Is completing workshops as a graduate student worth it?

[crazypsychstudent]

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My PsyD program keeps sending us emails about various workshops. Of course they're very interesting, but time is hard to come by unfortunately these days..Therefore, I was wondering if completing workshops actually "looks good" or is beneficial in any way (besides the knowledge you gain from it, I'm more concerned with if it makes you more competitive for practicum and internship or not). Thank you!

 

[WisNeuro]

If someone received supervised clinical training in something, like CPT or PE via a regional or national trainer at the VA, definitely a bonus on an application. If someone attended a half-day workshop somewhere, meh, nothing special the majority of the time.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I go to workshops now because the trip is paid for and it helps me to stay current and in the learning mindset. As a grad student, the learning mindset is where you live. If you want to and can go to a workshop for whatever personal reasons, by all means go, but no one else will care that much about it.

 

[Phanicus]

If someone received supervised clinical training in something, like CPT or PE via a regional or national trainer at the VA, definitely a bonus on an application. If someone attended a half-day workshop somewhere, meh, nothing special the majority of the time.

Is it worth even adding these small workshops to your CV, then? Would they dilute a CV in any way?

 

[WisNeuro]

Is it worth even adding these small workshops to your CV, then? Would they dilute a CV in any way?

It depends. If it's a nationally recognized workshop (e.g., Patty Resick doing a CPT workshop), could help. But, I've seen people add in like 20 regional conference workshops, along with every time they attended a didactic presentation in grad school and/or internship. It's annoying, and makes me think that person has no idea how to construct a CV. Usually, the rest of the application is equally bad.

When it comes to a CV, think about what highlights will make your training stand out, and what will make you stand out from the applicant field.

 

[Phanicus]

It depends. If it's a nationally recognized workshop (e.g., Patty Resick doing a CPT workshop), could help. But, I've seen people add in like 20 regional conference workshops, along with every time they attended a didactic presentation in grad school and/or internship. It's annoying, and makes me think that person has no idea how to construct a CV. Usually, the rest of the application is equally bad.

When it comes to a CV, think about what highlights will make your training stand out, and what will make you stand out from the applicant field.

Thanks for the insight. I heard recently that a CV should contain EVERYTHING you've done but I could see how this would get messy and diluted if one were to fill it with a bunch of low level presentations, etc

 

[WisNeuro]

Thanks for the insight. I heard recently that a CV should contain EVERYTHING you've done but I could see how this would get messy and diluted if one were to fill it with a bunch of low level presentations, etc

Yeah, a clusterf**k of a CV is about as bad as a threadbare one. A lot of times it definitely looks like some students are throwing in fluff to try and cover for a lack of any real substance to their application.

 

[Phanicus]

Yeah, a clusterf**k of a CV is about as bad as a threadbare one. A lot of times it definitely looks like some students are throwing in fluff to try and cover for a lack of any real substance to their application.

This is all really helpful. I think mine might be a little fluffy so I'm going to give it an update. Thanks

 

[deleted343839]

Thanks for the insight. I heard recently that a CV should contain EVERYTHING you've done but I could see how this would get messy and diluted if one were to fill it with a bunch of low level presentations, etc

My CV contains everything I've produced (papers, talks, posters, even treatment manuals), but not everything I've attended. I don't think that attendance at a conference or workshop warrants a line on the CV, but you can definitely bring it up in other ways (personal statements, etc.) if what you learned was important to your professional development or made a difference in your practice or research.

 

[WisNeuro]

My CV contains everything I've produced (papers, talks, posters, even treatment manuals), but not everything I've attended. I don't think that attendance at a conference or workshop warrants a line on the CV, but you can definitely bring it up in other ways (personal statements, etc.) if what you learned was important to your professional development or made a difference in your practice or research.

Agree on this point, production is definitely important to be inclusive on. With some minor caveats. If all of your posters are at your university's "research day," it doesn't look good. I've seen that before, listing about a dozen "posters" but zero having been presented at a regional or national conference.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Agree w WiseNeuro.

Trimming your CV can somewhat depend on where you are in your training/career (e.g. leave off local/regional presentations if you are mid career and have plenty nationally), though trainings should have a high bar. The VA one was a good example bc that matters within the VA system.

 

[WisNeuro]

Agree w WiseNeuro.

Trimming your CV can somewhat depend on where you are in your training/career (e.g. leave off local/regional presentations if you are mid career and have plenty nationally), though trainings should have a high bar. The VA one was a good example bc that matters within the VA system.

Very good point. My CV now no longer has some things that it had when I was a grad student applying for internship. Job sites no longer care that I was president of the grad student association at my school and such. Like the Constitution, your CV is a living document. Update it according to the career stage and needs of your current status. But, throughout your career, take out the fluff.

One thing you should do, give your CV to someone who evaluates applications for things like internship and postdoc, let them give you feedback on what's in it, and what should or should not be in it.

 

[temppsych123]

My program recommended us to put any training that's a half day or more by someone recognized on our CV, but yes, you want to make it clear why the training was relevant. For example, if you have lots of CBT practicum experience and did a half day general intro to CBT, that's not going to give you a huge leg up. But if you got more unique training in a particular therapy (especially by someone well-known) or if you got training in an area that you are lacking in some way, that would be useful. For example, my program doesn't do much training (really any) on program evaluation, even though lots of psychologists do it, so they brought in a full-day speaker to do a workshop on how program evaluation works, what psychologists' role in it can be, etc. Does it mean I'm going to be competitive for internships or jobs that are primarily program evaluation, with no other experience? No. Does it show I have some idea of what program evaluation is and would know where to start to get further training? Yes.

 

[BizQuick]

Question for folks evaluating internship applications: if I really want to do a therapy that your site likes, but my program doesn't have training opportunities for that therapy due to reasons outside of my control, is it at all worth it to do trainings at national conferences? Or are internships generally only interested in the supervised experiences people have had?

 

[WisNeuro]

Question for folks evaluating internship applications: if I really want to do a therapy that your site likes, but my program doesn't have training opportunities for that therapy due to reasons outside of my control, is it at all worth it to do trainings at national conferences? Or are internships generally only interested in the supervised experiences people have had?

It depends, does my site offer specific training in that therapy modality? If so, it can be seen as a good fit indicator, speaking about training that you wish to receive at a site. But, if someone bills themselves as having a ton of experience with PTSD but has zero training in PE or CPT, that's a red flag. It all depends on what you are billing yourself as, and what you are wanting additional depth and breadth in.

And generally, we're more interested in supervised training. Conferences and workshops are great, but they are a far cry from actually being supervised in something.

 

[temppsych123]

Question for folks evaluating internship applications: if I really want to do a therapy that your site likes, but my program doesn't have training opportunities for that therapy due to reasons outside of my control, is it at all worth it to do trainings at national conferences? Or are internships generally only interested in the supervised experiences people have had?

Echo what WisNeuro said - it's going to depend on the site. I just finished the match process (and had a good result!) and sites that were very into one specific type of therapy (for example, DBT) cared less about classes I took and workshops I'd attended than the fact that I didn't have supervised experience doing it. If it's a site where that would be one rotation out of many, though, a workshop might show you have interest and a basic understanding of what it is.

If there's a real major focus you want, and your program doesn't provide that training, you'll have to get creative - reaching out to community and hospital providers in your area who do what you're interested in but don't yet supervise students, or even going somewhere for a summer to do a placement elsewhere that gets you training. The latter being something that I've done and other students I know have done to get more specialized experience that was really important for where we wanted to go next. Good luck, OP!

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Agreed with both WisNeuro and temppsych. To build on their posts somewhat, if someone's extremely limited in the opportunities for a particular type of therapy while in grad school, I personally would view a student having attended related workshops/talks in a positive light (with a caveat). In my mind, it would show that the person was at least interested enough to go outside their program to attend some type of exposure to the treatment.

The caveat being, as WisNeuro said, it's very much in how you bill yourself and your training. You definitely don't want to oversell your experience. If you haven't had supervised training, it's possible that a one-year internship may not be able to get you to a level of full competence by the time you finish. Demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of this can be important.

Although if the interest demonstrates a marked shift from pretty much the entirety of a person's grad school career and training, it might be a bit more of a red flag to me. It's one thing to say you've done CBT and IPT in folks with mood disorders, and now want to get some training in ACT; it's another to have been working almost exclusively with PTSD in adults in grad school, and then deciding you want to focus on Autism-spectrum assessment and intervention in kiddos while on internship.