The community of professionals supporting graduate student and postdoctoral scholar career and professional development is one of the most sharing I have been a part of. So many individuals and organizations have contributed resources and programming online, accelerated by the need to pivot to virtual programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This has resulted in an explosion of online tools, resources, and videos focused on a range of professional development topics from navigating the faculty job search to informational interviewing and negotiation. In this post, I will seek to organize and curate some of these resources to better assist graduate students, postdocs, and those who support them.

Resources for Postdoctoral Scholars (and beyond!)
The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) has a range of resources on their website including a growing resource library (note content is being updated as part of a website refresh in Spring 2022) containing guides on topics from mentorship to career planning. If you are an individual (postdoc, graduate student, faculty member) at an organizational member of the NPA, you can also access these resources and a wealth of webinar recordings for FREE using your institutional email address upon registration as an NPA member.

​Another great program to be aware of if you are current or prospective postdoctoral scholar or individual supporting postdocs is the Postdoc Academy which organizes two different online courses, Succeeding as a Postdoc and Building Skills for a Successful Career on edX. 

The Postdoc Academy’s upcoming online course opportunities are as follows:

• Building Skills for a Successful Career: July 11 – August 28, 2022
• Succeeding as a Postdoc: September 19 – October 30, 2022
  • With optional Postdoc Academy Learning Sessions to facilitate discussion
• Building Skills for a Successful Career: January 9 – February 19, 2023

​ImaginePhD: An indispensable tool for career exploration
ImaginePhD is a FREE online career exploration tool created by members of the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC), a community of professionals working to support graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in their career and professional development. While this website is branded for a humanities and social sciences audience, I would argue it is one of the most powerful career exploration tools out there and useful to researchers in any discipline (myIDP and ChemIDP are also great resources). 

Some highlights from the ImaginePhD platform:

• The general tip sheets are phenomenal! 
  • Topics include: writing a resume, cover letter, informational interviewing, using LinkedIn, and the art of negotiating 
• Complete an interests, values, and skills assessment to learn more about yourself and job families that could be a good fit for you
• Each job family within the platform has dedicated sections to:
  • Explore
    • Contains links to job simulations from InterSECT job simulations
    • Write-ups and Q&As on different careers available and personal perspectives from Ph.D.s who made the transition into those paths
  • Connect
    • Highlights LinkedIn groups and professional organizations to join to increase your ability to network with professionals working in certain sectors or career areas
  • Build Skills
    • Links to trainings and resources to learn more about in-demand skills 
  • Apply
    • Links to job boards PLUS analyzed job descriptions with tailored resumes and cover letter examples
  • In addition, the menu to the right-hand side of the screen displayed within any of the four sections (Explore, Connect, Build Skills, Apply) contains a LIVE Indeed job feed of positions being advertised in this job family. This serves as a great way to see what skills and abilities are being asked for in current job descriptions.
• You can also build a career and training plan within ImaginePhD and export your various goals and deliverables to your digital calendar of choice to stay on track. 

Amazing Content Available on YouTube
Many career and professional development offices have put their content on YouTube, making the excellent advice and resources they share accessible to all. I applaud their efforts and highlight a few of them below. 

University of Pennsylvania Career Services: Job Search Skills Series, many feature Dr. Joseph Barber, GCC Member

• Strategies for a career pivot
• Networking for novices
• Making the most out of informational interviews
• Resume tips
• Cover letter tips
• Interview tips
  • Answering the “tell me about yourself” & “greatest strengths/weakness” questions
  • Answering difficult interview questions
• Finding data on salaries

​In addition, the Informational Interview Guide for Graduate Students and Postdocs from UPenn is an amazingly handy guide to perhaps the single most important action you can take to learn about your career options and build your network.

For the Faculty Job Search
University of Michigan School of Medicine’s Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies professional development team, led by GCC members Dr. Shoba Subramanian and Beth Bodiya, have an amazing “Faculty Corner” Series, which features recorded interviews and professional development talks from expert UM faculty covering issues surrounding academic job preparation, interview and negotiation, lab/time/project/personnel management, funding, publications, and work-life balance.

See also Penn Career Services’ Faculty Job Search Prep Camp YouTube Playlist

As a side note, during my time at North Carolina State University, we curated some tips and resources for navigating a faculty job search on our ImPACKful blog.  

A few other excellent YouTube Channels to follow for career & professional development resources:

• NIH Office of Intramural Training & Education
• Johns Hopkins University’s PHutures Program
• Princeton University’s GradFUTURES
• Duke University Postdoc Services

Additional Online Resources 
The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Office of Career & Professional Development has a wealth of resources available on their website, organized by different training areas and career goals. Explore some of them at the links below. 

• Start with the resources landing page
  • Basic & Biomedical Sciences resources
  • Social & Population Sciences resources
• Presentation skills resources
• Grant writing resources
• Explore non-academic careers
• Resources for the faculty job search
  • Example faculty job search documents

The Academic Career Readiness Assessment (ACRA) is a powerful resource for those seeking a faculty career after their training. It seeks to capture the minimum level of qualifications a search committee at a research-intensive, teaching-focused, or research and teaching-focused institution expects in a faculty candidate and the level of expertise most desired of candidates in different domains (teaching, research independence, experience working with students, etc). 

Learn more about the creation of the ACRA in this publication. 

I also recommend Vanderbilt University’s Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training (BRET)’s Beyond the Lab Video Series, featuring informational interviews with Ph.D.-holders who have pursued a variety of careers after graduate school or postdoctoral training. These serve as excellent resources to begin exploring available career pathways in addition to modeling some of the questions you may want to ask as part of an informational interview. 

And while the final online resource I am sharing is not from a university, iBiology, a non-profit organization funded by NSF and NIGMS, has an amazing library of professional development videos and self-paced online courses on topics including career exploration, planning your scientific journey (very relevant for early-stage graduate students), and how to give an effective presentation that you should definitely check out! 

Utilizing Online Resources in Career & Professional Development Programming
If you are an administrator or faculty member seeking to provide career and professional development support to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, how might you leverage the resources I’ve shared above? One approach is to have your students and postdocs watch a YouTube video on a topic of relevance and then spend your time with them discussing the topic in more detail and highlight institutional resources available to them. For example, you might have them watch a video on leveraging LinkedIn in advance and spend your workshop discussing how participants plan to implement the advice they received in crafting their profiles. 

In addition, online self-assessment and career exploration tools like ImaginePhD allow for trainees to do some pre-work before coming to a workshop to discuss career exploration in more detail. I find having workshop participants explore the ImaginePhD platform on their own and then share something interesting they learned with others in a small breakout room opens their eyes to the richness of information and resources on the platform. 

Using online tools and resources can really expand the bandwidth of a small office (or office of one) tasked with supporting graduate students and postdocs. In addition, resources like iBiology’s Mentoring Master Class: Peer Mentoring Groups overview empowers trainees to create their own groups to support one another in their training, job search, and beyond. 

I hope by highlighting these online resources in one place, you can become aware of impactful programs taking place across the United States. Furthermore, now that many programs have moved online and are being recorded and widely disseminated, access to great advice and resources to help you navigate your career and professional development and job search has never been easier. I encourage you, whether you are a professional trying to provide career and professional development support at your institution or a student or postdoc, to take advantage of these resources and join me in thanking the sharing, collegial community of professionals that have made them open for all to access and benefit from. Get exploring today!  ​

As we approach the fall, faculty job ads will begin to be posted. How can you prepare yourself for a competitive job market? I have 5 pieces of advice from my own experience applying for faculty positions and work supporting postdocs in their job search. 

1. Self-assess & consider fit
2. Gather intel & information
3. Start early preparing application materials
4. Cultivate peer support
5. Consider diverse career options

Self-assess & consider fit
Before any career search process, you should spend time self-reflecting on your skills, interests, and values. Consider what types of roles and employers would best fit where you are in your life. Note that there are many roles in higher education beyond tenure-track faculty and there are many colleges & universities to work at beyond name-brand or research-intensive institutions.

For more see:

• Career Exploration 101
• Academic Career Readiness Assessment (ACRA) from UCSF
  • More on ACRA methodology 

Gather intel & information
What does it take to successfully land a tenure-track faculty position? While the ACRA referenced above assessed the faculty search committee's perspective on hiring new assistant professors, other work that I have collaborated on seeks to present data from the applicant's side.

See A survey-based analysis of the academic job market for more info on our applicant survey findings and variables that were associated with applicants successfully landing faculty job offers as part of the 2018-2019 job market cycle. 

Updated 6/29/2022:
If you were on the assistant professor job market in 2020-2021 and/or 2021-2022 (regardless of the outcome - whether you received a job offer or ultimately accepted one), we would love for you to complete our surveys as we seek to better understand how a variety of variables influence one's ability to land a faculty job offer. Find links to the surveys and learn more about our faculty job market collaboration team, below.

Arguably, the research statement is a good place to start for many STEM trainees as you probably have a good sense of what you have accomplished in your research and why it matters. However, a research statement needs to be forward looking and focused on what you plan to research as a new assistant professor. As such, you should think critically about where your field is going and how your training, skills, and interests can best be leveraged into a research program that is value-add to the department and institution you are joining. And if you are targeting research-intensive institutions, you must also seriously consider how your research will be funded and fit into funding priorities of key federal agencies and foundations.

• More on How to Construct a Compelling Research Statement

It's important to really think about your vision for your research first before tailoring your materials to a particular institution. I believe you shouldn't try to present the research you think a hiring committee will be excited about but rather research YOU are excited about. You want to be hired based on who you are and what you aspire to be and be OK with the realization that many hiring committees won't see a fit between your interests and theirs. That is OK because fit is so critical in any job search and you want to find it so that you can thrive in your new role and be your true self. 

For additional tips and advice on other faculty application documents, see:

• How to Write a Better Academic Cover Letter
• Tips on Writing an Effective Teaching Statement
• Diversity statement resources from UCLA & UCSD

And see the job search resources section of my website for documents I submitted on my own faculty job search, including a research statement for a research-intensive and primarily undergraduate-serving institution. 

Cultivate peer support
If you are currently a postdoctoral researcher interested in a faculty career, you should join Future PI Slack NOW. This community of nearly 4,000 postdocs is AMAZING and a great place to solicit advice and feedback from your peers. There is a channel in the Slack group devoted exclusively to reviewing one another's job application materials (#jobapp_reviewers) that you can join to solicit and provide feedback. It is a truly great way to see a variety of examples of faculty application materials and get additional feedback on your own documents from individuals who will often be outside your discipline. This type of feedback is critical as asking your current supervisor or lab-mates for feedback may not give you a sense of how someone outside your research domain views your documents...and faculty search committees will almost certainly be composed of a diverse set of individuals lacking a deep understanding of your particular area of research focus. So, getting broad-based feedback allows you to refine your documents to convey your points effectively to a wider audience.

You can also form your own peer support group at your institution or amongst others in your network. Find trainees also planning to go on the job market soon to meet with regularly to discuss your experiences and share your approach to the job search (where did you find job postings?, how are you handling requesting letters of reference?, etc...). Ideally, having this group be composed of individuals going on the job market this year and those planning to go on the job market next year is a great way for trainees a year out from applying to learn from those going through the process this year. As the hiring cycle progresses, your group can think learn from those who have had interviews with search committees about their experiences and serve as a space for feedback on the job talk and chalk talk (and see this presentation or this one on YouTube for more) your group members plan to deliver at institutions who have invited them for a final round interview. Through this experience, you'll gain a wider perspective on navigating a job search as you learn and support one another. 

Consider diverse career options
While a faculty role may be what you aspire to, it is always good to have options for the next step in your career. Consider using self-assessment tools such as myIDP, ImaginePhD, or ChemIDP to learn about the breadth of career paths that could fit your skills, interests, and values. Make plans to develop the skills and networks needed to pivot into careers beyond the tenure-track. There are so many amazing careers out there to pursue and remaining open to those possibilities will help you realize that there is no one path to "success" when it comes to your career. 

See my recent Standing Out from the Pack presentation for a summary of some of the resources and tools mentioned above as well as advice on navigating the faculty job search. 

We've also curated a variety of resources and perspectives on the academic job search and how to craft compelling application materials on the NC State Graduate School's ImPACKful blog under our "Academic PACKways" category. 

I also highly recommend this Faculty Corner YouTube playlist from Michigan Medicine's Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies to learn more about the faculty job search and hear from faculty on how they manage their work & responsibilities. 

Last month, my blog post focused on growing your personal brand and network and the importance time plays (i.e., starting early) in experiencing compounded returns. This month, I turn to discussing the importance of conveying your value, especially as it relates to a job search.

Selling Yourself
Most scientists and scholars dislike the idea of "selling" themselves when on the job market. It feels a bit forced and disingenuous, right? Shouldn't good work and your abilities speak for themselves? The answer is, unfortunately, NO.

As all of us, including hiring managers, are bombarded with ever increasing amounts of information and content you need to work to ensure your brand and message can rise above the noise. For a job search, this relies on ensuring you as an applicant can convey a coherent value proposition of how your skills and abilities translate to an employer's needs clearly and succinctly. This fact applies whether you are seeking positions in academia or industry. There is data showing the average resume is viewed for only 7.4 seconds by recruiters. In addition, faculty searches routinely receive 200+ applicants per open position in the biological sciences.

How do you stand out from the masses? Through powerfully communicating who you are and the expertise you bring to solve problems an employer cares about. It starts and ends with effective communication in your conversations, on social media, and in your application documents. 

The Academic Job Search - Building Impactful Documents
For those readers looking to pursue a faculty career, the quality of your research, teaching, and diversity statements is essential. But don't forget to craft a cover letter that provides a description of how you fit the department, institution, and role. The key across all of these documents is to convey the value you bring as a potential colleague to the department you are applying to. You should ensure throughout these application documents that your tone is written from the perspective of a colleague that has expertise and knowledge to add to the unit's teaching and research efforts. And please don't write these materials with a deferential tone, saying things like "it would be an honor to join your department" or "I would love the privilege of working at institution X". Words like honor and privilege convey the idea that you are asking for a job (that they are doing you a favor by considering your application). Rather, you want your tone and word choice in your application documents to speak to how you can add to their department and bring value through teaching needed courses or leading new research efforts (via particular techniques or areas of expertise you possess) at the institution (that you are doing them a favor by applying).

Shifting back to discussing general tips for a broad job search outside faculty positions, informational interviews and networking are essential as many jobs are not advertised. Tapping this hidden job market will increase your odds of landing a position but building the relationships you need to accomplish this does require considerable time and effort. 

Informational interviews are a powerful entry point to building a professional relationship with someone in a career field of interest to you. By talking with individuals with job titles you are interested in or who work at companies you think you would like to work for, you learn:

• ​Whether a particular position fits your skills, interests, and values
• Whether a potential employer fits the environment you want to work in
• What an employer's future plans are - where they are growing, what types of positions may become open in the coming year
• How individuals with similar backgrounds to you (Ph.D., postdoc) made career transitions
• Advice on how to make a career transition yourself
• Whom else to speak with in your career field of interest or at the company
• And more....

Remember to treat these conversations as fact-finding missions and a chance to learn and connect. Be sure to take notes and follow-up with those you speak with as well as strategize ways to keep them updated on your plans and accomplishments as you progress toward the end of your training. Also, be sure to consider ways you can provide value to those you speak with by either sharing research (recent publications) or news that could be relevant to their work or by connecting them with individuals you know who could help them fill an open position, learn about a new technique or process, and more. You have more to "give" than you think. 

Read more on career exploration and informational interviews on the blog: 

• Start Here
• ​Career Exploration 101
• Exploring a Variety of Career Paths
• Post-PhD Career Plans: Consider the Possibilities

​Build Your Narrative
As you speak with professionals about their career (via informational interviews) or attend networking events, you will certainly also need to be able to talk about yourself and your value in an effective way: your professional narrative. 

As human beings we are all working to construct narratives of others...it is how we make sense of a complex world. So, if you don't do a thorough job of crafting your own personal narrative and value proposition, one will be created for you.

When scanning your resume or LinkedIn profile, instead of "10+ years of experience working with leading genetic editing technologies including CRISPR-Cas9", someone may see career "student" focused on academic minutiae. Or, they may see you as just a scientist with a lot of great technical skills but wonder how you will do interacting with others or with clients who lack a full understanding of the technical details you take for granted. You must ensure you craft a compelling and clear narrative about your experience and expertise that is accessible. Less jargon and more focused on results and the impact of your work. 

Reframing
One of the largest challenges faced by graduate students and postdocs when describing their experiences and skills is ensuring they frame the work they have performed and tasks they have accomplished in an accessible way. Filling your application documents with technical jargon and listing out the papers you have published is fine when applying for academic positions. If you are looking for a career outside faculty or university research roles, however, you need to reframe and tailor your application documents. 

A resume should always be tailored to a position and be focused on how your contributed toward various projects, with an emphasis on the results and impact of your work.

For more advice on reframing and tailoring your experiences in a resume, see this Guide for CV to Resume Conversion from Yale University. 

Your professional narrative needs to be coherent and pervasive across platforms like LinkedIn, your resume, and in your communications with others.

Some other points to consider as you work to convey your narrative and value as part of a job search:

Appeal to Emotion and Not Just Logic
While many believe they must appeal to concrete examples and data points that speak to their fit for a position, they often leave out the clear role "feeling" plays in most human interactions and decisions. Human beings are very good at rationalizing a decision based on "gut feeling" after the fact and the hiring process is not immune to this rationalization process. So, it is critical to ensure you are also making a reader of your application materials feel something​.

If you have successfully used your network to have your application materials elevated to the point that a human being is reviewing them (i.e., a referral), remember that a human being is influenced by more than just metrics and data. Why we often think of ourselves as logical beings, our emotions and "gut feelings" play a larger part in shaping our choices and behavior than we consciously realize. In terms of crafting your application materials, remember that a potential employer wants to hire someone who is qualified for the role (i.e., has made a good argument) but also someone who conveys interest and passion for the position and work it will entail. Going even further, people want to hire people they want to work with as colleagues. So, show a bit of humanity in your materials. 

​For example, it is sometimes worth using a few sentences in the cover letter to speak to why the role you are applying to is right for you as a human being. You might add details related to how the role fits with your personality or passion for working in a particular area...things that can't often be conveyed in a resume. This is certainly a personal decision but also mentioning you have family in the area or, after speaking with employees at the company/institution, really value the emphasis they place on work/life balance can demonstrate that the choice you are making is about more than just the job. It also emphasizes your priorities and shows you are thinking about the long-term prospects associated with working there. Remember a potential employer is also trying to surmise ​whether you will take the job if offered. So, be sure you convey why you are interested in the position professionally and personally. 

Job Interview Narratives - Ensure You Hit Your Key Points 
When it comes time for a job interview, you will need to be sure you have a compelling career story to share and are ready to use narratives around your experiences to respond to the behavior-based interview questions that are certain to be asked. 
​
You have heard these behavior-based interview questions before:

• Tell me about a time you encountered a set-back or failure and how you worked to overcome it.
• Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
• Tell me about a time you were dissatisfied in your work. What could have been done to make it better?
• Describe a decision you made that wasn't popular, and explain how you handled implementing it.

The critical piece of advice I want to offer here and one that you should remember if nothing else from this piece: Be the author of your own story.

By this I mean make sure you are speaking to key talking points you want to convey whenever you are interacting with someone professionally as part of your job search. Don't let behavior-based interview questions hem you in. Rather, be sure you have 5-7 great stories to tell that emphasize key aspects of your personality, work ethic, or expertise that you want to ensure a potential employer hears about. Then, it is your job to weave these stories into your response to an interviewer's questions. The goal is to leave a job interview with the sense you expressed what you can offer to the best of your ability and have few regrets that you missed a key talking point.

None of this is easy and practice makes perfect. While mock interviews can certainly help, nothing beats the real thing. As such, consider taking any interview you are offered, even if you aren't sure of the career fit. Getting experience telling your story is never a bad thing and you never know when talking with someone, even an interviewer, could lead to unexpected opportunities down the road. 

See the two Resources at the end of this post on tips for navigating a job interview, including a Story Circle activity that can help you frame your talking points in response to questions you might encounter during an interview.

Caveats
There has been much mentioned in this piece and my previous post about the need to start early, network, and have conversations with professionals (informational interviews) well before you are on the job market to effectively uncover opportunities. I acknowledge that this advice might not be feasible with your current timetable, though. 

I completely understand many of us need a position NOW and cannot lay the networking groundwork referenced above to land our immediate next job. Certainly you may need to take the best position available to you right now. This doesn't mean the tips shared above can't be used once you have a job.

Maybe you want to explore how you advance at your new company? Maybe you are interested in learning about other roles at the company? Maybe after working in your new role for a few months you realize it isn't right for you.

In all these cases, you can use informational interviews and networking to learn more about your employer, coworkers, or other careers available to you. It is never a bad thing to work to expand your network and continue to learn about options available to you in your career. 

As a graduate student or postdoc, many of us have seen how an academic career path is quite linear and regimented:
Ph.D. student -> postdoc -> Assistant Professor -> Associate Professor -> Full Professor 

Most careers aren't that way, though, and most professionals don't stay with one employer or in one job family for their full career.

Thus, you need to be continually accessing your skills, interests, and values and how your current career fits with them. By continuing to have conversations and working to convey your current and future value effectively, you will keep yourself open to opportunities and be agile enough to take advantage of them. All this is crucial in a rapidly changing world where we can't even begin to imagine what career opportunities will exist in the near future. 

Finally, remember that no one will care about your career more than you. So empower yourself to take charge of your story and talk to people to discover what possibilities await for you out there.

​You can do it!

For Further Reading

A Ph.D. is Not Enough: A Guide to Survival In Science

​If Your Really Want a Job, Show You Have These 6 Qualities

How to Tell a Concise, Compelling Career Story in an Interview

How to Write a Personal Value Proposition

Interview Question: "Tell Me About Yourself"

Storytelling: The Secret Weapon To Wow A Hiring Manager
Contains excellent advice and tips to assist you in telling your stories during a job interview

Mirror Neurons: Why Good Stories Provoke Empathy and Connection

Go with Your Gut: Emotion and Evaluation in Job Interviews

Emotions in the Hiring Procedure: How ‘Gut Feelings’ Rationalize Personnel Selection Decisions

Emotion and Decision Making (from Annual Review of Psychology)

Resources

Informational & Job Interview Overview & Resources

Story Circle Activity Worksheet - a framework for crafting stories around your experiences and skills to use to convey your expertise and value during an interview (credit careercontessa.com)