photo of graduate student presenting

What is GradPro?

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

How can GradPro, faculty, and departments collaborate?

GradPro 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 Scholar Professional Development.

GradPro Staff can be invited to speak with departments’ graduate students, faculty, and staff about professional development resources. GradPro Staff are also available for individual consultations with graduate students to help with professional development planning.

GradPro can also help your department to:

  • Inform students and faculty about professional development online resources, such as ImaginePhD, Versatile PhD, and My IDP.
  • Schedule a town hall on professional development.
  • Establish and foster relationships with campus partners dedicated to graduate student professional development.
  • Create workshops and/or courses on professional development and incorporate them into your program’s curriculum.
  • Conduct a professional development needs assessment and analyze results. Based on department-identified needs, GradPro can then connect your department with resources and assist in the establishment of departmental or discipline-cluster professional/career development programming.
  • And more!

The GradPro 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, our Student Services, and the list of GradPro partners and programs.

For more information about how GradPro can help your department or share strategies and initiatives within your department, please contact [email protected].

Professional Development Liaison (PDL) Internship Program

The Professional Development Liaison (PDL) program brings UC Berkeley graduate students from different departments together as interns. PDLs work with Linda Louie and Linda von Hoene in creating new initiatives for graduate professional development within the Graduate Division, as well as serving as outreach partners to help individual academic departments connect with and develop more extensive professional development offerings. PDLs are trained to serve as department-level experts in the professional and career development resources available to doctoral and professional students. Working collaboratively, they help departments use these resources to meet department-identified professional development needs.

Professional Associations with Career Development Resources

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society website has a professional development guidebook for people seeking STEM careers, including career assessments, skills inventory lists, and information on networking, informational interviews, and more.


Modern Language Association: Connected Academics

Connected Academics The MLA’s Connected Academics program has a number of resources for people seeking careers in modern languages both within and outside of academia. In addition to their annual Career Development Boot Camp Fellowship program, they have an extensive blog, and excellent resources and advice for faculty and departments on professional development.


American Historical Association

The AHA has its own career center website for both academic and non-academic jobs in history and the humanities, an advice column, statistics on where historians work, information on workshops and podcasts on career diversity, and more.


American Association for the Advancement of Science

AAAS links to numerous tools for STEMs careers, including job postings, volunteer opportunities, and classroom education tools. They also have a networking platform where AAAS members can seek career advice and mentoring from peers or senior members.

 

Linguistic Society

The Linguistics Society career development resources include research and statistics on graduate school, as well as tools to navigate the academic and non-academic job markets.


American Public Health Association

APHA’s Public Health CareerMart has numerous resources to connect job seekers with employers. Their resources include a Career Learning Center, Career Coaching, Resume Writing, and Reference Checking. Many of their resources are available for free in online videos.


Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows Program: Expanding the Reach of Doctoral Education in the Humanities

The Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows Program is a 2-year fellowship in which recent PhDs from the humanities or humanistic social sciences are paired with nonprofits or government organizations to work and receive professional mentoring. The partnering organizations change annually.


American Philosophers Association: Beyond Academia

The APA’s Beyond Academia is a publication with statistics, job categories, interviews, biographical essays, and advice on applying for jobs outside of academia. Their booklet is helpful for anyone in a humanistic field.

American Psychological Association: Individual Development Planning Tool

The APA’s Individual Development Planning Tool can help all academics think ahead in terms of career planning. Users can take self-assessments, research job opportunities, set goals, and create an individual plan to help them achieve those goals.


American Astronomical Association

The American Astronomical Association’s career website has career advice and career profiles for academics and non-academics in astronomy, resources for communication outreach, numerous links to job sites, and employment statistics. Many of their resources are applicable to other STEMs fields.


Council of Graduate Schools: PhD Career Pathways

The PhD Career Pathways project is a large scale project that collects data on PhD trajectories during and after graduate school in both STEMs and Humanities/Social Science fields. They also have some professional development resources for students, particularly in STEMs fields.