It's best to have several mentors — both inside and outside the university. Talk with lots of people about their career paths.
You can learn a lot about other people's career paths online. Search AlumniFire or narrow a LinkedIn search to focus on Ohio State alumni who hold degrees like yours. You'll often be able to see what they're doing now and what steps they took to get there. Or read about the career paths of Ohio State alumni in our Flight Paths series.
Alumni are usually glad to talk with students. Once you've found them on AlumniFire or LinkedIn, you can ask for an informational interview to find out about their work lives. The Imagine PhD tool, (which requires a free, confidential account) explains how.
Ohio State subscribes to Beyond the Professoriate and Beyond Grad School, which offers advice about searching for work and events that are free to Ohio State students.
Ohio State faculty and staff with Career Ally door hangtags, stickers or desk signs have agreed to support students in career exploration. Feel free to reach out to them.
Several colleges have graduate career development courses or offer course credit for internships/experiential learning. For instance:
- ARTEDUC 5222: Arts Careers: Career Exploration & Development in the Arts
- ARTSSCI 6000: Career Exploration for Graduate Students
- ARTSSCI 6191: Experiential Learning-Graduate
- BA 2601: Job Search Prep Course
- ENR 1500: Career Development and Success
- FAES 2351: Planning a Career in Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
