Career planning and development can help you explore and prepare for a diverse range of careers. Alumni report that the ideal timing for professional development is early in your program. Below are online resources to help you go through the five steps of career planning: Applying, Assessment, Exploration, Connections, and Skill Building. You can also make an appointment in Handshake with a Graduate Career Consultant in the Graduate Center's Career Services Office. To make a career consultation appointment, please follow the directions below:
To schedule an appointment on Handshake, follow these steps:
- Click “Here”.
- Choose "Graduate Center Career Advising."
- Select either "Career Support with Graduate Career Services" or "15-minute Quick Appointments."
- View available appointment times
Job Application Materials
The following resources cover the job search, application materials, interviewing, and more.
Each position you apply for requires job application materials, such as a Curriculum Vitae (C.V.), and/or resume, as well as a cover letter. They should be tailored to highlight how your transferable skills match their job requirements. You can read about the differences between a C.V. and a Resume here. You can also make an appointment to review your materials with a Graduate Career Consultant in the Graduate Center Career Services Office via Handshake.
Resume Templates and Examples:
Curriculum Vitae Templates and Examples:
- Humanities and Social Sciences C.V. Example (Research emphasis)
- Humanities and Social Sciences C.V. Example (Teaching emphasis)
- STEM C.V. Example (Research emphasis)
- STEM C.V. Example (Teaching emphasis)
Federal Job Application Resources:
Other Resources for Resumes and CVs
- Harvard University’s Samples of Resumes and Cover Letters
- APR Method for Resumes: Bullet points help a potential employer efficiently determine your relevant skills and experiences. The bullet begins with an action verb (A), followed by the project/ problem (P) you worked on, and the result (R).
- UC Davis Action Verb List: This list can provide a resource for action verbs when creating APR statements on resumes or CVs.
- Cover Letters: If a job allows a cover letter, consider it an excellent opportunity to further showcase your skills and experiences as they relate to the specific job. This document provides an overview of the information that should be included in each paragraph of your cover letter.
- Cover Letter Template: Provides an example of how a cover letter should be formulated.
Searching for On-Campus Jobs & Internships:
- University of Arizona (UA) Handshake: This is the official University of Arizona career management tool for students.
- It has a job board and includes university positions and outside employers specifically recruiting UA students.
Academic Job Boards:
- Chronicle of Higher Education
- Higher Ed Jobs
- Inside Higher Ed Careers
- Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC)
- Be sure to check your professional society’s website career pages for job listings.
General Job Search Websites:
- LinkedIn & Indeed: large databases of jobs and powerful searches and filters for all career fields.
- Video: Searching for Jobs on LinkedIn: This short (15-minute) video will assist you with searching for jobs on LinkedIn.
Governmental Jobs:
- https://www.usajobs.gov/: Use this website to apply for Federal Government Jobs.
- https://gogovernment.org/: This site can assist you in considering, applying, and securing federal employment
- County and State jobs utilize their own individual websites.
Deciphering Job Descriptions
- This handout can help you organize the information you find in a job description and note how it fits your skills and experiences. The skills you have developed in graduate school can transfer in many ways and to many different positions.
- It can also be helpful to make an appointment with a Graduate Career Consultant to review job ads and tailor your job materials.
Interviews can occur in many different formats, from virtual asynchronous or synchronous to in-person, and different types such as screening, individual, panel, structured or unstructured, behavioral, technical, case, or fit interviews. Below are some resources to help you prepare. You can also make an appointment with a Graduate Career Consultant for interview preparation via Handshake.
Mock Interview Questions & Resources:
- Video: Maximizing Your Interview Experience: This 10-minute video covers important considerations for you to be aware of as you prepare for an interview.
- Interview Guidelines: Use these guidelines to prepare for the interview process. Remember, in-person career counseling sessions are available for interview preparation and practice as well.
- 30 Sample Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers: "The Muse" provides a great list of questions and answers that you can use to prepare.
- Big Interview - When preparing for a job interview, it's not enough to only read advice; you need to put that advice into practice! That's why Big Interview isn't just a training course. You'll also get hands-on practice with mock interviews tailored to your specific industry, job, and experience level.
Salary Negotiation Resources
- Negotiating Job Offers for Graduate Students and Post-Docs: This document offers guidance to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows on job offer negotiations focusing on informed decision-making and effective negotiation skills to maximize compensation and benefits.
- How to Salary Negotiate
- Tips to Master the Art of Salary Negotiation
International Student Resources
Specific resources for International Students and career related services.
H-1B Employer Database: H-1B Employer Data Hub | USCIS
Glassdoor: www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
Global Jobs: www.globaljobs.org/
Idealist (Non-profit / Social Impact jobs): www.idealist.org/
Job Search Strategies For International Candidates: Useful strategies and important considerations for international candidates as they conduct a U.S. job search.
International Student Services (ISS) at the University of Arizona helps students with advising, employment and community building for international students.
ISS Website: International Student Services | Arizona International
Log in with your University of Arizona NET-ID for access: Interstride | Success beyond boundaries.
TES Job Search Engine: Teaching Jobs & Education Jobs - Tes Jobs
EURAXESS Fellowship and Job Database: Search Jobs and Opportunities | EURAXESS
Career Assessment
Assessments help you to understand your interests, values, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and temperament within the career field. Career Assessments can help you identify areas of your graduate education you enjoy, careers associated with those experiences, and what you are looking for in an employer. Below are some free resources to help with this process.
- ImaginePhD is a free online career assessment and planning tool embedded with resources for discovering diverse career paths. It is an extremely useful career exploration tool that can be used for any discipline and can help you better understand how to use your transferable skills in any job sector.
- myIDP Science Careers Individual Development Plan is a free web-based career planning tool that helps doctoral students and postdocs in the sciences define and pursue their career goals.
- InterSECT Job Simulations is an online platform that allows PhD-level scientists and humanists to explore future career options by completing a job simulation exercise. There are simulation positions available in industry, academia, and government sectors.
- Big Five Personality assessment can increase your self-awareness and give you information regarding your own personality traits.
- O*NET Interest Profiler helps you decide what kinds of careers you might want to explore by guiding you through an interactive program that links your career interests with the workplace.
Career Exploration
Explore and research the diverse array of careers available to you. Becoming better informed about careers helps you create your graduate career development plan.
Professional Society Exploration:
- Visit your professional society’s career web pages and the analogous industry organizations' career information.
- Look up schools, companies, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies, and review their work and job postings.
Alumni Career Resources for Exploration:
- Alumni Career Chats: We invite graduate student alumni to share their diverse career paths and engage with graduate students about their journey and preparation. This can be a helpful resource in knowing the career paths other graduates have taken.
Connections
One of the very best ways to learn about a career is to talk with someone in that profession. Create career connections by scheduling a short informational interview with someone working in a field of your interest to find out about their career journey, how they navigated into their field, and translated their graduate student skills and experiences into a new career.
Connecting with Alumni
- Bear Down Network
- Wildcat Career Connections,
- University of Arizona’s Alumni LinkedIn page.
- You can use our Creating Your LinkedIn Profile guide to learn why LinkedIn is important for your career development and how to showcase your skills and experiences.
Networking
- The first step in networking is Creating your Professional Self-Introduction.
- Our Informational Interview information will guide you through the process of making professional connections which are critical to help you learn about specific career areas and develop your professional network.
Skill Building
There are many ways to develop skills and experiences required for your career during your graduate program. Check out our list of resources that can help you develop your technical and interpersonal skills and how to share those skills with potential employers and collaborators.
The University of Arizona offers many online resources to gain skills through Badges and Certificates.
Internships can be a great way to gain experience with an organization or company. Check Handshake for internship postings or meet with a Graduate Career Consultant to learn more. You can make an appointment in Handshake. There are many additional online resources where you can gain a variety of skills through the massive open online courses (MOOCs) such as Coursera, edX, Udacity, LinkedIn Learning, etc.