When you participate in professional development, you build skills needed to succeed academically and thrive in your career.
The Graduate School Office of Professional Development supports graduate students to learn skills that benefit them academically and support them to pursue a wide variety of career paths, from academic to non-academic careers.
Explore the tools and programming the office provides to help you plan for success, build skills, and develop your career.
Start here: DiscoverPD
DiscoverPD helps master’s and doctoral students at UW–Madison advance their academic and professional goals.
- You’ll read more about the facets of professional development.
- Our 5-minute self-assessment provides you a report of your strengths and weaknesses.
- You’ll explore customized recommendations within each facet, and add these to your Individual Development Plan.
Behind DiscoverPD is a curated database of professional development activities on campus and beyond. Your recommendations will draw from this database, or you’ll have the option to search the database if you know what you’re looking for.
Watch the 3-minute video.
Individual Development Plan
The Individual Development Plan (IDP) helps you reflect, plan, and discuss in order to achieve your academic and professional goals.
What is the IDP?
It’s a process in which you will:
- assess your skills, interests, and strengths;
- define a written plan for developing skills; and
- communicate with your mentor(s).
The product of this process will be a written, ever-evolving IDP document.
You’ll revisit your IDP at least once per year, to update and refine as goals change or come into focus, and to record progress and accomplishments.
How it works:
To create your IDP, you can start with one of the IDP resources listed below, or attend an IDP workshop hosted by the Graduate School. Your graduate program coordinator or faculty mentor may also be able to help you get started.
UW–Madison IDP policy:
IDPs are required for graduate students and postdocs with NIH funding, and recommended for all graduate students and postdocs regardless of funding source.
IDP for Humanities and Social Sciences
ImaginePhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
IDP for Biological and Physical Sciences
myIDP is a web-based career planning tool, hosted by the AAAS, tailored to meet the needs of graduate students and postdocs in the sciences.
Resources for Future Faculty
UW–Madison values preparing future faculty to be effective teachers, mentors, and researchers at worldwide institutions.
The Delta Program
The Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning in the Graduate School promotes the development of a future national faculty that is committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching and research mentoring practices for diverse student audiences. The Delta Program offers workshops, courses, an Internship Program, and a Certificate Program.
Join the Delta community to:
• Explore inclusive and engaging teaching practices
• Gain skills and experience toward strong job application materials
• Belong to a community committed to advancing effective teaching
For Future Faculty Series
The For Future Faculty Series provides in-person and online events and resources designed for graduate students and postdocs interested in careers as research and teaching faculty.
Participate in this series for guidance on topics such as:
• Understanding institutional fit
• Preparing your job application materials
• Conducting your job search
• Developing your research program
• Advancing your teaching skills
Professional Development Programming
Each semester the Graduate School, together with campus partners, hosts nearly 400 professional development events, which can be found through DiscoverPD and our events calendar.
Communicating research
Three Minute Thesis® is a competition in which students explain their research to a lay audience.
Grants and funding
An introduction to the grant proposal process: planning, researching, writing, and follow-up.
Networking
Tips and resources for graduate students to improve networking experience and effectiveness.
Project management
A one-day workshop, as well as materials from past workshops, about project management.
Online learning
Explore strategies to prepare to learn remotely, engage in your courses, and maximize your time.
Graduate research
A micro-course on conducting research, scholarly conversations, and sharing contributions.
Mentorship
Find out how to get the mentorship you need to be successful, and become the mentor you want to be to others.
Skill-building and career planning
Browse the free memberships and tools available to graduate student to build skills, explore career options, and more.
Introduction to patents
Learn the types of patents and patent concepts, the anatomy of a patent, and the patent process.
Intellectual property
An online micro-course about cultural, legal, and policy perspectives on intellectual property.
Events
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- July
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Humanities Grant Writing Camp
The UW–Madison Graduate School is offering the Humanities Grant Writing Camp (HGWC) this May. Hosted by the Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH) and facilitated by the UW–Madison Writing Center, the four-day camp (May 19-22, 2025, 9 am–3:30 pm) provides participants with a structured introduction to the nuts and bolts of writing funding proposals to support a wide range of humanities work, from research travel and dissertation writing to public humanities projects.
Call for Applications
Applications will be accepted through Monday, March 31 and require an advisor endorsement. Notifications will be made by April 15, 2025.
Professional Development for Doctoral Students: What To Do by Career Stage
It’s always a good time to work on professional development, but some skills can be especially impactful if you focus on them during specific stages of graduate school.
Below are some recommendations of what to do whether you are just starting graduate school, well into your program, or in the latter stages of a PhD. While you’ll develop many of these skills through the coursework, research, and scholarship that is part of your graduate program, you can also seek out opportunities to further develop these skills by searching the DiscoverPD database.
These recommendations are based on research from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) on PhD Professional Development: Value, Timing, and Participation, which surveyed PhD alumni including those at UW–Madison to determine which activities they found the most useful at each career stage of graduate school.
Here are a few things to think about as you get started:
- You might find that some of these ideas are more relevant to you than others. Alumni in the CGS survey reported different participation in some activities depending on whether they were in humanities or non-humanities programs. Use your judgment but think creatively about whether these skills might be useful to you.
- To maximize your likelihood of success, incorporate ideas from the lists below into your Individual Development Plan. Use the SMART goal method to develop action-oriented goals.
- Talk with your mentor(s) or more senior graduate student peers to increase your accountability to follow through on your goals and get even more advice.
Most PhD alumni suggest that taking advantage of professional development opportunities in these areas is the most useful when done in the beginning stages of a PhD program.
Communication: The graduate student events calendar compiles workshops and events that focus on communication skills. Think about communication broadly – encompassing written, verbal, visual, and digital skills – as well as being able to tailor media to engage fellow scholars and the general public.
Public Speaking: Try these public speaking tips from GradHacker. To develop effective materials for public speaking events, look to DesignLab for help creating presentation slides, research posters, and more.
Networking: Learn how to network authentically and effectively, then put that knowledge into practice during graduate school. You may already be thinking about networking in different ways, such as building intellectual or professional communities with the new people you meet on campus, or building relationships with those in your program and courses. Whether you join an existing writing group, start a regular social outing for peers, or something else, these interactions all help build your network.
Digital Literacy: DesignLab can help you learn how to work effectively with digital media, including presentation slides, infographics, webpages, video, and audio. To learn how to use different software, look to the classes offered by Software Training for Students or through LinkedIn Learning.
Quantitative Literacy/Data Analytics: The Data Science Hub offers workshops to help you learn data analysis skills, and compiles a list of data science tools on campus. The Social Science Computing Cooperative offers training and support to researchers who use statistical analysis.
Academic Writing: The Writing Center offers writing workshops to enhance your academic writing and a self-paced, in-depth guide to academic and professional writing. Additionally, a micro-course from the UW Libraries introduces you to copyright and fair use for your projects.
Research Ethics/Scholarly Integrity: Get an introduction to research ethics and integrity with UW–Madison specific information on Research Integrity at UW–Madison, Responsible Data Planning, Use, and Sharing, and campus guidelines on Responsible Conduct of Research.
Diversity/Multicultural Competency: The annual UW–Madison Diversity Forum and micro-course Reflecting on Social Justice Foundational Concepts are great starting points.
Teaching Preparation: The Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring supports UW–Madison instructors in their continuing growth as practitioners of the complex, challenging, and dynamic craft of teaching. The center serves faculty and staff instructors, as well as graduate student TAs and LSAs, through just-in-time training (e.g. designing a course) and professional development opportunities (e.g. Teaching at UW workshops, TeachOnline@UW). Additionally, the Delta Program, housed in the Graduate School, engages students in teaching, mentoring, outreach, and advising professional development, and UW–Madison is a member of the CIRTL Network (the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning). A self-guided micro-course on Including & Navigating Race in the Classroom introduces the importance of representation in class materials, and focuses on how to facilitate productive dialogue with students that doesn’t bring harm.
Networking: Improve your experience and effectiveness with networking, a skill that can be vital for career success as you build professional and intellectual communities and relationships.
Project Management: Learn about the principles of project management. Consider attending the Project Management Workshop hosted by the Graduate School each January (Check GradConnections Weekly in your inbox for workshop announcements.)
Leadership Development: The Office for Student Organizations, Leadership & Involvement connects students with opportunities to develop leadership capacity and offers a leadership certificate to interested students. The UW–Madison Leadership Framework further articulates ways you can engage in leadership on and off campus.
Grant Writing: Get an introduction to the grant proposal process with this grants and funding micro-course, then learn the basics of planning and writing a grant proposal.
Research or Fieldwork Abroad: Campus offers many funding opportunities and other support to help you pursue research or fieldwork outside of the U.S., including:
- the Student Research Grants Competition (eligibility varies each year)
- funding for fieldwork abroad through the Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS)
- Study Abroad scholarships
- the UW Graduate Research program and UW Graduate Fellowships Research program through International Academic Programs. Through these programs, you will be registered as a full-time student, as well as enrolled in CISI insurance, for the duration of your research with access to emergency support while abroad.
Networking: As you prepare to enter the job market, make networking part of your job search plan. When you attend professional conferences, make meeting new people part of what you aim to get out of the experience. And if you are exploring career options, consider informational interviewing as a way to both learn about jobs and establish valuable connections that could lead to job offers down the road.
Career Preparation: The Office of Professional Development regularly hosts workshops on interviewing, job negotiations, and similar topics, so check the graduate student events calendar for opportunities. Recordings are often available on the Graduate School’s YouTube channel. When it’s time to apply for a job, Writing Center workshops can help with preparing materials – both academic and non-academic – and has on-demand guides for CVs, Resumes, and Cover Letters in the Writer’s Handbook. Beyond Graduate School is a one-of-a-kind online career training platform for master’s students, with on-demand, self-paced learning modules for exploring career options and learning proven job search strategies. Beyond the Professoriate empowers PhD students to make informed decisions about their career path and learn successful job search strategies to navigate the faculty job market and explore professional careers beyond the professoriate.
Leadership Development: The Office for Student Organizations, Leadership & Involvement connects students with opportunities to develop leadership capacity and offers a leadership certificate to interested students. The UW–Madison Leadership Framework further articulates ways you can engage in leadership on and off campus.
Entrepreneurship: The Weinert Center at the Wisconsin School of Business serves as a resource for all students interested in entrepreneurship and hosts the Distinguished Entrepreneurs Lunch program. The Innovate Network also provides resources in the campus and Madison community. To become familiar with intellectual property as you may encounter and produce it in your time as a student, check out the UW Libraries’ Intellectual Property micro-course or watch these videos on Intellectual Property and Invention Disclosure for Graduate Students.
Career Exploration and Development
Career advising for graduate students is usually offered within your school/college, department, or program, supplemented by career exploration and development programming offered through the Graduate School.
Individual Career Exploration & Development Advising
UW–Madison graduate students in a research-based master’s or doctoral program* are eligible for up to three individual career advising sessions per semester with Elizabeth Hart, the Associate Director of Career Development in the UW–Madison Graduate School. Elizabeth holds a MSEd in Higher Education Administration and a BA in English. She has over 10 years of experience supporting students, with a focus on graduate students, in navigating their educational experience and resources; creating a resume of learning experiences; and communicating skills, experiences, and research with others in meaningful ways. She strives to demystify the “hidden curriculum” of graduate school, guiding students in navigating systems (within the institution and beyond), in networking and developing meaningful relationships, and in engaging in various experiential learning opportunities that foster professional skill-building and the exploration of ways in which students can apply academic training to academic and non-academic career paths.
*This new offering from the Graduate School is intended to address gaps in access to career advising. Graduate students enrolled in service-based pricing programs, such as online and accelerated programs, are ineligible for this service. Graduate students who have access to career services within their school or college, such as the College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Business, and others, should seek 1:1 advising at those offices.
Guide to selecting a meeting type:
- Career Exploration: Discuss career options and strategies to narrow possible career paths within or outside academia. Learn how different pathways might fit your values, skills, and interests. These meetings could include a skills or values assessment, goal-setting or creating an individual development plan (IDP), or cover specific questions.
- Career Materials Review/Feedback: Receive and discuss feedback on job documents (CV/resume, cover letter, diversity statement, teaching statement, etc.) Materials must be uploaded at least 48 business hours in advance of this meeting, or the meeting will be rescheduled.
- Quick Career Consultation: This shorter session is great for answering specific and briefer questions around your career exploration, job search, or navigating career development opportunities across the UW campus.
- Networking/LinkedIn: Get started with LinkedIn or networking, discuss effective ways to build out your profile, explore opportunities to network and connect with various industry representatives or engage across campus.
- Interview & Negotiation Preparation: Discuss strategies to prepare and approach the interview or negotiation of a position. Practice a mock interview and/or discuss specific types of interview questions and responses.
- Navigating your Current Position: Talk through making the most of your time as a graduate student and research/teaching/project assistant or intern. These meetings might be helpful when navigating new situations, team environments, or supervision/mentorship relationships.
Beyond Graduate School
Beyond Graduate School is a one-of-a-kind online career training platform for master’s students. The platform provides on-demand, self-paced learning modules that allow master’s students to explore career options and learn proven job search strategies to secure employment after graduation. Beyond Grad School also hosts a unique video library where students can hear from master’s degree holders working in all career sectors.
Beyond Graduate School benefits master’s students by:
• supporting career exploration and building job search skills.
• providing proven job search strategies so students can leverage their education into professional careers of their choice.
• providing accessible, well-curated resources for busy master’s students.
• complementing existing on-campus graduate student career supports.
• offering recorded seminars, workbooks, and a one-of-a-kind informational interview library where students can learn from other master’s degree holders.
To log in, visit Beyond Graduate School, select University of Wisconsin-Madison, and enter your institutional login information.
Beyond the Professoriate PhD Career Training Platform
Beyond the Professoriate’s Career Training Platform helps graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs successfully transition into academic or nonacademic careers.
Through two programs of study (Academic Careers and Professional Careers), postdocs and graduate students can explore career options and learn job search strategies to secure employment in academia and beyond.
Beyond the Professoriate’s Career Training Platform benefits grad students by:
• Supporting career exploration.
• Providing accessible, well-curated resources for busy graduate students.
• Promoting engaging learning through reflective activities that encourage students to apply what they’ve learned.
• Complementing existing on-campus graduate student career supports.
• Offering recorded seminars, reflective prompts, and assessments that guide the student experience and foster user engagement.
To log in visit Beyond Prof’s Career Training Platform, select University of Wisconsin-Madison, and enter your institutional login information.
NCFDD
NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community for faculty members, postdocs, and graduate students. It provides online career development and mentoring resources in a ready-to-access format that you can view anytime.
Starting with a core curriculum, NCFDD offers insight into foundational skills such as planning each semester, developing a daily writing practice, cultivating a network of mentors and collaborators, and managing stress and rejection.
Members can sign up to participate in online events including webinars, bootcamps, multi-week courses, and structured writing challenges. Plus, the NCFDD Discussion Forums offer a place to connect with others to seek or share advice.
Create an account to take advantage of expert webinars, writing challenges, the “Monday Motivator” e-newsletter and more.
Once you sign up through UW–Madison's institutional membership, you will have access to the full range of resources, trainings, and courses available through NCFDD.
ImaginePhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
myIDP is a web-based career planning tool, hosted by the AAAS, tailored to meet the needs of graduate students and postdocs in the sciences.
With Handshake you can:
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Join UW on Handshake! Here are the steps to get started:
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Additional career resources
Big Interview
Interviews can be an intimidating part of the internship or job search, but it’s an important life skill you will use more than once. With Big Interview, you can practice and improve your interviewing skills to feel confident and ready.
Big Interview is free to use for all UW-Madison students! Log in below with your NetID or easily access the tool by adding the Big Interview tile in your MyUW and logging in.