Speaker 1: Hey y'all. This is future PhD Dr. E here and this is my last vlog of the season. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the vlogs either in my private channel or if these vlogs will be reinstalled for season two but in case I don't, I want to make sure this episode is very special. Regardless if you go to graduate school or not, regardless if you do a PhD or master's, regardless if you go to academia or industry, I think this episode will be meaningful for everyone who watches it. Consider this a thank you for all the people who've watched me since day one with that very very atrocious first episode. So with that, let's get into it. Hello everyone. This is future PhD Dr. E and this is another episode of putting the U back into graduate school. Today's topic we're going to talk about Norman. So Norman starts for the National Research Mentoring Network and I don't think I can overstate how important mentoring is but for those who are still unconvinced, here's the reasons why mentoring is important. Number one, connections. As the old adage goes, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Finding a great mentor can definitely get the connections to get the dream job you always wanted. Number two, knowledge. My mother always told me don't make my mistakes, make your own and a mentor can definitely give you a lot of knowledge such as who to work for, who to avoid working for, as well as things that they tried and failed and through their experience you can learn what works and what doesn't. But say you don't want to do your research anymore. Say you want to do law or regulation or maybe something outside of science. Mentors can be a great source of finding a pathway to something that you want to do now. You'd be surprised. A lot of mentors have a lot of experience changing fields and they even if they can't help you, they can definitely find someone who can. So with that, let's get into Norman. But, minor disclaimer, Norman was originally developed for people in the biomedical sciences. However, that shouldn't deter you from using the Norman Network because the same skills that you learn for one job are the same skills you need to learn for another. For example, do you think a president at a battery company has different skills than a president at a drug company? Nope. The only difference are the final details, but don't let those smaller details distract you from the larger picture. All right, so there are two biggest features of Norman. The first is MyNorman. So MyNorman allows you to browse profiles of registered Norman mentors and mentees from around the country, build your network by connecting with mentees and mentors that share the same interests as you, send direct messages to your connections, share documents, build your CV, and set appointments with your mentee mentor through your personal calendar. Finally, invite new mentees and mentors to the Norman Network to connect with you. So basically, MyNorman is professional social media. However, unlike LinkedIn, the user engagement is so much higher and all the mentors we've had have told us, get a LinkedIn. But it's such a social obligation, a lot of people don't respond to it. But with MyNorman, people want to be there, people want to help you, people want to get helped. So the response rate is so much better and faster than LinkedIn. Also, LinkedIn is very pay-to-win in the sense you have to pay more money for people to notice you and your profile to be more active. However, Norman is completely free and the algorithm does not play favorites in terms of money. And now, the next feature we're going to talk about in Norman is MyMentor. So MyMentor allows you to find a partner using the algorithm or they can find a mentoring partner for you to establish a long-term mentoring connection facilitated by guided prompts and create and work towards accomplishing your personal goal. And that's it. It's really that easy. So join Norman, make an account, find a mentor, expand your network, work hard, profit in your career. This is FuturePhD, the top three, signing off. And thank you for watching. Bye y'all.