Schedule an Advising Appointment
PhD Career Services can help at every state of planning for life after graduate school.
If you are in need of one-on-one help in your career planning or professional development, it might be time to schedule an appointment.
Eligibility for Advising Services:
- All currently enrolled graduate students (both masters & PhD) students are eligible, including part-time graduate students.
- Postdoctoral Scholars/Postdoctoral Fellows
- Graduates of any MSU Graduate Program are eligible for advising for two calendar years after graduation.
Currently enrolled Masters or Ph.D. Students: Log in to Handshake to schedule an appointment. Detailed instructions are below.
Postdoctoral scholars: You can access career advising and support from the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.
Alumni and others: Did you graduate from MSU in the last two years? Then you can take advantage of our one-on-one advising support. Send an email to us at gradcareers@msu.edu to request access to Handshake. You will need to include your MSU Net ID, School or College you graduate from and the year you graduated. Once we’ve created your account you can go directly to Handshake to schedule your appointment.
Need some help? This tutorial will walk you through appointment scheduling in Handshake.
Did you graduate more than 2 years ago? Great! Then you can (and should!) take advantage of career support in a couple of places. Here’s where to start! https://careernetwork.msu.edu/channels/alumni/
Due to limitations on staffing and resources, PhD Career Development staff may limit the number of sessions available to individuals.
Scheduling Appointments on MSU Handshake for Master's and Ph.D. students
- Go to https://msu.joinhandshake.com/
- From the options given at the top of the page under “How can we help you today?”, select the far right panel titled “Career Center”.
- On the landing page, select the panel titled “Appointments” under “What can we help you find?”.
- On the landing page, click on the blue box that says “Schedule a New Appointment”.
- Select “Graduate Career Services”
- Next, choose an appointment type from the list given.
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Once an appointment type is selected, you can then select the week in which you are seeking an appointment, using the arrow buttons. When you’ve selected a particular week, your screen should indicate on which days appointments are available. If you click on a given day, timing and advisor options will appear below. Select one, enter the details requested (What can we help you with? and your Phone number) and press the green request button to submit your request.
Current advisors:
LJ Shackleford
Doctoral candidate in Higher Adult and Lifelong Education
LJ Shackleford (she/they) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher, Adult, Lifelong Education program in the College of Education. Before becoming a Spartan, LJ earned their degrees from Eastern Michigan University in Information Assurance and Higher Education Student Affairs. LJ’s research interests center around elevating minoritized voices and, through these spaces, helping foster a sense of belonging and ensuring individuals are not traumatized in their own workplace environments. Specifically, they are interested in studying how full-time LGBTQ+ student affairs practitioners live through and build resiliency through work-related discriminatory trauma.
In their final year, LJ looks forward to serving as a Graduate Assistant within the Office of Graduate Career Development and as a Leadership Fellow, exploring programming focused on mental health and preventing graduate student burnout.
Book an appointment with LJ here!
Emma Stolinas
Master's student in Earth and Environmental Sciences
Emma Stolinas (she/her) is a second-year MS student in MSU's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She is from Allentown, PA and graduated from Penn State with her BS in Geosciences in December 2023. Despite starting at MSU in Fall 2024 and planning to earn her PhD doing igneous geochemistry research, she quickly realized that that was no longer her passion. With guidance from MSU faculty and staff, she re-evaluated her goals and values and found her place in education.
Her thesis focuses on the perceptions that college students have about particular careers, how their ideas compare to reality, and how that information can be used to improve academic advising and career counseling in higher education. In her final year at MSU, in addition to writing her thesis, she is looking forward to supporting other graduate students and gaining hands-on advising experience in the Office of Graduate Career Development. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in student affairs.
Book an appointment with Emma here!
