By Daniel Moseson, Ph.D., Graduate Career Coach, Career & Professional Development Center
Сareer & Professional Development Center supports students at any stage of their education, from their first year of college to the end of a PhD program. Dan Moseson, Ph.D., is a Graduate Career Coach who specializes in helping University of Utah students navigate their graduate career experiences.
Dan prepared a list of excellent resources designed for graduate students exploring a range of career paths. If you are an undergraduate student thinking about applying for a graduate program, keep these resources in mind as you begin to consider the “why” of your graduate degree and what comes after it.
Don’t let the name fool you – ImaginePhD is a free career planning tool for doctoral and master’s degree students in the humanities and social sciences (and, in my estimation, the arts as well). It was created by professionals from the Graduate Career Consortium, an international organization comprised of higher education professionals leading career and professional development for graduate students and postdocs. It features assessments to get a handle on your interests, skills and values, career exploration resources for eight specific job families, and a planning function to help work methodically toward your goals.
MyIDP is a free career exploration and planning service for PhD students and postdocs in the sciences created and hosted by the journal Science. IDP stands for “individual development plan”, a method frequently used in industry to help employees refine and achieve their career goals. Like ImaginePhD, MyIDP features assessments to reflect on your skills, interests, and values as well as information on a range of possible scientific career paths, a goal-setting tool to keep you on track, and multiple other articles and career resources.
Carpe Careers is a blog from Inside Higher Ed featuring expert perspectives on all career issues facing graduate students and alums. Written by professionals from the Graduate Career Consortium, these articles dive into aspects of the academic job market, career transitions, networking, interviewing, diversity, equity, and inclusion, career exploration, transferable skills, and other topics.
U of U alum and a career coach Danielle De La Mare hosts the Self-Compassionate Professor podcast. She and her fascinating guests aim to help professors (including future and former ones) find careers that sustain physical and mental health and happiness as well as productivity. They explore the many ways academic and other careers can turn toxic and share how they found successful and sustainable careers both inside and outside the academic world. This podcast is most directly focused on mid-career professors but I highly recommend it for graduate students and alumni as well.
When our Ontario colleague Chris Cornthwaite isn’t training the secret cyborg MechaMoose that guard Canada’s strategic stockpile of poutine and TimBits, he’s running Roostervane, a career development platform helping a wide range of folks leverage their degrees to find success and happiness. There’s a selection of free content and paid access to a wider range of resources. What makes Roostervane different is its introductory content for those interested in starting businesses and building wealth – subjects often treated as taboo in graduate programs.
I first learned about The Lucrative Artist when its founder Brian Witkowksi joined an episode of the Self-Compassionate Professor podcast to talk about career exploration and attitudes about money. Brian built this business coaching service for artists (and others) after completing his Doctorate of Musical Arts degree and teaching as well as performing in a variety of settings. Through his Web platform, Brian offers paid coaching on entrepreneurship and financial literacy as well as free content through his blog. His podcast interview linked above inspired me to invest in new camera equipment for the photography practice I hope to turn into a business.
This one is not designed for grad students but I recommend it anyway. If you’re taking your first step away from the faculty track and into, well, almost any other line of work, there are likely to be unwritten rules, business practices, and styles of management you’re not familiar with. You may find a useful resource in this blog run by a management consultant Alison Green. There’s a wide range of helpful advice on being a manager yourself, getting what you want from work, negotiating boundaries around your employer’s behavior, asking for a raise, and, most importantly, workplace duck discourse.
This is just a sample of the many resources available to help graduate students in their career journeys. For more, visit the CPDC graduate Web site. For an in-depth conversation with your designated Graduate Career Coach, just scroll down to “Meet Your Career Coaches,” where you’ll log into Handshake to make an appointment. We look forward to meeting you!
*This information is for educational purposes only. Career & Professional Development Center does not represent or endorse any of the above-mentioned resources.