Beyond the Classroom

We’re here to help you prepare for career success with opportunities and resources to build your professional skills, grow your network and enrich your personal development. 

• Beyond the Professoriate is an online professional development training platform where graduate students and postdocs can explore career options and learn job search strategies to successfully transition into academic or non-academic career paths.
• Need time to focus on your dissertation? Attend a Dissertation Retreat. Dissertation retreats are multiple-day, focused writing events to help you make significant progress toward completion of major projects. 
• Find faculty mentors outside of your research area in the Network for Enriched Academic Relationships (NEAR).
• Try out for the Three Minute Thesis competition where you will learn to effectively convey the essence and importance of your research in an engaging way to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes, with one PowerPoint slide.
• Find dissertation inspiration in Write Through, a series of articles highlighting the processes of writers who found their way through the dissertation process in a timely fashion. 
• Take a look at some events for graduate and professional students happening around campus.

The Career Design Center offers resources on how to build a competitive resume or curriculum vitae, craft a noteworthy cover letter, develop an online profile like LinkedIn or Bullseye powered by Handshake, and provides samples, tips from experts, and information on how to meet with a professional. 

The Office of Postdoctoral Scholars, a sub-office of the Graduate School, provides a formal communication link among postdoctoral scholars, faculty and university administration. Learn more about:

• Hiring postdoctoral scholars.
• The annual Postdoctoral Research Symposium.
• The Postdoctoral Teaching Training for Academic Careers seminar series.
• The Distinguished Postdoc Mentor Award, eligibility, criteria and other details.