What Graduate Students Actually Ask Us

Every week, GradPro’s Professional Development Liaisons (PDLs) meet one-on-one with graduate students from across campus. Students arrive from every corner of Berkeley: first-year master’s students, incoming students who have not yet moved to the Bay Area, Ph.D. candidates weeks away from filing, and mid-career professionals returning to school after a decade or more in the workforce.

A surprising number of those conversations open the same way: “I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask, but…”

It usually is! Below are the questions we hear most often, what tends to be underneath them, and where we point students who are asking. Think of these questions as a preview of what a consultation can do for you or as a starting point if you would rather explore on your own first.

This is the single most common reason students book with us, and it is a completely legitimate one. Berkeley is a large campus with a lot of offices, and GradPro is intended to be the hub that connects you to the resources and services these offices offer. We want you to be aware of every opportunity on and off campus that will help you succeed in graduate school and launch the next stage of your career.

In these appointments we usually take a tour together: first the GradPro website, next our Professional Development Guide and our resource list, and then on to the campus offices that specialize in meeting a range of graduate students’ needs. Although many resources exist, we help graduate students by creating a targeted list of resources that they can explore further after the consultation. Our approach is to assist graduate students in figuring out which two or three resources would be helpful to prioritize that semester so that they can meet their goals. And of course, graduate students are welcome to return for additional resources and support– our virtual door is open!

So remember, you do not need a highly detailed question to book a consultation. “Show me what’s here” is a fine agenda to meet with us!

Career exploration outside of academia is the topic we discuss most, and it comes up across every discipline, from the humanities and social sciences to STEM. Graduate students in professional degree programs also seek support in career exploration, as do returning students who have significant experience. Needing support in this nebulous project is common. 

What tends to help first is not a job board. It is a self assessment. Tools like ImaginePhD, Versatile PhD, and myIDP ask what you actually enjoy doing, what you are good at, and what you value in a workplace, then suggest career families that fit. Students who have done one of these assessments come back with much sharper questions, which makes every conversation after it more useful.

From there we usually connect students to Berkeley Career Engagement, discipline-specific offices with specialized knowledge, and ongoing events to help graduate students explore different sectors. These offices can help you take the next steps, such as preparing materials and identifying employers.

Almost everyone says a version of this, and then are surprised to hear that most people feel this way (at least according to our conversations).

Part of the answer is reframing what networking is. It can take many forms and can be a byproduct of showing up somewhere consistently: volunteering with an organization whose work you care about, joining a professional or disciplinary association and going to its events, serving on a campus committee, or helping plan a conference panel or workshop rather than only attending one. Helping organize something puts you in contact with the people running it, which is a very different position than being one face in the audience. Those relationships build slowly and without anyone having to ask a favor.

Informational interviews are another practical answer, and they are less intimidating than they sound: a short, low-stakes conversation with someone doing work you are curious about. In consultations we talk through how to find those people (the Berkeley alumni network and LinkedIn are the usual starting points), how to write the outreach message, what to ask once you are in the conversation, and how to keep track of who you have talked to.

The mindset shift matters as much as the mechanics. Whether you are asking someone for twenty minutes to talk about their career or simply staying in touch with people you met while volunteering, you are buildin

We refer graduate students to Berkeley Career Engagement appointments specifically for resumes, CVs, and cover letters. These appointments can be made directly on Handshake. The Graduate Writing Center and the GSI Teaching and Resource Center provide support around  research and teaching statements, but these also need the review of graduate advisors for discipline-specific expectations and conventions.

What we can do is help you figure out which appointment to book, what to bring to it, and what the document is supposed to accomplish in the first place. For interview preparation, we usually introduce Big Interview and job simulation platforms so you can practice before the conversation that counts.

Yes, it does!  But international students must plan around additional layers: work authorization, on-campus employment eligibility, and which employers offer visa sponsorship.

The Berkeley International Office is the authority on anything related to visas, and we refer to them early and often, including their drop-in virtual advising and their in-person drop-in advising. In addition, we talk about how to filter job platforms for sponsoring employers, how to look for on-campus positions, and how to build in a longer runway to complete additional tasks that international students have as part of their career preparation.

Time management, notetaking, and juggling competing priorities come up constantly, especially from students balancing coursework with research, teaching, caregiving, and other jobs.

The tools we return to are simple. The GradPro Semester Goal Setting Workbook is usually where we start, paired with goal setting templates that distinguish between process goals and outcome goals. If you want models for what those look like in practice, this list of example goals and sub-goals for PhD researchers and QB3 Berkeley’s SMART goal samples are both worth a look. 

From there we zoom out. An Individual Development Plan connects what you are doing this month to where you want to be in one to five years, and Imagine PhD’s suggested goal for your IDP is a useful starting point if a blank page feels daunting. Our Academic and Professional Development One-Year Plan offers a shorter horizon for students who would rather plan a year at a time. 

Plans only help if you sit down and do the work, so we also talk about what makes that easier. The Pomodoro Technique is a well-worn approach to breaking procrastination into manageable intervals, and Focusmate pairs you with someone else online for a scheduled working session, which is surprisingly effective if accountability is what you are missing. Several students also use recurring GradPro consultations as an accountability check, which we actively encourage. 

Mentorship questions come up often as graduate students work towards degree milestones and take steps to advance their careers. We listen to graduate students with a range of concerns: an advisor who does not seem available enough, a lab that is not the right fit, uncertainty about how to assemble a committee, or simply not knowing who to ask about degree requirements.

Our consistent message is the need to build a whole mentorship network. We talk about “mentoring up,” identifying multiple mentors for different needs, and connecting with your Graduate Student Affairs Officer, your department’s academic advisors, and students further along in your program. When a conversation surfaces something outside our scope, we make sure you leave with the right campus contact.For students who want to go further, we point to “Getting the Mentoring You Need” and to GSPDP 301: Effective Mentoring in Higher Education, a semester-long course on navigating advising relationships.

Consultations are held over Zoom, typically last thirty minutes, and are free to Berkeley graduate students. Graduate students do not need to prepare anything, although the intake form asks a few questions so the PDL can identify resources before the appointment.

We are a hub and complement the opportunities, support, and resources from departments and specialist offices. Most appointments end with two or three concrete next steps and a warm handoff to whoever is best positioned to help. Many students come back the following semester with a sharper question, which is exactly how this is meant to work.

If any of the questions above sounded like something you have been carrying around, that is reason enough to book. Visit the GradPro website to schedule a consultation, and subscribe to the GradPro Digest to hear about upcoming workshops.

This article was written by Joni Landeros-Cisneros, a PhD Candidate in the Berkeley School of Education and a Professional Development Liaison with the Graduate Division.