graphic of professional development web page

When is the right time for graduate students to think about career directions?

It’s never too late — or too soon! At every stage of your studies, you’ll be wise to plan how to meet your career goals. Graduate Professional Services (GPS) is here to help.

GPS is an outgrowth of the Task Force on Graduate Student and Postdoc Professional Development co-convened by the Graduate Assembly and the Graduate Division in 2013. It draws significantly on input from graduate students and Berkeley graduate alumni from a wide range of careers.

GPS builds on existing Graduate Division professional development programs:

  • Graduate Writing Center (formerly Academic Services)
  • GSI Teaching & Resource Center
  • Student Mentoring and Research Teams (SMART)
  • Summer Institute for Preparing Future Faculty

and strengthens professional development partnerships with:

  • Graduate Assembly
  • Career Center
  • Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs
  • Departments
  • Other professional development networks

GPS connects resources and activities that can guide you in identifying and developing professional skills as an integral part of your graduate studies, and help you prepare for the career of your choice, whether in academia, public service, or the private sector.


Interactive Professional Development Guide

  • Explore the new Graduate Student Professional Development Guide. The Guide highlights competencies that every graduate student needs — in gaining advanced knowledge and honing communication, leadership, professionalism, research, and teaching – and point to specific steps you can while in graduate school to prepare for your future career.
  • A new online Calendar of Workshops and Events gives information on relevant activities wherever they occur on campus and shows how they connect to skill-building and career planning.

New GPS Center in Sproul Hall

Aaron, Fiona, Rose

The new Graduate Division GPS Center at 309 Sproul Hall offers a flexible multi-purpose space for professional development activities in partnership with existing and emerging student, faculty, and staff projects. Watch for announcement of the Center’s Grand Opening in October!

Fiona M. Doyle, Dean of the Graduate Division, is excited to oversee the launch of Graduate Professional Services. She notes that “Berkeley’s scholars apply their knowledge and know-how to diverse employment settings. Building on initiatives by faculty, staff, and graduate students themselves to support career planning, GPS will provide much-needed coordination of campus resources and expand students’ professional preparation for a wide range of careers, both within and beyond academia.”

This past summer Aaron Smyth, Chair of the Graduate Assembly’s Workgroup for Professional Development, and Linda von Hoene, Assistant Dean for Professional Development in the Graduate Division, began to strengthen partnerships on campus and develop more online resources. A new GPS Resource Coordinator will soon be on board to direct the day-to-day functions of the GPS Center and coordinate further outreach and programming.

Begin now to prepare for the career — or careers — awaiting you!