Graduate Professional Development (GPD) collaborates with graduate program faculty and departments to offer activities and resources that help graduate students recognize potential career paths, set professional development goals, and build skills vital to a variety of careers, both within and beyond the academy.

---

Promising Practices: Steps Departments Can Take to Support the Professional and Career Development of Graduate Students

GPD collects and shares resources that faculty and departments can use to support the professional development of graduate students. This list of promising practices was developed by the Graduate Council’s Advisory Committee on Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Professional Development. If your department has strategies or initiatives it would like to share, please contact gradpro@berkeley.edu.

Career Exploration and Preparation by Discipline

The resources below are organized by overarching disciplines. They can be shared with faculty, staff, and students as part of departmental professional development events, or added to a departmental bank of professional development resources.

Humanities and Social Sciences:

• Download “Selected Career Exploration Resources for Arts and Humanities Doctoral Students”
• Download “Selected Career Exploration Resources for Social Sciences Doctoral Students”
• ImaginePhD: A free, online career exploration and planning tool for Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars in humanities and social sciences
• Beyond Academia: This student-run group’s annual conference and other events include many panels and panelists specific to the humanities and social sciences (see a past conference schedule here)
• Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities: The Townsend Center sponsors professional development workshops for graduate students several times a year
• VersatilePhD: Non-academic career resources designed for humanities and social sciences Ph.D. students (sample resumes and cover letters, panel discussions, job postings)
• The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity: Berkeley’s institutional membership gives grad students, postdocs, and faculty access to online webinars, writing challenges, and motivational tools
• Modern Language Association: Connected Academics and Doctoral Student Career Planning Toolkit
• American Historical Association: Career Diversity for Historians and Career Diversity Faculty Institutes

 STEM:

• Download “Selected Career Exploration Resources for STEM Doctoral Students”
• MyIDP: A free, online career exploration and planning tool to help Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars in the sciences develop an individual development plan (IDP)
• Student initiatives offering professional development programs designed for STEM Ph.D. students include Beyond Academia, Career Development Initiative for the Physical Sciences (CDIPS), MCB295, Science Leadership and Management (SLAM), and Thriving in Science
• VersatilePhD: Non-academic career resources for STEM Ph.D. students (sample resumes and cover letters, panel discussions, job postings)
• The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity: Berkeley’s institutional membership gives grad students, postdocs, and faculty access to online webinars, writing challenges, and motivational tools
• American Physical Society: Professional Guidebook and Tools for Career Advisors

Presentations & Consultations

GPD Staff can be invited to speak with departments’ graduate students, faculty, and staff about professional development resources for graduate students. GPD Staff are also available for individual consultations to assist graduate students with professional development planning. For more information, please contact gradpro@berkeley.edu.

Campus Resources & Events

The GPD website includes a number of resources designed to connect students with professional development opportunities on campus. We invite faculty to explore the Professional Development Guide, the calendar of workshops and events, and the list of GPD partners and programs.