Graduate Student Career Services

The CLA Office of Research and Graduate Programs offers comprehensive career services for PhD and Master's degree-seeking students and graduate alumni in the humanities and social sciences. As graduate students consider what they would like to do after their program, CLA Graduate Student Career Services provides confidential services including:

• One-on-one graduate student career advising
• Help with exploring career options and fit
• Effective job search strategies
• LinkedIn profile creation and enhancement
• Resume, curriculum vitae, teaching statement, diversity statement, and cover letter development
• Interview techniques and mock-interviews
• Assistance with identifying and developing relationships with faculty, professional organizations, student groups, and employers

Request CLA Career Coaching 

For departments and graduate student groups, we offer customizable workshops that can be either stand-alone or a part of courses or seminars.  Workshops can address any of the above topics. Workshops are usually 50-90 minutes in length.  Contact Mackenzie Sullivan, CLA Graduate Career Services Director, to arrange a workshop.

New and Expanded Career Programming for AY 2022-23

Career Communications

• New Workshop: Careers beyond Academia for First-Gen Doctoral Students in CLA. ORGP was awarded a microgrant by the First-Gen Institute to design and implement a workshop that supports PhD students who identify as first-generation in their career development beyond the tenure track. In six meetings over the course of the academic year 2022-2023, a small cohort of six students will work through exercises aimed at career exploration, preparation of application materials, networking, and the interview and negotiation process. Students will receive a small stipend ($150) for their participation. Apply by September 30th. Contact Maria Hofmann (hofma071@umn.edu) with any questions or concerns.

• Career Preparation and Resilience Workshops: ORGP will be facilitating three sessions of the all-campus Jobs Beyond Academia and the Tenure Track Workshop Series this fall: 1) Building Career Resilience,  2) Resumes and Cover Letters, and 3) Interviewing and Negotiations. This workshop series, which will run five consecutive Thursdays beginning Sept. 20th, is conducted in partnership with the Graduate School and the College of Education and Human Development, and is open to all graduate students and postdocs. Enroll now for one or multiple workshops of the series.

• Expanded Graduate Student Internship Program Announced for 2023. CLA is excited to present its third annual Graduate Student Internship Program. The Internship Program offers graduate students the opportunity to gain experience in a profession beyond academia and the tenure track, explore how their academic training might translate into various career options, and build additional skills that will translate across sectors and jobs. This is a small, cohorted program, enrolling and funding up to 10 graduate students. The program has been expanded to run for 12 workshop sessions from Oct. 27th, 2022 through April 2023, and students will now receive up to $6,000 in fellowship funding. Apply to the Graduate Student Internship Program.

• Career Diversity Workshop: The Career Services Office is hosting a Career Diversity Workshop in summer 2023 as part of the Humanities Without Walls initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation. This two-week intensive experience offers humanities doctoral students across the U.S. an opportunity to prepare for a wide array of careers. Several slots will be reserved for CLA students. University of Minnesota students should apply through the Institute for Advanced Studies.

• CLA Graduate Lighthouse Newsletter
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