Summer Suggestions for Professional Development

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I spent some time recently digging through this blog’s archives and came across several great posts about professional development during the summer months. With the tulips in bloom and the end of the semester just around the corner, it seemed right to repost some ideas and add some new ones for Summer 2015.

• As Kelli Marshall at the Chronicle of Higher Education recently argued, "If you don’t manage your online presence, you are allowing search engines to create it for you." Update your online presence by creating a polished LinkedIn profile with this tutorial from The Graduate School at Duke. You might also want to develop a personal webpage/electronic portfolio or conduct a personal branding audit using this guide from the Career Center.
• You can also update your tech skills by learning how to use WordPress, Tumblr, Drupal, or some basic HTML at Lynda.com. Duke even has a university-wide site license! This site is also great for the classroom.
• Summer is also a great time to revisit your CV or resume. If you are around Durham, you can reach out to a counselor at the Duke Career Center for some one-on-one advice.

Spending a few minutes a week during the summer will give some great results. There are also a few upcoming professional development events to consider:

• Humanities and Social Sciences Ph.D. students exploring non-faculty career options may be interested in “Beyond the Professoriate,” a two-day, online conference co-sponsored by Lilli Research Group and PhDtoLife. This virtual conference will happen on May 2 and 9th, 2015 from 11:00am to 6:00pm (or so).
• During the week of June 8 The Versatile PhD, a web-based service for non-academic professional development, is holding free panel discussions about careers in marketing for STEM PhDs. Use your Duke NetID to access premium content such as the Career Finder.

Have any other suggestions? Please let us know!

_{Photo by Andrew Braithwaite. Shared in accordance with Creative Commons Licence, CC BY 2.0.}

Author

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Darren Mueller, Ph.D.

Darren received his PhD in musicology from Duke University in 2015. He is currently visiting faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he teaches music history.