How faculty can support diverse careers for PhDs
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Maintain the same level of commitment to all of your advisees, regardless of their expressed career interests.
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Ask your advisees about their career goals early, and encourage them to set milestones to achieve their goals.
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Encourage your advisees to talk to other mentors and career advisors on campus about their career interests and goals.
What graduate students can do
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Explore the extensive resources for career development featured on this page.
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Have conversations with career advisors and alumni in diverse career fields.
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Create one to three-year plans with tangible milestones for achieving career goals, even if these goals only include tenure-track jobs. Imagine PhD has a “My Plan” tool that allows students in the humanities and social sciences to map degree completion and career/skill development goals together. For non-academic careers, these goals might include career exploration, conducting informational interviews, or learning new skills like coding or grant writing.
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Talk to mentors, your advisors, and your colleagues about diverse careers for PhDs
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Talk about what you value in your professional life. Consider completing Imagine PhD’s "Values Assessment", so that you can understand what is most important to you both professionally and academically
