Career Development
Given the current conditions of the academic job market, many master's and doctoral students are considering other options for their post-graduate lives. However, when you may have planned for an academic job for the past half a decade or more, it can be challenging to know where to turn.
One option is to meet with Maya Hargens to discuss your career direction. Another possibility is to use ImaginePhD, a free website that provides assessments and ways to explore different career options. Below are a few helpful elements of the ImaginePhD website that grad students can use to envision their future using clear, achievable goals and resources.
ImaginePhD includes three helpful assessments that allow students to explore interests, skills, and values. These assessments can be taken more than once, clarifying how your thinking about your career and professionalization may change.
- The interest assessment is a questionnaire that leads to a set of 'Top Five Interests' and an outline of your similarities with different career roles. These interests outline what a person may value concerning their profession. For example, some of my answers included "understanding individual and societal behavior" and "helping others." None of the answers surprised me, but seeing those interests aligned with career options was helpful.
- The skills assessment allows you to drag and drop different skills into five categories of competencies. These results lead you to various career options and a 'Top Five Skills' to use in your exploration process.
- The values assessment also provides a list of results, emphasizing what would make a work environment personally satisfying. I was particularly happy to see this category, as I think this is an often under-analyzed component of career assessment.
These three assessments are generally quick and can give some much-needed clarity. Make sure you sign up for an account so your results can be saved each time you take an assessment. Even if you feel self-assured, I'd recommend everyone take these at least once as a reflective exercise.
Job Families
ImaginePhD offers fifteen job families to explore for humanities and social science grad students. These include Advocacy, Consulting, Organizational Management, and more.
I was surprised at how many possibilities there were to explore. Signing up for a free account saves a particular job family of interest for future exploration.
Career Exploration Features
- Explore — career articles, tip sheets, and sample job descriptions
- Connect — networking strategies and LinkedIn guidance
- Build Skills — activities and skill-development exercises
- Apply — resumes, cover letters, and job board resources
Explore
Exploring can lead to different articles about the career, including a Tip Sheet for the application process and Sample Job Descriptions.
There are also different Job Simulation articles. For example, under the "Development" job family, users can "Create a Pitch Deck" or "Develop a Prospect Research Profile"
Connect
Connecting analyzes networking strategies, with a particular emphasis on LinkedIn and tips for professional networking.
With LinkedIn being a rapidly growing means of networking and finding jobs across many industries, I was very excited to see that ImaginePhD is keeping up with this trend.
Build Skills
Building skills allows students to recognize the aptitudes required for these roles.
The "Advocacy" job family encourages learning how to "Compose a Fact Sheet" and exploring leadership in local government.
Apply
The apply option leads students to advice regarding job descriptions, resumes, and cover letters for these roles.
The site also provides job boards where students may find positions related to these fields.
While some suggestions may be broader, like Indeed or LinkedIn, others are more specialized.
For example, an exploration of "Translation and Interpretation" roles leads students to job postings on sites like "The American Sign Language Teaching Association" and the "Globalization and Localization Association."
ImaginePhD also gives the option to work on an Individualized Development Plan under "My Plan." In this section, a user can create goals in various categories, download a chart of goals, and even export these selections to their calendar. UCSB and its STEM departments frequently advocate using the IDP document for grant applications and self-improvement. However, many users struggle with its formatting and length. Not only does ImaginePhD allow for consistent editing of your IDP, but the site also gives an example document with suggested goals and sets concrete dates to make short and long-term plans.
Final Thoughts
ImaginePhD is a reasonably straightforward website for career exploration and goal setting. Not every possible job is represented on the website, but this is an excellent starting point and may help users think out of the box. Based on the information provided, the site seems up to date, and I was impressed with the number of resources amassed in the various families. I recommend using the site if you want some relaxed, self-motivated career direction.
About the Author
Dr. Grace Kimball is the Assistant Director of Professional Development in the Graduate Division at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She helps to develop programs and resources that support graduate student success and manages the day-to-day operations of the Graduate Student Resource Center. Grace earned her Ph.D. in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies from UCSB and is passionate about creating opportunities that help graduate students thrive both during their degree programs and in their future careers.