Best Practices For Departments
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Best Practices For Departments
GradPro partnered with departments and other campus offices to develop this guidance. Faculty, staff, and students alike can adapt these practices for graduate student professional development in their respective departments. Please note that these are general guidelines and not all best practices are relevant to each department.
Connect Students and Faculty with Graduate Student Professional Development Resources
It is important that all students, staff, and faculty become familiar with the key resources available for graduate student professional development. While faculty and staff provide indispensable professional guidance to their advisees, it is often helpful to refer graduate students to professional development specialists whose skills complement and expand what graduate students receive in their departments. For non-academic career preparation and exploration in particular, for which faculty may have less experience, departments can refer students to resources and campus professionals, rather than needing to become experts in all career paths themselves.
There are two key professional development offices on campus to which faculty and staff should refer graduate students.
GradPro is the Graduate Division’s Professional Development Resource Hub. Students can sign-up for 1-on-1 confidential professional development consultations with Professional Development Liaisons, participate in accountability and peer-support Check-in Groups, or attend professional development workshops. These resources cover all stages of professional development, including career exploration and planning, completing academic milestones, skills development, and preparing for careers and job searches. In addition to directing students to the GradPro website, encourage students to sign up for the Professional Development Digest, a biweekly newsletter cataloging all upcoming professional development opportunities on campus, or visit the Events Calendar.
Students can also be referred to Career Engagement’s Ph.D. Career counselors, who offer workshops and 1-on-1 appointments, including feedback on job market materials, such as resumes, CVs, and cover letters.
Out of all the countless professional development resources available to graduate students, it is most important that faculty and staff are familiar with and can refer students to online career exploration tools. Career exploration tools are key to supporting students as they reflect on their career goals, values, skills, and interests. Career exploration tools will help students learn about job families and sectors, and identify what job families are a good fit for them. These tools can be valuable for nearly all graduate students, regardless of whether they are considering career options within academia, government, industry, non-profit, or other sectors.
ImaginePhD is a key career exploration and planning tool designed specifically for humanities and social sciences PhD students and postdoctoral scholars. It offers resources for self-assessment, career exploration, goal setting, and skill development to help users navigate their professional development and job search processes. MyIDP (Individual Development Plan) is a valuable online tool designed for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the sciences. It helps users assess their skills, interests, and values, explore various career paths, set specific career goals, and create a structured plan for achieving them.
Both GradPro Professional Development Liaisons and Career Engagement PhD Career Counselors can also individually support students with the career exploration process. Additionally, every Fall and Spring semester GradPro offers an Exploring Non-Academic Careers Workshop, which walks graduate students through the process of reflecting on what they want to get out of their career and introduces them to the breadth of sectors and job families that Masters and PhD graduates often pursue. Students looking to explore non-academic careers should also be encouraged to attend events offered by Beyond Academia.
It is a good practice to share these resources with students early, often, and proactively so that they are encouraged to begin the career exploration and planning process before they are nearing graduation. Beyond communicating these resources in informal contexts and advising meetings, these key resources can be communicated on department websites and in graduate student handbooks, as well as in courses. Upon request, GradPro can also provide an overview of key resources to incoming students during orientation or provide workshops in departments.
Faculty and staff can create and maintain a section in their departmental handbook for graduate students on professional development and career exploration resources to provide clear guidance on the diverse career opportunities and resources available to students. This can serve as a valuable tool for ensuring students are introduced to the essential steps they can take to explore career paths and plan for their career. It can also be a tool to connect students with key resources and opportunities available to them, including opportunities facilitated by GradPro, Career Engagement, and Beyond Academia. It also helps to formalize and make visible the department’s commitment to supporting students’ career goals, underscoring the importance of preparing graduates for successful careers both within and beyond academia. Additionally, including this section can support the development of a culture of openness about career diversity, reducing stigma around non-academic career paths and encouraging proactive planning.
Please use or adapt this text on professional development drafted for Departmental Handbooks drafted by GradPro.
Create a Supportive Professional Development and Mentoring Culture
Combined data from the 2021, 2022, and 2023 Student Experience Surveys of Berkeley graduate students show that 26% of doctoral students, 32% of academic masters students, and 25% of professional students reported some level of dissatisfaction with the career support they received in their program. More can be done to ensure that graduate students feel supported by their advisors and departments in understanding and preparing for various career paths. Below we outline several key steps that faculty and staff can take toward the goal of fostering a department culture supportive of diverse career paths.
It is important that faculty initiate regular meetings with their primary advisees and that they also initiate discussion on professional development topics. Both student advisees and academic advisors have a responsibility to identify the professional needs of the student and take action to meet those needs. The faculty advisor is a key source of information in the academic job search, in particular, and should provide their students with a realistic sense of what is needed to be competitive on the academic job market. Many students do not know the hidden curriculum of academia and expectations for the job search. Making these expectations and processes transparent to students will contribute to their success.
Regular check-ins on professional and career development can be built into existing mentoring structures. At a minimum, asking graduate students about career interests and professional development needs on a regular basis can signal great support. The Mentoring Graduate Students Checklist for Faculty and the Best Practices for Faculty Mentoring documents offer a comprehensive look at faculty mentoring best practices. Here are selected take-aways from these documents to guide your conversations with advisees:
Information to Share with Advisees
- Explicit expectations regarding when and how often they should publish as a graduate student.
- Detailed explanation of what the academic job search process entails and what is needed to be competitive on the academic job market, including expectations for teaching, research, and publication at different types of academic institutions.
- How to publish an article, from writing the article to selecting the journal, responding to feedback, revising for publication, working with editors, and handling rejection.
- The importance of developing a network of advisors and collaborators, and how to go about this.
- Expectations on attending academic conferences, applying to grants/fellowships, and meeting with you.
Questions to Ask Advisees
- What are your career goals? Have you explored multiple career paths?
- What have you done to make sure this career path is a good fit for you?
- What are your plans for publishing this year and during the program?
- Have you accessed career exploration and preparation resources from GradPro and writing resources from the Graduate Writing Center?
What to Provide Timely Feedback on
- Selecting a dissertation topic that is suited to their interests and career goals.
- Papers they are preparing for publication and grant applications.
- CVs, resumes, and cover letters.
- An Individual Development Plan.
Faculty can also work with graduate students to create individual professional development plans (IDPs), an activity that is now being required by some funding agencies that provide graduate student and postdoctoral scholar financial support.
An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a personalized document that outlines an individual’s academic, professional, and personal development goals. In the context of mentoring graduate students for professional development and career preparation, IDPs serve as valuable tools for both mentors and mentees to collaboratively set and track goals. Find examples of IDP templates you can direct your advisees to the Berkeley QB3 Career Individual Development Plan Resources page. These can be adapted for use for humanities and social sciences.
Graduate students, including PhD students across disciplines, have long chosen to pursue diverse careers, both academic and non-academic, and over the past two decades, the number of tenure-track positions has decreased significantly, causing graduate students to think broadly about career paths. Combined data from the 2022 and 2023 Doctoral Exit Surveys show that 46% of PhDs graduating from Berkeley were going on to non-academic jobs. There is evidence that PhDs who pursue careers outside of academia do not have lower job satisfaction than those with careers in academia (Lawson & Lopes-Bento, 2024). Faculty and staff can play an important role in supporting graduate students as they pursue a variety of successful and fulfilling non-academic careers.
Faculty and staff can benefit from staying informed about the range of industries where their discipline is relevant and recognize the unique and transferable skills and perspectives graduate students bring to these roles. Faculty and staff can better understand the job market for graduates in their department by engaging with alumni who have successfully transitioned into non-academic careers, attending workshops on non-academic career paths, such as those offered in the Beyond Academia Conference, and by reading up on the current job market trends.
Next, faculty and staff can actively create a supportive environment that validates non-academic career aspirations. This can be achieved by openly discussing and encouraging non-academic career options in seminars, coursework, and informal conversations. Faculty and staff should strive to normalize these career choices by highlighting the legitimacy and value of these professions, counteracting the stigma that sometimes exists within academic circles. Such conversations can help graduate students feel more confident in pursuing diverse career paths.
An important part of creating this supportive department culture is responding appropriately to student concerns. Some students fear retaliation or disengagement from advisors if they make their interest in non-academic careers publicly known. Make clear that retaliation is not tolerated on any grounds, and that students of all career aspirations should be supported in the department. The best practices listed below can also contribute to a department culture that acknowledges and destigmatizes the pursuit of non-academic careers.
Department-level needs assessments surveys can help a department in gathering information about graduate student and postdoc professional development and career exploration goals, experiences, and needs. They can be particularly valuable when they provide an opportunity for students to offer anonymous feedback and suggestions. Examples of what your department can expect to learn by conducting a needs assessment include:
- Current graduate student career goals
- Programs, efforts, and opportunities beyond your department that are currently available to students and most utilized
- Steps your department could take to better meet the professional needs of students in your department
Upon request, GradPro can facilitate departmental needs assessment surveys. During a needs-assessment, GradPro distributes a short survey to students and postdocs and one for faculty, and conducts an analysis of the survey results. GradPro provides the department with an anonymized summary of survey results and a customized list of resources tailored to the needs of the department. You may request GradPro’s needs assessment service by contacting us at [email protected]. If you prefer to administer a needs assessment survey in your department yourself, you can adapt this survey template for your own needs. You may contact GradPro to request a copy of this survey template form.
Many graduate students would benefit from participating in an internship or other experiential learning opportunities during their studies, even if they are considering an academic career path. With nearly half of Berkeley doctoral students going on to non-academic careers, these types of career development opportunities can enable graduate students to:
- Apply their academic training to real-world problems and gain new insights on their research.
- Develop new skills, including soft skills, such as communication and teamwork, and technical skills, such as learning a new programming language, method, or software.
- Explore possible careers and obtain first-hand experience to clarify career goals and determine whether a given career path is a good fit for them.
- Build professional networks, which can lead to improved mentorship experiences and career advancement for students.
- Gain hands-on career experience. Having internship experience makes graduates more competitive in the job market, as employers often prefer candidates with practical experience.
Here are some of the key challenges of pursuing internships that Berkeley graduate students have mentioned to GradPro staff, and some of the steps faculty and staff can take to help students navigate these challenges:
- Lack of support from their advisor or department. To combat this, make a public statement that the department supports graduate students undertaking experiential learning or internship opportunities that advance their professional goals. In meetings with mentees, advisors can proactively discuss the option for and benefits of experiential learning. Whenever possible, consider offering graduate students academic credit for their internship work.
- Lack of knowledge about opportunities and how to apply. Faculty and departmental staff can direct students to the GradPro Internships workshop, offered each fall semester. In this workshop, students learn about the variety of internships available to them and how to apply. They also hear firsthand from graduate students about the benefits of doing an internship. Faculty and staff can also direct students to GradPro consultations and Career Engagement appointments to gain more support in their internship search.
- Administrative challenges. Graduate students may not know the administrative ins and outs of integrating an internship into their degree program. Help students navigate possible questions about their enrollment status while undertaking an internship. Faculty can direct student questions to the GSAO or the Graduate Division Degrees Office. The Graduate Council adopted a policy several years ago whereby graduate students do not need to reapply for admission should they take time to pursue an internship in the course of completing their degree program.
For further information, read the opinion piece “Let Graduate Students do Internships” from the journal Matter.
Departmental approaches to maintaining and sharing records on alumni, including job placement data, and connecting current students to alumni vary widely. It remains common for departments to only publicize the job placements of students going into academic positions, sending a message to students that only academic careers are of value. Here are some best practices for maintaining an alumni network that can be of great use to both graduate students and faculty in understanding career diversity:
- Maintain a public list of job placements that includes all alumni, whether they assume academic or non-academic positions. For example, see the English Department’s page that includes both academic and non-academic job placements of graduates.
- Develop or use a platform that allows alumni to easily update their career information regularly. This will be a valuable resource as graduate students develop their professional networks and as faculty stay abreast of the career outcomes of their students. Updating career outcomes data regularly is key, as alumni careers often change over time.
- Create and maintain an alumni group on LinkedIn. Using LinkedIn as a primary platform will make it easy to keep the alumni network and information up-to-date, as alumni typically update their LinkedIn profiles regularly.
A number of departments on the Berkeley campus have established job placement committees or the position of Faculty Job Placement Coordinator to assist graduate students who are on the job market. Each year, different faculty members serve on this committee and take an active role in helping graduate students prepare application materials such as CVs, resumes, and in reviewing these materials. Historically, these committees focused almost exclusively on academic job preparation. More recently, departments have begun to include speakers, workshops, and mock interviews on applying for non-academic positions. The committee may arrange for speakers from Career Engagement, GradPro, or Beyond Academia to speak about exploring and applying for academic and non-academic careers. They may also offer workshops where graduate students can give peer feedback on job search materials.
An important component of the job placement committee or job placement coordinator is to offer graduate students the opportunity to do mock interviews and practice job talks and receive feedback. If the committee does not feel prepared to conduct mock interviews for non-academic positions, it should reach out to Career Engagement and learn about the interview resources and tools it has available. Some departments create a handbook with job search guidance and sample materials for graduate students collected over time. Because the career landscape and application requirements change rapidly, annual updates are important.
Offer Professional Development Programming in Your Department
Although faculty and staff can direct students to campus professionals for guidance on non-academic career exploration and preparation, departments have an important role to play in integrating this information into departmental offerings. This gives graduate students the message that career preparation is part of the graduate degree program rather than something they must go elsewhere to obtain. Situating professional development in the department can also enable departments to provide discipline-specific guidance. Consider applying for a GradPro Departmental Professional Development Grant, which is offered to assist departments in developing initiatives to support graduate student career exploration.
Incorporating professional development information and guidance into a required course in your department is a best practice for ensuring that graduate students get exposure to important information on career exploration and preparation. The course instructor can develop professional development content to include, or they may request that GradPro visit the course to offer an in-class workshop. GradPro can offer workshops or guest lectures on a variety of topics including, for example, an introduction to GradPro services and career exploration concepts, tips, and tools; or a guided discussion on mapping out and achieving academic milestones. Relevant courses in which to include professional development content, whether introduced by GradPro or the instructor, can include proseminars, colloquia, and pedagogy courses, amongst others.
Presenting professional development content in a course format can not only introduce graduate students to new ideas and content, but it can also generate valuable opportunities for relevant discussions amongst students and faculty. For example, through peer exchange on topics such as professional development goals, career values, and career experiences, students can learn new perspectives and opportunities. Open discussion with instructors and course facilitators can also ensure that students’ important questions are being asked and answered.
Julia Faucett, an Associate Professor of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, who has incorporated a presentation by GradPro into a required graduate-level course captured the value of a GradPro workshop in this way: “Students in my first-year graduate pro-seminar have repeatedly mentioned in their evaluations that GradPro’s presentation was one of the class activities they found most useful. GradPro offers fantastic resources for students who want to be intentional about their career choices, whether within, adjacent to, or outside of academia.”
Some departments or colleges offer a colloquium series or course for graduate students focused exclusively on professional development topics. These courses can cover broad professional development topics relevant to all careers, such as assessing one’s values, interests, and skills, or networking. They can also cover discipline-specific content and guidance specific to pursuing an academic career, covering topics such as research, publishing, and teaching and mentoring, as well as a variety of topics related to non-academic careers. Content on non-academic careers could include information about the transferable skills commonly held by graduate students in the discipline, along with industries and job families students with these skills often succeed in.
As an example, consider the Practicing the Humanities 1-unit colloquium course developed by ACLS Fellow Nicoletta Montaner for graduate students across arts and humanities programs. The course featured speakers who are trained in the arts and humanities and now work in a variety of fields, along with campus professional development professionals. View the course syllabus for more information.
A key way for students and faculty alike to learn about the diverse career paths that graduates pursue is to hear directly from alumni. While students can access general alumni career panels in the annual Beyond Academia Conference, it is only through department alumni events that students will have the opportunity to hear directly from multiple graduates in their own discipline.
Alumni panels often work well as a 1.5 hour event, with an opportunity for current students to network with alumni over refreshments afterwards. The number of panelists can vary, but it is good to aim for four to five panelists, as this both leaves enough time to hear from everyone and allows for a broad range of academic and career paths to be represented. Aim to invite panelists from a variety of career paths, including those from government, non-profits, industry, and academia. It is also a best practice to offer panelists compensation or a gift for their time; current practice suggests providing a gift card of $50 or $75 to panelists after the event. For in-person events, invite local panelists to avoid travel costs. Offering these panels virtually via Zoom can allow for greater choice in speakers. Provide the speakers with specific questions in advance so that they can carefully prepare their remarks (see below). Be sure to advertise the event heavily, encouraging both students and faculty to attend.
Suggested questions for panelists:
- Can you describe your current role and the path you took to get there?
- What motivated you to choose your specific career path after graduation?
- How did your graduate program prepare you for your current job?
- What specific skills from your graduate studies have been most valuable in your career?
- Are there any skills or knowledge areas you wish you had focused more on during your studies?
- Did you have any mentors during your career development? How did they influence your path?
- What advice would you give to current students who are considering a career in your field?
- Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently in your career journey?
Other helpful events departments can offer within their departments include networking events, such as mixers with alumni, workshops and presentations, such as an intro to professional development during orientation, or skill-building workshops throughout the year. Events can be one-off or annual events, or a more regular schedule of events, such as “Learning Lunches,” “Networking Nights,” or “Professional Development Fridays.” Often, departmental events are most successful when they fit into pre-existing meetings or events that students regularly attend.
These events can be run by faculty, or by other guests invited to the department. Faculty can apply for the GradPro Departmental Professional Development Grant to cover expenses associated with an event, including paying for guest speakers or workshop facilitators. GradPro also offers workshops in departments on request, in settings including new graduate student orientations, student-group or club meetings, town-hall meetings, and job placement committees.