Graduate Arts & Sciences Career Services
Searching for jobs beyond academe can be challenging for graduate students after many years of entrenchment in the academic environment. The fact that you are unaware of jobs for which you may qualify does not mean that they do not exist, or that your skills are not marketable. It is more often the case that these jobs exist in the “hidden market,” or that you need to adopt new methods for finding them and develop skills for promoting your candidacy effectively. Doing so can lead to exciting new opportunities.
Get started early. You may find that you will need time to boost your qualifications by networking, by gaining some work experience, or by employing other job search strategies to improve your chances of success.Additional Resources
What Students Say
Thank you for the time you took to help me prepare for my interviews with [Leading Consulting Firm]. I have some great news to share!!! They offered me a job. So thank you! Couldn’t have done it without your help. […] Your advice about telling them that I loved solving problems was excellent… they ate it up!
As a graduate student, there are so many non-academic things that I need to know. This is what I realized! The importance of having contacts with the right set of people and more importantly, how I can do that! This is what we don't learn in academic programs!
The panel of science Masters and PhD graduates that went on to industry, government, and business was a great event with lots of helpful information. Finding people that graduated and took alternate (or did the post-doc/academia) routes to come and give their advice is really priceless.
Too often we are just trained in research, and don't learn how to successfully present ourselves on the job market. If someone wants to consider a nonacademic career (or even a non-R1 position) then they are really out on their own. Thanks for your help & support - now we'll see even more highly trained U.Va. grads bringing their expertise to all sectors!
This is such a needed resource, especially for those who choose to seek a profession outside of the academy. There are very few guiding resources this apart from graduate career services.