Professional & Career Development

Online Career Development Resources

The resources below can help you advance your graduate career and aid you in your professional and personal development. 

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Career Planning Tools and Self-Assessments

An Individual Development Plan will help you explore career options and create a roadmap of how to get there. This plan will also help your faculty mentor give you the training you need for your chosen path. The following online tools will help you assess your skills, interests, and values, identify career options that align these, and learn more about diverse career paths.

• myIDP - Created for biosciences, but is applicable to a broad range of STEM fields.
• ImagineIDP - Built with the humanities and social sciences in mind but can be used by those in STEM fields as well. Explores many career options outside of technical careers.
• ChemIDP - Developed by the American Chemical Society, this is best suited for students with chemistry or chemical engineering background.

Exploring Career Options

• Inside Higher Ed Careers - Career advice for both academic and nonacademic career paths, working at different types of academic institutions, and application material tips.
• ChronicleVitae - Not only can you explore academic paths, but ChronicleVitae offers video tutorials to help you explore all your career options. Notable webinars for nonacademic careers include, "7 Tips for Going Beyond the Professoriate", "Covering Your Alt-Ac Cover Letter Bases", "How to Painlessly Convert Your CV to a Résumé", and "How to Start Your Academic Side Business".
• Science Careers - Utilize their career tools (myIDP), search for postdoc positions and jobs, learn about career trends, and receive advice on application materials, interviewing, and long term career goals.
• "Your job options after a PhD – in a diagram", article by Chris Humphrey, PhD, author of the Jobs on Toast Blog.
• Careers Beyond Academia Series, developed by Duke University's Postdoctoral Services, features panel discussions on careers in science writing, tech transfer, publishing, data science, regulatory affairs, and more. Stream these panels from their YouTube account. See their 2016-2017 video playlist here and their 2014 - 2015 video playlist here.
• InterSECT Job Simulations - Interactive simulation exercises for those considering a career transition, plus guides on informational interviews, setting SMART goals, and self-reflection. Developed by the Washington University-St. Louis.

Discipline-Specific Career Resources

• APA Career Development Website - Developed by the American Psychological Association, includes information on academic and nonacademic careers, career guides, job search advice and resources. 
• iBiology Careers - Biologists can explore career options, improve professional skills, navigate training and learn what is happening in the biomedical workforce.
• Connected Academics, by the Modern Language Association - MLA project aimed to help humanities doctoral students can use their training in a broad range of careers.
• AHA Career Center - Career resources for Historians. Review their interactive online database, Where Historians Work, to learn about PhD career outcomes for Historians between 2004 - 2013.

Academic Job Search

• ChronicleVitae - Search academic job posting and get advice on how to approach the academic job search. Notable webinars include, "How to Write a Research Statement", "How to Organize a Job Talk", and "Preparing for Your Campus Visit".
• The Professor Is In - Dr. Karen Kelsky offers a roadmap to searching and applying for academic positions through her book and blog. Sign up for her listserv and receive notifications of free webinars. See her talk on The Campus Visit to learn about expectations about oncampus interviews.
• Academic Job Search Series, developed by Duke University's Postdoctoral Services, features workshops and panel discussions on faculty job applications, interviewing for academic positions, and other career options in academia.  Stream these panels from their YouTube account. See their 2017-2018 video playlist here and their 2015 - 2016 video playlist here.