Career Exploration Resources
Meet with a Career Adviser
Next to informational interviewing, the best resource for self-assessment and career exploration is a career adviser. Talking about your interests, values and skills with someone else can be very valuable.
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Career services professionals are available in the Graduate College for one-on-one advising.
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Register for an upcoming Career Exploration Group (see grad.illinois.edu/mastercalendar)
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Numerous discipline-specific career services offices on campus (a comprehensive list on the Urbana campus may be found at www.careerservices.illinois.edu).
To make your meeting even more productive, take some time to explore the following resources for self-assessment and career exploration.
Assessing Your Options
In addition to the independent investigation, some students find inventories to be useful tools for the self-assessment process. Interest inventories can be especially useful in determining career paths. Contact The Career Center for more information about interest inventories.
You can also explore the numerous online questionnaires available to help you identify your interests and strengths on The Career Center's Web site at http://www.careercenter.illinois.edu/findingpath/exploring.
Start assessing your skills, interests and values with the exercises here.
These books are good resources as you evaluate your experiences:
Basalla, Susan and Maggie Debelius. "So What Are You Going to Do With That?": A Guide to Career-Changing for M.A.s and Ph.D.s. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Fiske, Peter S., Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists. Washington, D.C., : AGU, 2001.
Research Career Options
Start looking at online job postings. Even if you are not looking for a job yet, this can help you start imagining new career options and learn about new jobs.
The following resources can help you explore and research your career options.
Higher education
Not-for-profit jobs
Science & mathematics
Humanities & social sciences
Secondary education
Government
Professional associations and trade journals
Trade journals and professional organizations can be powerful resources for career exploration. They can provide information about career paths and are a starting point for networking.
Books
Feibelman, P.J., A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993.
Robbins-Roth, Cynthia., ed. Alternative Careers in Science: Leaving the Ivory Tower. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998.
Rosen, Stephen and Paul, Celia. Career Renewal. Academic Press, 1998.
Goldman, Charles A. and Massy, William F. The Ph.D. Factory: Training and Employment of Science and Engineering Doctorates in the United States. Anker Publishing Company, Inc., 2001.
Schiebelbein, Joan. Putting Your Graduate Degree to Work. University of Alberta Press, 2001.
Articles on career exploration
All I Really Need to Know I Learned.in Graduate School?
Making the Transition to a Non-Academic Career
How they Did It: Landing a Job Outside Academe
Transferring your Skills to a Non-Academic Setting
Recasting Yourself for Nonacademic Jobs
What Else Can I Do?
The University as a Non-Academic Employer
From Humanities to High-Tech
'But I Have No Skills'
A Ph.D. and a Failure
Should You Finish?
Leaving the Tenure-Track
Dizzy with Alternative Careers
Searching for My Future
Making the Transition to a Non-Academic Career
How they Did It: Landing a Job Outside Academe
Transferring your Skills to a Non-Academic Setting
Recasting Yourself for Nonacademic Jobs
What Else Can I Do?
The University as a Non-Academic Employer
From Humanities to High-Tech
'But I Have No Skills'
A Ph.D. and a Failure
Should You Finish?
Leaving the Tenure-Track
Dizzy with Alternative Careers
Searching for My Future