For me, at least, it helped me land a job. I was told one of the reasons my team hired me was because of my excellent communication skills; skills that I developed and honed throughout my 3MT experience. Even though I'm new to the job, my team looks to me for data visualization ideas, diagrams, and quick summaries of complex topics. Another aspect of my current position is distilling down a ton of information into quick, digestible forms for a broad audience...which is kind of the whole point of the 3MT competition. So yep. Definitely applicable and very helpful in ‘the real world.’

I found the entire 3MT process to be very helpful for learning how to communicate my research to a diverse audience, which is not something that I had practiced in the past. I found it very refreshing to be able to use my creativity to tell the story behind my research, and I enjoyed the entire process. I am glad that I decided to compete last year, as I was kind of on the fence about it, but it ended up being the right decision. 

Winning the 3MT opened a lot of doors for me; I was interviewed for several news articles and I have made many new connections that I would not have without participating in the 3MT. I also found out about the Fulbright US Student Program through attending the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools’s regional 3MT. The 3MT has made my application a lot stronger, and I believe that it will be very useful once I finish my degree and start looking for my future career. I continue to use what I learned during the 3MT when describing my work to people outside of my field, which really helps when meeting new people and networking.