When your research takes you away from Duke’s campus, or during unexpected disruptions to campus activities, you can stay engaged with your professional development. Below you’ll find resources that can support you in career and professional development fundamentals, in developing your academic skills as a researcher, and in exploring the full range of career options available to you. Get started today.

Resources from Duke Career Center
Find videos, instructional guides, and more online from the Duke Career Center. You can also access the interview practice tool Big Interview and find job search tools for international students and international searches. All Graduate School students can schedule individual advising appointments and mock interviews with the Career Center team through Handshake.

Beyond Graduate School and Beyond the Professoriate
To provide our students with support, The Graduate School subscribes to two career training platforms for master's and Ph.D. students.  Beyond Graduate School provides resources for master's students, and Beyond the Professoriate provides resources for Ph.D. students  pursuing both academic and nonacademic career options.

Duke OPTIONS
PhD students can take advantage of Duke OPTIONS, an online professional development planning tool created by The Graduate School, to help them develop six key competencies over their time at Duke.

Using LinkedIn and the Duke Alumni Network
This video and guide, developed by the Duke Career Center, help you polish your profile and leverage LinkedIn as a networking and career research tool. The video will also introduce you to ways to use the Duke Alumni Network as part of your research.

Connecting with Duke Alumni
Find Duke alumni through the Alumni Network (even while you're still a student!), and Ask a Blue Devil will connect you with the best Duke alumni experts who can offer career advice and help with introductions. To grow that connection from a one-off question toward a mentoring relationship, consult resources and advice for growing mentoring relationships with alumni, including strategies specifically for graduate students.

Informational Interviews, or Career Chats with Helpful Humans
It can be hard to know whether a particular organization or job would be a good fit for you. Once you have identified some alumni or professionals who are working in careers that interest you, you can request a brief conversation with them to learn about their jobs. Learn more in this video and informational interview guide from the Duke Career Center.

Time Management Resources

An Emerging Leaders Institute team created an interactive tool to help you identify your greatest time management challenge and find immediate strategies to address it. Read the team's blog post to learn more about how they developed it.

Creating your Scholars @ Duke Profile
Find support for populating content in your Scholars @ Duke profile, or find your department's PowerUser if you're ready to create one. Don't let a Google search for your name turn up an empty profile!

LinkedIn Learning
Take advantage of over 13,000 online courses, including topics like communication skills, website development, and design. Free access to Duke students through Duke OIT.

 

Free CliftonStrengths assessments are available to current Graduate School students to learn your top 5 strengths and download the accompanying StrengthsFinder 2.0 e-book.  Complete the Qualtrics survey to request access to your code. We will collect contact information of interested students from this survey once a week and follow up to share access codes and information about the assessment. During fall 2024, the weekly access code distribution occurs on Friday mornings.

Not sure whether to invest time in CliftonStrengths? You can read blog posts by Shu Hu, A.M'24 (Liberal Studies), Lucy Chikwetu, M.S.'23, Ph.D.'23 (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Lindsay Dahora, Ph.D.'21 (Immunology) about the value of this assessment.

If you have access to this resource through another Duke office (e.g., OBGE), we will help connect you with that office. If you have already taken this assessment during your graduate study at Duke, we ask that you give priority to your colleagues who have not yet taken it.

Questions? Contact the Graduate Professional Development team at grad-profdev@duke.edu. If you are a Duke faculty or staff member who wants to use CliftonStrengths assessments for a graduate course or team-building activity, reach out to Melissa Bostrom to request a list of codes for your group.

Humanities and Social Sciences: The Graduate Career Consortium developed ImaginePhD as a free online tool for doctoral students and PhDs in the humanities and social sciences. It's designed to help you assess your skills and interests and achieve your career goals.

Psychology: The American Psychological Association created the APA Career Development Website to help graduate students and postdocs assess and optimize career goals and strategies.

Biomedical Sciences: Trainees in the biomedical sciences can use the free online tool myIDP, hosted on the Science Careers website. With it you can plan and execute your career exploration process.

Chemistry: The American Chemical Society developed ChemIDP to help graduate students and postdocs in chemistry shape their careers in alignment with their strengths and values and to find the jobs they want.

Professional Goal-Setting: The Duke Career Center created a Professional Goal-Setting Guide, which includes an online course on setting professional goals and information about creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP). You can also use this checklist of transferable skills to help you identify your current skills and strategies to further develop.

Planning and Publishing Scholarship
Duke ScholarWorks can help you share your peer-reviewed article, thesis, dissertation, or other digital objects via an open-access repository and your data through an open research data repository. We can help you find and use open educational resources, and can advise on copyright issues, scholarly publishing, data management, building and managing digital research projects, research metrics, and more.

The American Psychological Association offers free interactive online modules to help researchers develop effective presentation skills, understand the publication process, find funding for your research, and review a manuscript. Open to all users regardless of APA membership.

Nature Masterclass offers an overview of peer review. It is divided into four modules that pertain to the role of the researcher, peer review reports, ethics, and variations and innovations. The complete course requires three to four hours, but participants can complete it in a single sitting or use it as a "dip in and out" resource.

Proquest's three Dissertation Bootcamp modules provide support for critical components of your writing success: Getting Started on your Thesis or Dissertation, Efficient Discovery and Research Curation, and Developing a Productive Writing Plan. The content was delivered in collaboration with experts Dr. Jan Allen, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at Cornell University Graduate School and author of The Productive Graduate Student Writer, and Dr. Ken Helvey, Associate Professor of Education at Texas Wesleyan University.

Planning Your Scientific Journey
iBiology Courses sponsors this free online class. Being successful as a scientist requires more than acquiring knowledge and developing experimental skills. It also requires: (1) asking a good scientific question, (2) establishing a clear plan of action, and (3) seeking advice along the way.

Grant Funding Toolkits
The Office of Campus Research Development has created funding toolkits for both NIH F grants and for NSF GRFP, DDRIG, and Postdoctoral Fellowships. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for grants for graduate students and postdocs and access the toolkits via login to Duke Box.

Developing and Delivering Effective Scientific Presentations
Duke Presenting Clinical and Translational Science (PCATS) experts created a series of videos to assist other scientists in developing effective presentations in four modules: Telling Your Story, Creating Slides, Presenting Data, and Giving Your Presentation.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
Duke's institutional membership in the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) provides access to many webinars and resources for working productively in academia as a graduate student and faculty member. Many resources focus on writing productivity, but you can also find webinars addressing such topics as building a network of mentors, overcoming academic perfectionism, and working with agents. The NCFDD Library provides archived versions of many past webinars as well. Find information about how to claim your Duke membership to NCFDD here, and read a post by recent alumna Christina Davidson on the value she found in NCFDD as a graduate student on the Professional Development Blog.

Association for Women in Science (AWIS) Membership 
Free to students, staff and faculty, AWIS is an organization that advocates for gender equity and the advancement of women in STEM. The AWIS organization offers professional development, networking, mentorship and leadership opportunities. Access webinars on topics such as Excellent Public Speaking for Scientists, What to Do when Power Abuse Occurs in Academia, and Leveraging Social Media for Professional Opportunities. Take advantage of Duke's institutional membership, courtesy of the Office of Faculty Advancement, using this link.

The Alt-Ac Support Network
Connect with professionals who have made successful transitions from graduate student and faculty positions to alt-ac careers. Explore the list here.

Career Communities from the Duke Career Center
Connect with a dedicated advisor as well as events and resources for further exploration through the Duke Career Center. Learn more about Career Communities.

Careers in the Humanities

This free webinar from the Modern Language Association will help Humanities PhDs explore careers beyond the traditional faculty route. This webinar features Duke English PhD Alum Sonia Nayak.

Beyond the Professoriate
The Graduate School subscribes to the career training platform Beyond the Professoriate, which includes resources, activities, and support for Ph.D.s pursuing nonacademic careers.

Diverse Career Pathways for Languages and Literatures PhDs

The Modern Language Association offers this free webinar. Hear from PhDs who have pursued a variety of career paths, and explore where your degree can take you.

Build Experience with Common Tasks from Jobs of Interest

  • What's it like to work in clinical trials, freelance science journalism, social media marketing, UX research, regulatory affairs, or writing a reader's report in an editorial position? Execute key tasks from these and many other careers for both STEM and humanities and social sciences PhDs through INTERSECT interactive simulation exercises for career transitions.
  • Students at all levels can complete small (5-6 hours) virtual work projects through opportunities such as Forage or Kaggle (for data science).
  • Gain experience working for the U.S. federal government through the Virtual Student Federal Service, a remote nine-month internship for U.S. citizen students to work on unclassified projects.

Duke Libraries Job and Internship Research Resources
Find resources available through Duke Libraries to support internship and funding searches, resume and interviewing preparation, company and industry research, and tools for international searches.

Job Hunting in Industry: Searching, Applying, Interviewing, and Negotiating for a Scientist Position in Biotech and Pharma
This free four-part video series offered by iBiology offers targeted advice for Ph.D.s seeking industry scientist positions. Each video corresponds to one of four broad topics, including preparations for a successful job search, crafting a winning résumé, interviewing skills, and negotiating a job offer. 

Business Concepts for Life Scientists
This free online course offered by iBiology Courses is designed to enhance PhD scientists’ understanding of foundational business concepts. This business coursework is unique because it is designed to prepare scientists for career transitions into both academic and non-academic settings. The course comprises a series of three modules: Business Strategy, Finance and Business Development. The goal is to impact participants' career readiness by helping prepare scientists who want to start their own labs, and inform scientists who want to go into industry.

Webinar: Five Actionable Steps for Transitioning Smoothly to a Non-faculty Career
In this free webinar, presented by Bitesize Bio, Duke History Ph.D. alumna Heidi Scott Giusto, owner and founder of Career Path Writing Solutions, discusses how she forged her own career path outside of academia as well as five steps you can begin taking NOW that will help you transition when you are ready.

Leaving the Ivory Tower: Managing the Emotional Side of Career Change
In this free webinar, presented by Bitesize Bio, Dara Wilson-Grant, Associate Director of UNC Chapel Hill's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and frequent speaker at Duke, addresses the emotional obstacles to changing career paths, strategies for letting go and moving on to form a new professional identity, and resources that can help you navigate the transition into a more rewarding career.

Interviews with Clinical and Translational Research Professionals
Duke's Translational Research Concepts & Careers has produced video interviews with multiple research professionals so you can learn about what they do, how they got here, and their advice for students interested in pursuing a career in the field.

Beyond the Professoriate
 The Graduate School subscribes to the career training platform Beyond the Professoriate, which includes resources, activities, and support for Ph.D.s pursuing faculty careers.

Higher Education Research Consortium (HERC) Webinars on the Job Search
HERC makes several webinar recordings publicly available without a membership.

American Psychological Association online programs (free and open to all users, regardless of APA membership)

Academic Administration Careers
Begin learning about the opportunities to remain in academia beyond faculty roles. Carpe Careers Columns by Duke Genetics & Genomics Ph.D. alumnus Dave McDonald and Chris N. Golde of Stanford provide insights into the range of opportunities.  The Chronicle of Higher Education's Resources for Career Exploration in Academia include career paths in Administration, Institutional Research, and Assessment.

  • Figuring it Out: The Graduate School’s very own podcast miniseries! Features conversations with Duke University graduate students about the opportunities and challenges they face during their journeys through graduate school.
  • The CliftonStrengths Podcast: Join strengths experts as they discuss the unique qualities of each theme, using strengths at work and at home, teamwork, and so much more.
  • Hello PhD: "A podcast for scientists and the people who love them!" This podcast is great for PhD students in the sciences.
  • Vanderbilt Beyond the Lab Podcast: This podcast features interviews with biomedical science PhDs and postdocs about their career paths.
  • Naturejobs Podcast: The journal Nature's podcast about jobs
  • AcaDames: Two UNC faculty explore life in academia for women.
  • Dope Labs: Duke PhD alumni Titi Shodiya and Zakiya Whatley dish about science, grad school, and friendship.
  • NIH All About Grants: Learn about the ins and outs of NIH grant funding from the experts who administer it.
  • VitaminPhD: This podcast from Boston University describes itself as a "supplement" to doctoral study.
  • Out of the Comfort Zone: For female leaders, subject expertise is usually the source of their confidence. Learning to lead outside your comfort zone is one step for breaking through the glass ceiling. Learn from host and leadership expert Wanda Wallace, PhD'85 (Psychology)
  • HBR Podcasts: Harvard Business Review offers topics that can help grad students better understand the business world, including Women at Work, FOMO Sapiens (on leadership choices), and the Anxious Achiever (about mental health and work). Free.
  • The Science of Mentorship: This 10-part series from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine presents the personal mentorship stories of leaders in academia, business, and the media.
  • PhD Career Stories: These podcasts are developed by a team based in Europe and feature many examples of PhDs in jobs abroad.
  • Centering the Margins: Hosted by Michael A. Betts II, MFA'20 and former Assistant Dean Cisco Ramos, this series delves into the issues, experiences, and pedagogical practices that inform How To Teach Contentious Issues: A Practical Guidebook for Educators.
  • Nature Careers Podcast: Hosted by Julie Gould. A seven-part series all about mentoring, how it differs around the world, and about other similar roles that can happen alongside mentoring, such as coaching and supervising.