Faculty
We partner with faculty in many ways to help bring career development into the academic experience. Contact us to learn how we can support you.
Our team is available to:
- Provide in-class career education
- Help infuse experiential learning into curricula
- Create faculty-employer connections for research and class projects
- Help your students articulate the career foundational skills learned and honed in your coursework
- Support your graduate students in their academic and non-academic career journeys
Support Undergraduate Careers
Faculty can have significant influence on students’ career decisions; in fact, according to the Gallup-Purdue Index, four of the six predictors of future work engagement focus on faculty and internship experience. As such, we seek to strengthen relationships between faculty and students by helping to deliver career-relevant instruction and by consulting on best practices with work-integrated learning. Together, we can ensure that all students have access to vital career opportunities throughout their undergraduate experience. We collaborate with faculty to help create vibrant courses that engage students in transformational learning experiences by meaningfully combining academics, discipline-specific knowledge, and industry trends.
Virtual Experiential Learning Toolkit
Given the current prevalence of virtual learning experiences, Texas Career Engagement benchmarked with national colleagues to create suggestions for faculty teaching credit-bearing internship courses. Our toolkit suggestions provide career-related engagement activities and assignments that can enhance student learning. Contact us for access to the Canvas toolkit.
What is included:
- Assignment suggestions in topics including: career readiness, professional development, mentoring and networking, brand management, internship reflection, and industry knowledge/research
- Learning agreements for employers and students
- Employer evaluation surveys
- An Educational Affiliation Agreement template
- A collection of resources for various topics for students and faculty
Support Advanced Degree Careers
Faculty and staff play a critical role in career development for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. As academic career opportunities have become more competitive, advanced degree career pathways have broadened. If you are interested in starting or extending career support in your department to include a broader range of career options, our team is uniquely positioned to help. We are involved in UT-specific and national conversations to share best practices and models, and we are able to provide:
- Department-specific graduate student workshops on career and professional development topics (open to all graduate departments, free of charge)
- Faculty training on discipline-specific advanced degree career pathways, career mentorship and curriculum design
- Advanced degree career outcomes information, both first destination and long-term trajectories
- Connection to advanced degree employers and alumni
- Employment opportunities and labor trends for new graduate program proposals
Contact: Annie Maxfield, Director of Graduate Career & Professional Development
UT Austin participates in several PhD Career Pathways Initiatives:
- The American Association of Universities PhD Career Pathways Initiative – Pilot Departments: History, American Studies, Neuroscience, and Chemistry
- The Council of Graduate Schools Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement
- The American Historical Association Career Diversity Initiative – History Departmental Grant
Advanced Degree Career Resources for Faculty & Departments
Many career pathways exist that are of interest to advanced degree students and also value skills developed through graduate-level training. As a faculty member, you can influence the way your department exposes and prepares students for these options. Below are resources, tools, and opportunities for faculty and department staff to advocate and integrate career development into curriculum and department culture while better preparing advanced students for a more diverse range of career pathways.
Programs & Curriculum
Modern Language Association: Doctoral Student Career Planning Guide – This guide gives faculty members, especially those in administrative roles, clear strategies and simple resources their programs can use to prepare students for a variety of careers. It is designed to help them advise their students more effectively, start conversations with colleagues and administrators about career pathways for doctoral students, and foster a departmental culture that supports the career ambitions and outcomes of all their students. Although written specifically for the Modern Language Association, these strategies can be effectively employed across disciplines as a good starting point.
Sample PhD Career Seminar Syllabi
Building a Career Development Program for Biomedical Trainees – Progressive, module-based workshops, resources, and guides designed for faculty and department staff to build a career development program in the biomedical sciences in their departments. Created through the NIH funded BEST Consortium (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) and produced by UC Irvine and the NIH.
Supporting Your Doctoral Students in Career Exploration (Modern Language Association Conference, January 2020) – Overview of how to use ImaginePhD and ways to build career exploration and development into curriculum and culture for faculty in the humanities.
CGS PhD Career Pathways Reports
- Closing Gaps in Our Knowledge of PhD Career Pathways: Preparing Future Faculty for All Types of Colleges and Universities
- Closing Gaps in Our Knowledge of Humanities PhD Career Pathways: How Well Did a Humanities PhD Prepare Them? Press Release
- Closing Gaps in Our Knowledge of PhD Career Pathways: How Well Did a STEM PhD Train Degree Recipients for Their Careers?
- Closing Gaps in Our Knowledge of PhD Career Pathways: Job Changes of PhD Graduates After Earning Their Degree
Career Diversity for Historians – The American Historical Association’s Career Diversity for Historians initiative is working to better prepare graduate students and early-career historians for a range of career options, within and beyond the academy. With generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the AHA and three dozen departments from around the country are working to explore the culture and practice of graduate education and how it can better support the changing needs of doctoral students.
Ibiology – A free online platform where users can explore your options for careers in biology, improve professional skills, navigate your training, and learn what is happening in the biomedical workforce.
Grants & Funding Opportunities
Individual Development Plans (IDPs) For Faculty Advisors and Mentors
An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a graduate student- and postdoc-driven planning and assessment tool customized to each graduate student’s or postdoctoral scholar’s developmental stage and goals. When graduate students or postdocs complete an IDP, they receive an assessment of their skills, progress, goals, and action items. This process in turn helps graduate students and postdocs to better guide their progress meetings with faculty.
There are significant benefits to using an IDP process with your graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. An IDP:
- Establishes a foundation for a solid working relationship with your graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
- Sets clear expectations for the future.
- Assesses progress, skills, and professional development needs, clarifying career goals and expectations, which will lead to greater productivity and success in the long term.
- Sets academic and professional development goals and action plans for achieving them.
Indeed, the 2005 Sigma Xi Postdoc survey of U.S. postdoctoral scholars showed that postdoctoral scholars who created a written career plan or IDP with their mentors were 23 percent more likely to submit papers, 30 percent more likely to publish first-authored papers, and 25 percent less likely to report that their mentor did not meet initial expectations.
UT Austin Graduate Alumni & Outcomes
Hear directly from UT Austin doctoral alumni about how they effectively transitioned into professional roles, and find career tips for UT graduate students in this series of interviews.
Search UT Austin doctoral alumni by career title and organization, gathered through Linkedin.
Encourage doctoral students to create a profile and engage with other UT alumni on HookedIn, the official UT Austin social networking platform, designed to bring together students, alumni, employers, and friends of UT for career connections and mentorship.
Faculty HireUTexas Accounts
UT Austin faculty members are eligible for a HireUTexas student demo account to explore the job board, events, resources and services available in the system for UT Austin students. Request your account using the form linked below.
Join the National Association of Colleges & Employers
UT Austin has a campus-wide membership to the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE), a leading source of information on the employment of the college educated, forecasts and trends in the job market, recruiting and hiring best practices, and student attitudes and outcomes. As a member, you will have access to research, career development and diversity tools and resources related to experiential learning, career skills mapping to curricula, and post-graduation outcomes.
Contact us to activate your membership.