Careers and Jobs Outside the Academy

The average person changes jobs and/or careers 4-5 times during their working lives. Even within one career track, a number of reports on graduate education indicate that graduate students need to develop more than an expertise in a particular discipline. There are a number of core competencies (transferable skills) that cut across careers. To become career resilient it is recommended to develop the following core competencies, or the knowledge and skills of: teacher (at every level), project manager, evaluator of other's learning, mentor, communicator, faculty member, teamwork facilitator, leader, interdisciplinary thinker, and big-picture thinker. Having this set of core competencies will help prepare you for your immediate career goal and also for the inevitable changes in your career path over your lifetime.

CDC Resources to Assess Your Skills, Strengths and Values
• Transferable Skills
• "Top Ten" Strengths Exercise
• Identifying Your Values

Strategies for Exploration

• Audit classes outside your field or department, or take some non-credit courses or workshops in anything from Intro to C++ to grant writing.
  
• Use your summers well. Pursue work experience in areas not necessarily related to your field of study.
  
• Pursue other interests, while maintaining progress toward your degree.
  
• Use the Alumni Career Network. Speak to Binghamton graduates using this online searchable database of alumni who have volunteered to be contacted by alumni and/or students for career information and advice. You can search by academic degree to see the kinds of positions held by alumni who have earned the same or similar degree that you are pursuing either at Binghamton or elsewhere. It is important to remember a parity of degrees is not necessary for alumni to be of assistance to you. If they are already employed in an organization or field that is of interest to you, they very likely have experiences and contacts to assist you. Although the Network is not an employment or placement program, it is designed to help you connect with alumni and tap their talents and insight.
  
• Useful resources and links for researching career fields

What Do Employers Want in a Ph.D.?
Desired skill sets, experience, qualifications grouped by sectors including business and industry, government, education, nonprofit.

Stereotypes of PhDs in the Humanities & How to Combat Them

Re-envisioning the Ph.D.
A recent project funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts posed the challenging question: "How can we re-envision the Ph.D. to meet the needs of the society of the 21st Century?" One finding was that doctoral students and Ph.D.'s want and need more extensive preparation for obtaining employment within the academy and beyond. In response, they put together a collection of resources that address preparation for a wider range of options.

Important Websites for Researching Nonacademic Careers

General
Myth-busters from "So What Are You Going to Do with That?"
Four Steps To Succeeding Outside The Ivory Tower
Sellout A resource for PhDs considering careers beyond the university.
Chronicle of Higher Education:

• Where To Find Information on Nonacademic Careers
• A Little Advice From 32,000 Graduate Students

Humanities
The Humanities at Work: The Doctorate Beyond the Academy
Information About Administrative Jobs in Academe

Science
PhDs.org Science, Math, and Engineering Career Resources
Non-Academic Careers for Scientific Psychologists

Links for Nonacademic Jobs

Economics
Job Openings for Economists

Science
JobsNet: Network of science job listings.
ScienceJobs.com: Biology, chemistry & other science jobs.
Employment Links For The Biomedical Scientist

Psychology
PsycCareers.com

Nonprofit
American Society of Association Executives Post your resume and search through hundreds of job listings in associations
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Idealist.org Job and internship opportunities in nonprofit organizations. Users may register to receive e-mail alerts of new job listings, and there's also a list of links to other employment resources.
Philanthropy Careers has resources for job seekers including job openings, career news and advice, and e-mail notification of new jobs.

Other Useful Links for Job Openings

The website of the Career Development Center at Binghamton University contains links to other websites as a convenience for its users and is not responsible for the contents of any linked site.