Ph.D. student career resources

• University Graduate School Bloomington career servicesOne-to-one appointments for CVs, cover letters, research statements, career exploration, and interview prep. Book through Handshake. The office also runs workshops during the year and will build a custom workshop for a department or student group if you email grdschl@iu.edu.
• Fall 2026 Graduate Career WorkshopsA Friday-morning series from University Graduate School Career Support, 10:00–11:30 AM at the Herman B Wells Library (University Graduate School, East Tower, Suite 546).
  * Fri, Sept 11 — Graduate Resume & CV Writing Group: From Draft to Done
  * Fri, Sept 25 — Graduate CV and Cover Letter Writing Group
  * Fri, Oct 9 — Graduate Interview Prep Workshop: Practical Tips and Practice
  * Fri, Nov 6 — Graduate Mock Interview Practice: Strategy, Practice, and Feedback
• Beyond the Professoriate  IU pays for a subscription, so log in through the IU portal rather than the public site. Built for PhDs and postdocs: structured career training, job search courses, and a large video library of PhD holders describing how they got into their current work across sectors.
• Graduate Career Diversity SymposiumThe Graduate School's event on PhD careers across sectors. Worth attending early in the program, not just when you are on the market.
• Three Minute ThesisA competition to explain your research in three minutes to a general audience. Whatever career you land in, the interview version of this question is coming. This is a low-stakes place to practice.
  
  Prep events run monthly in September, October, and November at 9 AM online, open to advanced students in thesis-bearing programs — competition details, refining your ideas, speaking practice, and help recording.
• Graduate Mentoring CenterMentoring support beyond what your advisor provides. Useful when your committee knows your research but not the job market you are heading toward.
• GradGrants Center Free one-on-one consultations on finding funding and writing grant proposals. A funding record helps on both the academic market and in research jobs outside it.
  
  Walk-in hours Wednesday and Thursday, 11 AM–1 PM; scheduled appointments Monday–Friday, 9 AM–4 PM, in person or virtual.
  
  * Fall 2026 workshops and multi-week bootcamps, all free to IUB grad students.
  * Sept 7 — NSF GRFP Bootcamp (6-week Canvas course)
  * Sept 7 — Intro to Grant Writing Bootcamp (7-week Canvas course)
  * Sept 7, 11–12 PM — Funding Databases Workshop
  * Sept 16, 11–12 PM — Grant Writing for International Students
  * Sept 21 — ACLS/Mellon DIF Bootcamp (5-week Canvas course)
  * Oct 22, 1:30–2:30 PM — Budgeting Workshop
  * Oct 28, 3–4 PM — Introduction to Grant Writing Workshop
• Grants-in-Aid (Graduate School research & travel awards)Graduate School awards that help fund extraordinary expenses tied to dissertation and thesis research or conference travel. Open to full-time master's, professional, and doctoral students: Research Awards up to $1,000 and Conference Travel Awards up to $500. Application deadlines — Fall: Sept 21, 2026; Spring: Feb 8, 2027.
• Graduate & Professional Student Government career development pageGPSG keeps its own list of career development resources and programming for graduate students.
• IU Career Services hubThe umbrella page for all campus career centers, with advising, workshops, and job postings. Graduate students sometimes assume these offices are for undergrads only. They are not.
• Office of Postdoctoral AffairsIf a postdoc is your next step, this office covers what to look for and what support exists once you arrive.

• Luddy Career ServicesOne-on-one coaching on resumes, applications, interviewing, networking, and salary negotiation, scheduled through Handshake. Luddy runs its own career fair twice a year, in September and January, plus employer panels and networking events. First floor of Luddy Hall, luddycareers@iu.edu, 812-856-4903.
• HandshakeIU's job platform and the scheduling system for both Graduate School and Luddy career appointments. Set up your profile once and the employer side starts working for you.
• Office of Academic Engagement and LearningIn this office you will receive support on developing your teaching statement and developing a teaching demo for a faculty position. The office also hosts weekly workshops for PhD instructors of record.

• ImaginePhDA free career exploration and planning tool built for PhDs in the humanities and social sciences. Skills and interests assessments mapped to job families, with planning tools attached.
• myIDPThe STEM equivalent, from AAAS Science Careers. An individual development plan generator based on your skills, interests, and values.
• LinkedIn alumni searchSearch IU alumni by degree and field and see where people with your training ended up. This is the fastest reality check available on what jobs exist, and alumni respond to informational interview requests more often than you would expect.

If you want the academic path: build a teaching record

Teaching-focused institutions hire most of the faculty in this country: regional publics, mid-sized privates, liberal arts colleges, community colleges. Hiring committees at these schools want a peer-reviewed publication, experience as instructor of record (not only as an assistant on someone else's course), and a peer review of your teaching that can turn into a recommendation letter. Everything below helps you build that record, and all of it belongs on your CV under professional development.

• Center for Innovative Teaching and LearningTeaching workshops, consultations, associate instructor support, and graduate student learning communities. Teaching-focused positions want evidence of pedagogical training, and this is where you get it documented.
• CITL Graduate Teaching Apprenticeship ProgramA structured apprenticeship for graduate students who want to develop and document their teaching. Provosts who hire at teaching-focused schools name this program specifically as the kind of line they look for on a CV.
• CIRTL at IUIU belongs to the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, a national network offering free online courses in evidence-based college teaching. Certification levels you can put on a CV.
• FACET Future Faculty Teaching FellowsA fellowship that places advanced IU doctoral students for a year of half-time teaching at an IU regional campus or Butler University. Real independent teaching experience at a different institution type, which is exactly what search committees at teaching-focused schools want to see. Pair it with a for-credit pedagogy course if your department offers one.
  
  An info session and application workshop is set for Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 9 AM; direct questions to fftf@iu.edu.
• Preparing Future Faculty ConferenceAn annual IU Bloomington conference, now past its thirtieth year, planned by a committee of graduate students and supported by the University Graduate School. Sessions cover the faculty career path and broader post-graduation decisions. Presenting or moderating here is also an easy first line for the service section of your CV.
• SREB Institute on Teaching and MentoringA four-day conference run by the Southern Regional Education Board since 1994, and the largest gathering of doctoral scholars of color in the country. Workshops on teaching, mentoring, and career strategy, plus active faculty recruiting by attending institutions. The 2026 institute meets October 29 to November 1 in Arlington, Virginia; registration opens in spring.

• HigherEdJobsThe largest higher education job board, covering faculty, staff, and administrative roles. Set up saved searches by discipline.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education jobsJob listings plus a deep archive of career advice essays on every stage of the academic market.
• HERCThe Higher Education Recruitment Consortium job board. Its distinguishing feature is a dual-career search that finds pairs of jobs within commuting distance, useful for academic couples.
• Academic Jobs OnlineA major application platform for faculty searches, heavily used in computing, math, and the sciences.
• Interfolio DossierStores confidential recommendation letters and delivers them to applications, so your letter writers upload once instead of fifteen times. Check current pricing tiers before the application season starts.
• The Professor Is InKaren Kelsky's long-running site on the mechanics of the academic job market: job documents, campus visits, negotiation. Blunt to a fault, which is part of why people read it.

Most PhDs in the United States now build careers outside the tenure track. That is a statement about the job market, not about anyone's worth as a scholar. These resources are run largely by PhDs who made the move.

• Versatile PhDOne of the oldest resources on nonacademic careers for PhDs, with career path profiles, hiring trend commentary, and first-person accounts of leaving the academic track.
• From PhD to LifeJennifer Polk's coaching practice and blog on career transitions out of academia, including a large archive of transition stories.
• Jobs on ToastChris Humphrey's practical guidance on moving from a PhD into industry: translating the CV into a resume, framing research skills for employers, handling the identity shift.
• National Postdoctoral Association career centerJob listings and career resources aimed at postdocs and finishing doctoral students in research fields.
• National Center for Faculty Development & DiversityOnline community with structured programs on writing productivity, mentoring networks, and career planning. Graduate students can join. IU campuses have held institutional memberships, so check whether you can activate a free account through your campus before paying.

• Computing Research AssociationResources for students heading into computing research careers, including advice on graduate school, research careers, and the Taulbee Survey data on computing faculty hiring and salaries.
• CRA-WP Grad Cohort workshopsMulti-day mentoring workshops for graduate students from groups underrepresented in computing research, pairing students with senior researchers. Applications open annually; the 2026 workshop is on the calendar.
• CRA Career CenterA job board specifically for computing research positions, both faculty and industry research labs.
• ACMStudent membership gets you the digital library, special interest groups in your subfield, and conference communities where a lot of academic and industry hiring conversations actually start.

• IU Office of International Services: employmentWork authorization guidance for on-campus employment, CPT, and OPT. Get the timeline straight early, because visa deadlines do not bend around dissertation timelines.
• OIS Immigration Bridge programIU's program for navigating the H-1B process and employer sponsorship after graduation.