<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><item href="/blog/academics-and-career/etiquette-dinner-professional-dev.html" dsn="blogs"><title>I Came for Dinner, Left with Confidence</title><description>As graduate students, we spend a lot of time developing technical skills in our fields. But professional success often depends just as much on how we present ourselves, communicate with others, and make people feel valued. That’s what made the etiquette dinner such a meaningful professional development experience. </description><category>Career</category><featuredImage><img src="/blog/_files/images/2026/etiquette-dinner-professional-dev/professional-development.png" alt="authors table at the dinner"/></featuredImage><author>Victoria F.</author><pubDate>06/09/2026 10:18:36 AM</pubDate><tags><tag>_DO NOT USE TAGS - They will be deleted!</tag></tags></item>