Career exploration for graduate students
Considering your career options with an advanced degree? There are multiple paths available: academia, industry, and more. Review the resources below to reflect on your strengths, interests, and values and identify career paths that match.
Self-assess
The first step to deciding the careers that best fit you is to understand yourself in relation to work. Clarify your skills, interests, and values related to career and work environments utilizing the following tools and assessments to assist in your reflection.
Assessments and individual development plans
Start creating an Individual Development Plan by taking the skills, values, and interests assessments available through ImaginePhD and myIDP.
- ImaginePhD: created for social sciences and humanities PhDs to explore academic, alt-academic (higher ed administration, non-faculty research, and similar), and industry roles and to build a career plan.
- myIDP: designed for those in science fields to explore science career pathways and begin career planning for STEM majors.
Explore
Once you can articulate how your strengths, interests, and values affect your career search, you can explore the careers that are a good fit.
- ImaginePhD Job Families: each Job Family contains a description of the types of careers and job titles associated within job categories, as well as resources for career exploration, building job skills, networking, and applying.
- myIDP Career Path Matches: see how various career paths align with your assessment results and read up to date information on each career.
- Career Industry Pages: review industry-specific roles, organizations, job boards, and more on our industry-specific career pages.
Building your network
If you are considering a new career path, building your network is essential to developing a full understanding of the field and understanding how to find opportunities. Consider conducting informational interviews as a way to learn more about your career path of interest and build relationships in that arena.
Experience
Whether you decide to pursue a non-traditional career path for your degree or follow your original path, gaining experience is essential to confirming your exploration and your career search. Your education may provide experience in teaching and research, but depending on your future career field, you may need to build additional experience.
- Intersect Job Simulations: an online platform that allows you to try out common projects and tasks across a variety of industries. Try out some simulations and reflect on how you felt completing the sims as well as what skills you may need to strengthen.
- Forage: complete projects and earn certifications from top companies to expand your skills and knowledge in new career fields.
You may also need to explore volunteer, research, or internship experience to gain new skills and experience your fields of interest.
Meet with your career coach
Unsure of your career plans? Every UT graduate student is assigned a career coach by college or major. Talk with your industry-based career coach for individualized support across all three paths, academic, industry, and alt-ac. You can also reach the center at 865-974-5435.
Career coaching team
Center for Career Development & Academic Exploration
865-974-5435