Life after Graduate School

Certification and Licensure: When a Degree Alone Is Not Enough

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Licensure and Continuing Education, Life after Graduate School
Tags: certification and licensure

Depending on your field, simply having a degree may not be enough to legally and ethically allow you to independently practice within your field. Many professions, especially those that require graduate degrees, also require licenses to practice. For example, practically all professions related to medicine—nursing, physical therapy, psychology—require certification and licensure for practice. If you happen to be in a field that requires a license to practice, you were probably…

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Finding Jobs for Graduate Students in Unexpected Places

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Finding a Job, Life after Graduate School
Tags: jobs for graduate students

Many graduate students give up their job searches before they start simply because they don’t know where to begin looking for jobs. Whether students are… Many students give up their job searches before they start simply because they don’t know where to begin looking for jobs for graduate students. Keep an eye open for jobs for graduate students early in grad school, and make a list of good leads…

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Translating Your Academic Skills into a Salary

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Finding a Job, Life after Graduate School
Tags: how to negotiate a salary, negotiating your salary, negotiationg your salary

What to Highlight when Negotiating Your Salary You have finally finished your graduate program, and now you are faced with the “What next?” that comes after graduation. Some graduate students will pursue tenure-track positions in academia after graduation, but others may want to join the professional world outside academia. If you fall into the latter group, you will need to know how best to translate and highlight your academic skills…

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You Just Might Need a Post Doc

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Licensure and Continuing Education, Life after Graduate School
Tags: fellowship, post doc, post doctoral

According to the National Postdoctoral Association, a post doctoral scholar is “an individual holding a doctoral degree who is engaged in a temporary period of mentored research and/or scholarly training for the purpose of acquiring the professional skills needed to pursue a career path of his or her choosing.” The number of postdocs in the United States has been on the rise, but becoming a postdoc is not essential to…

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Types of Continuing Education

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Licensure and Continuing Education, Life after Graduate School
Tags: continuing ed courses, types of continuing education

Many folks think that they are done learning the moment they graduate from graduate school; however, in many instances, this is not necessarily true. Depending on your particular field and/or licensure associated with your degree, you might be required to take continuing education courses. Even if you are not required to take continuing education, you could still benefit from taking certain types of continuing education courses on your own. The…

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How to Publish a Dissertation or Thesis

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Life after Graduate School, Professional Development
Tags: how to publish a dissertation, how to publish a thesis

You have probably spent months or maybe even years working on your most impressive academic feat – your thesis or dissertation. Now that you have finished defending your work to your committee, you may have trouble finally letting it go. Publishing is a hard validation of your countless hours of effort. Below, find tips to on how to publish a dissertation and make the decisions as easy as possible.

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Professional Etiquette

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Life after Graduate School, Professional Development
Tags: professional etiquette

How is Professional Etiquette in the Workplace different than in Graduate School? If you’ve just landed your first position after graduate school, you might be unsure of how exactly to behave in the professional world. However, you’ve probably already mastered most of these behaviors while you were in graduate school. In general, it’s a good idea to act as you did in your interview until you get a feel for…

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Resumes and Curriculum Vitae

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by Mary Polakovic
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Categories: Life after Graduate School, Professional Development
Tags: resume for graduate students, THIS IS A LIST, writing a cv

As you transition from your career as a graduate student to your career in your chosen field, you will need to create either a resume, a curriculum vita (CV), or both (depending on the positions for which you are applying) to market yourself to potential employers. Having a professionally designed resume or CV can help your application stand out from a pile of others and can potentially help you land…

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Asking for Letters of Recommendation: Professional References

Published: 15 June 2011
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Finding a Job, Life after Graduate School
Tags: professional letter of recommendation, professional references, requesting letters of recommendation

Regardless of whether you would like to pursue a career in academia, research, or elsewhere, you will likely need at least one letter of recommendation to apply for your first job out of graduate school. You may have some fuzzy memories of requesting letters of recommendation from previous professors way back when you applied to grad school, but you may need a reminder about how to ask for letters of…

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