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University Web Sites for Graduate Students

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By Gabriela Montell

University job centers aren't just for undergraduates. Graduate students typically visit their university's career-services office when they need help writing C.V.'s and cover letters. Many universities have put their career information online, and these sites are useful for anyone seeking an academic job. Increasingly, the sites have sections devoted to alternative careers as well. Here is a sampling of universities with career-services Web sites:

Columbia University

Columbia's Center for Career Services site has a guide with advice on self-assessment, networking, and job-search techniques; an academic job-search timeline; sample interview questions that candidates should be able to answer in academic job interviews; and useful tips about developing cover letters, C.V.'s, portfolios, résumés, references, and letters of acceptance and refusal (sample documents are included). The site also features a number of "capsules," which provide detailed information (and links to additional resources) on careers in academe, investment banking, management consulting, and the nonprofit world, as well as other nontraditional occupations for Ph.D.'s.

Dartmouth College

This site has detailed information on writing C.V.'s, résumés, and cover letters, an essay on how institutions conduct an academic job search (with helpful advice for academic job seekers), and a comprehensive list of sample questions to ask -- and to expect to answer -- in an academic job interview. It also features advice about looking for a job outside academe, useful tips on nonacademic job interviews (with a list of sample questions candidates might encounter and ask), and a list of career-related publications and links to useful online resources for job seekers.

Duke University

This Web site includes a comprehensive list of links (sorted by region) for academic and nonacademic job seekers, tips on creating effective cover letters, C.V.'s, and résumés (along with sample documents), general advice on alternative careers for master's and doctoral students, and a timetable for conducting an academic job search. It also has links to a variety of useful resources for doctoral candidates, junior faculty members, and new graduate students.

Harvard University

Harvard's career-services site has numerous links to other resources and provides some general career advice and overviews of various fields. Brochures on internships, interviewing, negotiating an academic job offer, and other career-related topics may be downloaded and printed from the site. Various guides to careers in academe and industry may also be purchased from the site.

Stanford University

Stanford's Career Development Center Web site features a useful guide to career planning, overviews of selected fields, advice about interviewing and preparing cover letters and résumés (along with samples), links to other online career resources, and statistics about employment and salaries for Stanford graduates. Additional information packets on a variety of job-search-related topics may be downloaded and printed from the site.

University of California at Berkeley

This Web site has a separate section for Ph.D.'s and postdocs, which includes essays on academic job-search strategies and on making the transition from graduate student to assistant professor. It also has information on nonacademic careers; narratives by Ph.D.'s who've found jobs outside academe; and advice on interviewing, creating effective C.V.'s, cover letters, and teaching portfolios, and on getting good letters of recommendation.

University of California at Davis

The Graduate Placement Career Services Web site has links to employment opportunities in various school districts, community colleges, universities, and miscellaneous other sites with teacher or faculty job openings, as well as links to more than 170 career-related resources on the Internet. In addition, the universitywide Internship and Career Center has salary and employment statistics and a career-resource manual with general information on job-search strategies, internships, interviewing, C.V. and résumé writing, references, and negotiating a job offer.

University of Chicago

Chicago's Career Services site lists some useful guides to the academic job search and provides links to professional associations and publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Next Wave. The site provides general advice about writing résumés and cover letters, networking, and interviewing, but most of the online content is directed toward undergraduates.

University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Career Services

This site has several excellent online guides to job-search correspondence, résumés, interviewing, and teaching portfolios; links to archived transcripts of career-services discussions; information on alternative careers for Ph.D.'s and translating one's skills to a nonacademic setting; and links to various Internet resources.

University of Virginia

Virginia's Career Services Web site features an online career guide for master's and doctoral students; additional online "handouts" about creating C.V.'s and résumés, writing cover letters, and networking; and links to other Internet resources.