The Imagined Futures: Graduate Professional Development Initiative applies arts and humanities strategies to build preparation for diverse career paths into graduate offerings, equipping our students and alumni to find meaningful work and address critical societal challenges. 

Faculty, staff and graduate programs can take action to support graduate students’ career development:

Hold possibilities open

• At the time of recruitment and throughout the program, ask students open-ended questions that don’t presume a specific career path: “What might you like to do after you complete your degree?” 
• Refer to careers in the plural (see PhD Career Pathways resource for guidance regarding terminology). Notice where graduates of your program work and mention a variety of career outcomes to recruits and current students. Consider displaying diverse alumni career outcomes on your department’s website, social media and/or other outlets. 
• Encourage students to clarify the steps toward their career goals using an Individual Development Plan. The Imagine PhD tool supports each stage of planning.
• Voice support for students’ participation in project-based courses, internships, certificates and summer jobs that help them build transferable skills.

Encourage students to reflect on their skills, interests and values

• Name the transferable skills students are developing in their graduate program. Writing, project planning, organizing data, managing people and other skills learned in graduate school have value.
• Encourage students to pursue and document projects that demonstrate their skills (such as leadership roles, grant writing and public-facing projects) as well as academic publications. These become fodder for the non-academic resumé.
• Talk to students non-judgmentally about which parts of their work they like and which parts they don’t. (Do they love teaching but dislike writing? Love completing projects but dislike organizing them?) Use that reflection to help them think about lines of work that might fit. 

You don’t have to be an expert — encourage students to seek several mentors and use available resources

• Students can talk with their college’s career services office to find out about opportunities like coaching, workshops on preparing for the job search, and more. 
• Ohio State students, faculty and staff have access to Beyond the Professoriate and Beyond Grad School, which is a career training platform that offers information about searching for employment.
• Students can find mentors working in their field of interest through informational interviewing on LinkedIn or by attending professional meetings in that field. Tips for these activities, as well as resumé and cover letter advice, are included with the Imagine PhD tool.
• Students can look for career allies: faculty, staff, alumni of their programs and people working in the field of their choice who are willing to discuss career paths.

LEARN MORE about the Imagined Futures Graduate Professional Development Initiative