Career resources for graduate students

Career planning as a graduate student

Graduate school is itself a stage of your career. Being a graduate student introduces you to a particular sector of work, academia, with associated norms, values, and expectations. At the end of your graduate program, you may choose to continue to work in that sector through continuing further studies, beginning a post-doc, or applying for academic jobs. Or, you may decide to bring your knowledge and skills to a different sector such as a for-profit industry, government, healthcare, and more.

Most graduate students will consider more than one career option over the course of their degree, and many students will find their career paths to be influenced by a variety of factors, such as family responsibilities, desired living location, desired income, labour market trends.

As a graduate student, your most valuable career development resources are curiosity, flexibility, and an open mind.

Career learning and development

The Centre for Student Involvement and Careers is a hub of career development expertise, programs, initiatives, and resources integrated within the full range of students’ academic, co-curricular, and extra-curricular experiences. The Centre works in partnership with Faculties to support students in becoming career-ready graduates.

Graduate students, including Masters and PhD at any discipline and any stage of their program, can access services related to career advising and development through the Centre. Students can also access services for up to 1 year post-graduation.

Danielle Barkley, PhD, works as the Graduate Career Educator and can serve as the key point of contact for inquiries related to graduate students. You may contact her at danielle.barkley@ubc.ca.

Get started

As you think about your career, you may wish to consder the following:

Skills: What you know how to do and are good at.
Interests: The type of work you like to do, the questions you want to answer, and the problems you want to solve.
Values: What you care about and how you want to show up in the world.

There are many ways to assess and reflect on these areas. Browse key resources for graduate students in the “Additional Resources” section below.

Advising appointments

Current UBC graduate students and recent alumni within 1 year of graduation, can access individual advising appointments through Zoom, Skype, or phone. Topics for these conversations include career options or exploration, job search, networking, interviews, resume, academic Curriculum Vitaes, and any career related topic. To book an appointment, please log into CareersOnline.

If you are having difficulty identifying an appointment time that works with your schedule, please email Danielle Barkley, PhD, at danielle.barkley@ubc.ca to request an alternate time.

Highlighting experience

The following tutorials are specifically designed for students who want to showcase their research and academic experiences in ways that capture the attention of employers within and beyond the academy.

An academic project

This video focuses on how your experience undertaking an academic project can be used to highlight key competencies that employers are looking for.

Community-based experiential learning

This video provides guidance on how you can showcase your experiences gained through experiential learning projects.

Additional Resources

Tools

UBC Graduate Game Plan
Read through a wide-ranging discussion of strategies for graduate students to achieve academic and career related goals.
My IDP self-assessment
Access a combined self-assessment and goal setting tool designed for students with graduate degrees in STEM fields that includes information on academic and non-academic career paths.
Imagine PhD
Access a self-assessment and goal setting tool designed for students in social sciences and humanities. It includes information on a wide variety of career paths, annotated job postings, sample job documents, and job simulation activities.
Intersect Job Simulations
By completing job simulations you can consider which careers are of interest to you and utilize provided resources to explore future courses of action by following up with professionals in the career field.

Resources

UBC PhD Outcomes (pdf)
Published in 2017 using data from 2005 to 2013, this data reports on the career paths of UBC PhD graduates, including distribution across sectors, sample job titles, and satisfaction reports.
UBC Department Profile Career Outcomes
On the “Prospective Students” page, most programs will include a “Career Outcomes” section with information about where recent graduates are working, their job titles, and more.
O-Net database of occupations
Access a detailed database listing many occupations with information about required skills and qualifications.
Resumes and Cover Letters
Clearly demonstrate your skills, experiences, and characteristics by checking out tips on how to write your resume and cover letter.
Curricula Vitae
Highlight your education and accomplishments by learning more about how to write your Curricula Vitae (CV).
University Affairs
Browse a variety of articles on higher education in Canada, including career advice and tips for graduate students.
Chronicle of Higher Education
Browse a range of articles addressing current challenges and debates within higher education.
Inside Higher Education
Find articles and advice for graduate students working or planning to work in higher education.

PhD Career path profiles

View interviews with individuals with PhDs now working in a variety of fields discussing their career transitions. You can also browse the list of websites that feature Post-PhD Interviews.

Opportunities

This list represents some examples of opportunities for graduate students to gain experience and expand their networks.

UBC Work Learn
The Work Learn program offers paid, part-time work opportunities on campus for current students.
MITACS
This Canadian organization works to connect industry and academia. It offers funded internship opportunities, post-doc opportunities and professional development training opportunities to students from all disciplines.
UBC Sustainability Scholars Program
Paid internship program that matches UBC graduate students with on- and off-campus sustainability partners.
UBC Public Scholars Initiative
Provides funding for UBC PhDs to pursue community-connected research.
UBC Arts PhD Co-op
Opportunity for PhD students in select Arts disciplines to complete a related co-op term as part of their doctoral degree.
UBC Graduate Pathways to Success
A palette of non-credit workshops, seminars and other activities to support graduate school success and professional development.

Career stories

Arts perspective: Peter Wrinch

Peter Wrinch was focused on a career in academia throughout his studies in Russian History. He is currently the CEO of Hollyhock, a not-for-profit educational institute dedicated to lifelong learning and cultural transformation through courses, conferences, and community.

An academic's perspective: Marwan Hassan

Marwan Hassan is a Professor at UBC. He gives insight into choosing a career in academia and methods of achieving a job.

An engineer's perspective: Veronique Hadade

Veronique Hadade has a Masters in both Mechanical Engineering and Management which she has applied to a career in VP Products and Solutions at PhotoSat.

Combining technical and business skills: Leslie Ng

Leslie Ng supplemented her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering with an MBA. She now works for the City of Vancouver as an engineer and planner for the sustainability team.

From a CEO and Mentor: Kathryn Hayashi

Kathryn Hayashi is the CEO at TRIUMF Innovations Inc., with a career spanning a variety of industries from music to biotechnology.

Transferring technical skills to industry: Harish Vasudevan

Harish Vasudevan holds a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from UBC. Deciding that academia wasn't for him, he now is the Senior Project Manager at Sangamo Therapeutics.