While a doctoral degree is more specialized, we recognize that there is still not only one clear path for careers after graduation. The University Career Center has expertise in supporting career exploration and conducting both non-academic and academic job searches, and serves PhD and professional students in a variety of ways. We offer individual appointments, programs, and web resources to meet PhD and professional students' needs.
Individual Appointments
We offer a variety of appointments to support PhD and professional career development, including job and internship searching, networking, converting your academic CV to a resume, cover letter writing, and interview prep. Make an Appointment with the UCC PhD career coaching team today!
In addition to individual coaching appointments, the University Career Center offers a variety of other resources available to all students to support your career exploration:
- Clothes Closet: The Clothes Closet is a program that allows U-M students to obtain business casual and business formal attire from a wide selection of clothing donated by U-M faculty, staff, alumni, and other professionals from the community. Students will also receive tips on how to dress to impress and build their professional brand!
- Self-Service Photo Booth: Students can book free appointments to take professional profile photos to be used to enhance your online presence.
- Identity Toolkits: We want you to bring your whole self to the career development process, and we support the intersectionality of your identities and your professional choices. We hope these toolkits will be a starting point for you to explore the myriad of career resources and opportunities available to you.
CV Development: At the UCC, we are trained to focus on industry job searches. If you are a student who is looking to develop your curriculum vitae (CV) for a tenure-track faculty role, we suggest that you work with your advisor or another faculty member in your department. Other resources that can help include:
- the Center for Research, Learning, & Teaching
- the Rackham Professional and Academic Development
- Sweetland Center for Writing Graduate Student page
- the Center for the Education of Women+
In addition to the support the University Career Center can provide for your exploration, your home college or school may also be an excellent resource for discipline specific content expertise and recruiting power. These department resources include:
College of Engineering: Engineering Career Resource Center
School of Information: Career Services
School of Kinesiology: Kinesiology Career Development Center
School of Environment and Sustainability: Student Career Services
School of Public Health: Career Services
Stephen M. Ross School of Business: Career Services
Graduate Student Career Pathways Programs
Throughout the year, the University Career Center offers and co-sponsors programs with Rackham Graduate School. These career focused programs are open to any graduate student. For current program offerings check out your Handshake account through the University Career Center and Rackham Events Calendar. You can also request a program for your class or organization.
We offer a variety of programs throughout the semester, including workshops on interview technique, cover letter and resume writing, networking skills, and more. To see an up to date listing of our workshops and to register, view our PhD resources document.
Web Resources
Our web resources are divided into two major sections for PhD and professional students based on whether you are exploring an academic or non-academic job search. Current trends suggest you may engage both.
Keep in Touch
Be on the lookout for our University Career Center PhD newsletter that should be landing in your inbox biweekly, where we highlight upcoming career development programming, as well as a selection of jobs and internships. If you aren't receiving it, please reach out and let us know.
Kirsten Elling, PhD, Assistant Director for Graduate Career Development
Anna Wagner, EdD (in progress), Career Coach for Graduate Students