Career Management
Managing your career involves all aspects of career development, from self-assessment, to career exploration, and ultimately applying for positions. Graduate education or postdoctoral training also provides a diversity of career opportunities - including academia, industry, government, and non-profit agencies.
Skill Review
Review these skills, and consider if you have already developed the skill enough for your future career plans, expect to develop the skill as part of your program, or need to find additional resources to support developing the skill:
- Identify and apply for jobs and/or internships that match my skills, interests, and values.
- Confidently express my career goals based on exposure to a variety of career options.
- Build and maintain a professional network.
- Maintain and curate a professional online presence.
- Understand the purpose and structure of internships and other experiential opportunities.
- Effectively navigate recruitment events such as career fairs and networking nights.
- Effectively navigate social-professional events such as conferences.
- Employ professional negotiation skills to advocate for my professional growth and development.
- Evaluate and negotiate the terms on an initial employment offer.
- Plan and manage my career development (with or without an Individual Development Plan).
- Prepare effective job and/or internship application documents.
- Effectively communicate my qualifications in an interview setting.
- Understand the legal limitations of my level of work authorization.
On Demand Content
The Career Center provides dedicated resources for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in their MPP (Masters, PhDs, and Postdocs) unit. Among these are career guides for careers in academia as well as non-academic careers, and the annual Career Resource Manual that serves as an excellent resource for resumes, CVs, cover letters, and interview preparation. The Career Center YouTube Channel contains many on-demand videos on how to use HandShake, networking, job searches, applying, offers, negotiations, and many more topics.
Individual Development Plans can be key for defining career goals and planning out training and experiences to lead to success.
Courses and Workshops
The Career Center leads the quarterly course AMS 298: Career Decision Making for Advanced Degree Students (listed as "Group Study"). This course aims to guide advanced degree students through career exploration and preparation of professional correspondence documents. Students will explore employment options, engage in career readiness and enhance skills for navigating the advanced degree job market utilizing design thinking. Highly interactive sessions include self-assessment and occupational research, skills development (networking, writing for the job search, interviewing) and interdisciplinary interactions with career professionals from a variety of industries and work environments.
In addition, the Career Center runs regular Career Fairs that bring hundreds of prospective employers to campus, including sessions or fairs specific to advanced degree holders. These Fairs often come with "Prepare for the Fair" sessions, and make excellent neetworking opportunities to check what jobs are currently trending and what employers are currently seeking.
The Career Center offers regular workshops, including Know Your Strengths workshops that help students and postdocs develop self-awareness about their top five CliftonStrengths and how to effectively apply them with facilitated activities by a CliftonStrengths certified coach.
Career Counseling
The Career Center offers 30-minute appointments to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for in-depth career planning assistance, in person or virtually. These appointments can be used for career exploration, resume/CV/cover letter review, job searches, interview preparation and practice, coaching, and offers and negotiations.
Additional Resources
Income Generation Toolkit for Undocumented Students