You have entered a new phase in your doctoral journey and as you continue to grow and explore your options consider the following tips and resources.
- Prepare for qualifying exams. Seek writing tutors in your respective department and prepare to defend your exams among your committee
- Consider how you want to leverage your masters vs your PhD degree
- Meet with your Graduate Advisor and Career Advisor to discuss your career plans
- Begin designing your Dissertation Prospectus
- If your academic plans change, it is important to weight out your options to leverage your master’s degree and engage in a job search process or continue with your academic goal to obtain your Ph.D.
- Meet with a Career Advisor to discuss your career plan
- Consider developing more manuscripts related to your research
- Take advantage of teaching and internship opportunities
Prepare for non-tenure job or industry opportunities
- Visit ConnectSC for various PhD industry resources
- Attend the Beyond the PhD and Postdoctoral Career Conference
- Versatile PhD: Options for Success is a career exploration and professional development program that is designed to help graduate students and postdoctoral scholars identify viable career paths, understand the link between their degrees and the professional world, and confidently manage the transition from university to high-quality professional placement.
- Imagine PhD: a free online career exploration and planning tool for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
- myIDP Science Careers: a unique, web-based career-planning tool tailored to meet the needs of PhD students and postdocs in the sciences.
- National Center For Faculty Development and Diversity: provides on-demand access to mentoring, crafting your professional identity resources, and support needed to be successful in the academy. provides on-demand access to mentoring, crafting your professional identity resources, and support needed to be successful in the academy.
