By Emily Azevedo-Casey, PhD student
When was the last time you tapped into the professional development (PD) resources offered at UW?
A 2022 study on PhD alumni discovered that the best time to take advantage of these opportunities is at the beginning stages of your program. The next best time is whatever stage you are in right now. This study, conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools and involving UW–Madison participants, focused on PhDs in STEM and Humanities. It revealed that PD opportunities rooted in communication, public speaking, and digital literacy proved to be most helpful in their subsequent careers. Networking, regardless of the academic stage, was also highly valued.
- Practice informational interviews to build authentic connections and express genuine interest to hone in on networking skills. Try this guide for informational interviews, interview questions to ask, or watch 1:1 interviews from Beyond Graduate School‘s career video library to get started.
- Sharpen your communication skills by leveraging resources like the academic and professional writing handbook offered by The Writing Center. Check out how to incorporate inclusive writing in your teaching, research, or practice by reading the sourcebook offered by Writing Across the Curriculum.
- Check out these five tips for more effective public speaking or take a class like Delta’s improv for science teaching and communication.
- Improve your digital literacy through DesignLab’s free consultations, workshops, and downloadable resources. Need help figuring out how to properly cite an image? Check out their design tips and tricks page.
For a comprehensive list of PD areas and associated resources, explore the Early Stage, Middle Stage, and Late Stage PD overviews on the Graduate School website. These cover other important PD areas like academic writing, research ethics, teaching preparation, multicultural competency training, grant writing, fieldwork, and entrepreneurship.
Fight the overwhelm by planning ahead and prioritizing opportunities that make the most sense for you. Many of these skills may not be honed through traditional coursework, research, teaching, and practice endeavors. Connect specific opportunities with your Individual Development Plan (IDP) by integrating PD activities into your calendar regularly. To maximize your potential, look beyond your department, check GradConnections for events and workshops, subscribe to PD resources like Beyond Graduate School, Beyond the Professoriate, National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and take advantage of personalized assessments like DiscoverPD.
Tips for Grads is a professional and academic advice column written by graduate students for graduate students at UW–Madison. It is published in the student newsletter, GradConnections Weekly.