Ph.D. Career Services

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Career Passport: Brochure that covers all facets of career development and the job search

Mission:
The mission of Ph.D. Career Services is 1) to enhance the quality of career and professional development planning at the doctoral level and 2) Connect graduate students to career and professional development opportunities consistent with their goals and values. In order to accomplish this mission, GCS provides specialized services, resources, and programs that enhance and supplement those offered by academic units and other campus career offices

Location
The Graduate Career Services Office is located in the Career Development Center, Student Services Building, Room 113.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Our graduate career consultant provides confidential one-on-one advising to assists Ph.D. students in their career and professional development planning, as well as provide students with the knowledge and practical skills associated with a successful job search. The goal of individual appointments is to help students gain clarity about academic and nonacademic career options.

Students may schedule their own appointment with Dr. Matthew Helm online at http://www.careernetwork.msu.edu/students/advising.

All sessions are private and strictly confidential.

Throughout the academic year we offer a wide variety of workshops on career planning and the job search process for academic and nonacademic job searches. The goal of this workshop series is to assist Ph.D. students in their career and professional development planning process as well as to provide students with the knowledge and practical skills associated with a successful job search. Workshops have been designed primarily for doctoral students as they transition into seeking professional careers.

Workshop topics include:

• The Career Planning Process for Ph.D. Students
• Identifying Ph.D. Professional Options
• Organizing Your Doctoral Education to Increase Options
• Creating Written Credentials: CV's, Resumes, and Cover Letters
• The Academic Job Search
• The Non-Academic Job Search
• Transferable Skills
• Interviewing Skills
• Negotiation Skills and Offer Evaluation

Online Resources

Several useful resources for the job search, academic and nonacademic, are available to you on the Career and Professional Development web site and include resources on:

• The Academic Job Search CV, Resumes, and Cover Letter Resources
• The Non-Academic Job Search
• Self-assessment and Career Exploration
• Spartan Trak/Career Search Database
• Interfolio

Career Search is a powerful networking database which provides fast web access to over 6.5 million key contacts, including company descriptions, addresses, names, web pages, phone numbers, and email addresses. Career Search permits:

• Finding extensive information in healthcare, industry, technology, non-profits, and government agencies.
• Using a broad range of search criteria to find potential opportunities. Search by industry, geographic region, city, company size, keywords, and even industry competitors.

Students may also utilize a variety of self assessment instruments to help explore and identify specific interests, values, skills, and abilities and what careers utilize them.

Career Resource Library

Our Graduate Career Library contains a variety of resources with a vast amount of information on the academic and nonacademic job search.

Credential Files

Michigan State University has partnered with the credentials management service, Interfolio Inc., in order to offer you more efficient and effective ways of managing your credential file. This partnership will offer you online access to your credential data, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.