I updated my resume and LinkedIn, so it could be reviewed by the career consultant. It took me at least 1 whole day to properly update and prepare my resume and LinkedIn. I also created business cards for myself, which included my academic email, business email, and personal website.

I packed business professional and smart casual outfits with VERY comfortable shoes.

Since it was my first conference, I wanted to play it safe by packing more business professional and smart casual outfits. I packed a navy blue sleeveless dress, a black sheath dress, a plaid sheath dress, and a maroon shift drift (all knee length with shapewear).

I also had a black and white striped cardigan because conference centers always get chilly. Since I knew I would be walking everywhere, I brought black Nike sneakers and white Keds sneakers, instead of flats (and made sure they looked OK with my dresses).

I also included dark jeans, black and white plain t-shirts, tailored shorts in white and khaki, and other casual dresses for evening conference events (which were a little more casual) and exploring Chicago’s Chinatown.

Here’s what I did at my first ACS conference:

1. Research talks. There are SO many research talks at ACS. There’s no way you could attend every talk you wanted to. I didn’t attend all the talks on my schedule, but it was still super packed. I didn’t understand everything, but I did get to hear some famous names in polymer science and engineering talk about their group’s research. I took notes of terms I didn’t know and citations of papers to look into. It was also interesting to see how different groups present and design their talks.
2. Poster sessions. I attended two poster sessions, SciMix and the general poster session, to support my group members who were presenting. While I was there, I observed graduate students from other universities present their posters. One thing I noticed was that it seems more tiring to present a poster. They stood there for 2 hours, waiting for people to come by. It’s also a hassle to bring your poster along with you. In the future, I might avoid doing poster sessions for these reasons.
3. Industry career workshop. I attended a workshop called Careers in Industrial Chemistry: Identifying Your Role in the Industrial Value Chain workshop. In this workshop, I learned more about the different roles in industry, such as R&D, product development, manufacturing, quality, and sales/marketing. I also learned how to find the right type of job based on my values and strengths. I recommend this workshop to anyone who wants to identify more specific industry roles.
4. Career consulting appointment. I met with an ACS career consultant who worked as a business development manager. In our appointment, he shared his experience working as a business development manager, reviewed my LinkedIn and resume, and answered my questions about the chemical job market. I was concerned about my job prospects as an MS vs PhD. UItimately, he advised me that no one can predict the chemical job market. Therefore, the question of MS vs PhD is not really about what’s more marketable, but what I want in my life. So, I just have to trust my gut about what I want.
5. Networking. I originally signed up to attend networking events, but I decided to not attend them since I was feeling too tired to interact. However, I did get to reconnect with a few people that I met before while working at my previous job I had to get out of my comfort zone to approach them, but it was worth it to catch up with them even for a few minutes.
6. Professional headshot. I signed up for a free professional headshot through ACS Career Navigator. It was a simple process – I provided my email address, and they took a picture of my badge before taking my photo. The photographer guided me by telling me how to adjust my posture, hair, and position to get a good photo.
7. Exposition. The exposition, or expo, is filled with scientific vendors and chemical companies. It’s known for the freebies, but it’s also a great opportunity to network and talk to companies. Although I was not actively looking for a job, I brought a few extra resumes along just in case I talked to some companies. After I introduced myself to the representatives at the company, I asked the representatives about their roles. Then I took the initiative to share my resume with them. I also exchanged business cards with a few people. 

Here’s 5 things I wished I did instead:

1. Prioritize my energy towards events that I really wanted to attend by adding more time to recharge. I packed a lot of events into my agenda, plus attended additional talks with my group. Although it was all educational and useful in some way, I wish that I planned more time to recharge, such as more time for meals, breaks, and traveling back and forth between events.
2. Mentally prepare for and attend at least 1 networking session. ACS is a huge networking opportunity. I wish I had mentally prepared for networking ahead of time, by reviewing how to network and being clear about my networking goals. I also decided not to attend the networking sessions that I originally had on my itinerary because I felt completely drained from the day.
3. Be more confident when talking more about my online presence and business. In my career consulting appointment, the career consultant asked me about my Twitter presence. I realize that I’m still shy to talk about my business in real life, which is weird since I do it all the time online! I also brought a bunch of business cards for the networking events and socials, but since I didn’t spend a lot of time networking, I only gave a total of 3 business cards.
4. Register for professional development workshops ahead of time. I didn’t realize that I needed to do this during registration, so I just showed up to the workshop. Luckily, they had space available since it was an 8am workshop, so I was able to join. It’s important to register especially since popular workshops like resume development can be filled quickly.
5. Dress a little more comfortably, including bringing a better backpack. For the first two days, I wore business professional dresses. By the last day, I was tired of it, and resorted to jeans, a white t-shirt, and a cardigan. I wish I had packed more comfortable dresses or smart casual blouses and pants. I also brought a tote bag to carry my stuff around during the conference, but I got tired of lugging it around. I wish I brought my backpack instead, which would have alleviated my shoulder pain. Eventually, I got a free drawstring bag from the expo to hold my stuff.

Final Thoughts

Based on my experience, here are 5 final tips for you to make the most of attending an ACS conference:

1. Prepare your itinerary through the ACS conference app. Select events that interest you, and include ample time for transitions, break, and rest.
2. Make the most of your ACS membership by attending professional development workshops, networking, registering for career consulting, and getting your professional headshot.
3. Observe how other people present posters and research talks. Be engaged by asking questions, taking notes, and thinking about your own research as well.
4. Bring copies of your resume so you can share them with companies at the expo. Use the career fair as practice for networking with recruiters.
5. Pack clothes that you feel confident and comfortable wearing. Bring a good backpack to carry all the necessities (extra sweater, water bottle, snacks) and freebies you may get.

In the future, I plan to attend ACS in Denver and San Francisco. Next time, I will definitely invest more time into presenting research talks, attending industry networking events, and attending the interview and resume workshops specifically for industry positions.

I hope that you enjoyed reading about my personal experience and takeaways from my chemistry PhD journey. If you’d like to chat more about what I’ve shared, feel free to send me an email at hello@brittanytrinh.com or send me a message on Twitter and Instagram @brttnytrnh.