Graduate Students

Get Career Center Guidance In Your Job Search!

Before launching your search, ask yourself, "What do I want to do?" If you can't answer this question, you may want to make an appointment with a career counselor to discuss a plan of action.

First, the bad news. Most jobs listed by companies and research institutions are aimed at recent bachelor-level graduates. Now, the good news. Even though there are fewer jobs listed for masters and doctoral graduates, there are far fewer applicants for these positions.

Getting the job you want is hard work and takes time. Finding the job you want requires planned, systematic effort and will test your self-knowledge and your research skills, organizational talents and persuasive abilities. You must understand your qualifications and know how to market them. Planning your job search well in advance will help you survive disappointments and persist in your search. Remember, most people do not get immediate results.

This section of the UCR Career Center Web site is designed to help you plan and organize a successful job search.

Job & Internship Listing

Academic Employment

Academic job searches are often frustrating and stressful. While percentages vary from discipline to discipline, fewer than 50% of all doctoral graduates find employment in academic settings. For those who wish to pursue these positions there are a few caveats.

You must be willing to relocate, which means starting your career hundreds of miles away from where you attended graduate school.
You must be able to balance research and teaching. Teaching loads vary from school to school, but increasingly the expectation is for more courses and more "preps."
You must be patient. The search process is arcane in nature and glacial in speed. Applications are typically due months before screening begins.

Listed below are some commonly used Internet resources for academic positions.

The Chronicle of Higher Education - Faculty and staff positions at higher ed institutions.
Higher Ed Jobs - Faculty and staff positions at higher ed institutions.
California Community College Registry - Academic positions at community colleges.
Science Magazine - Academic and non-academic positions in the sciences.
Post-Docs.Com - Academic and non-academic positions for post-docs and scientists.
The Scholarly Societies Project - Listing of over 4,000 scholarly and professional society websites, most with listings for academic and non-academic jobs.
Modern Language Association - Membership is required to view job listings. Full-time faculty positions in English and foreign languages.

Non-Academic Employment

Many graduate students seek non-academic positions and find challenging opportunities for personal and professional growth that they had not considered when they entered grad school. Likewise, many companies, governmental agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations are finding that graduate training imbues prospective employees with rich research, analytical, and communication skills. While performing a non-academic search requires patience and rethinking one's skill set, it is often rewarding and creates opportunities that do not exist in the academic world.

Here are a few other great resources for jobs, internships, and information about the non-academic world. Please also refer to the "Academic Employment" section of this page, as many of the resources include academic and non-academic job listings.

SCOTjobs - Jobs and internships for UCR students. Log into SCOTLink.
IdeaList.Org - Home to nonprofits and NGO's in every state and country.
USAjobs.com - Federal Government job listings. The largest employer of people with graduate degrees.
SoCalHerc - Non-Academic jobs at Southern California colleges and universities.
PSE-Net - A collection of major governmental jobsites: State, Federal, and International.
Biotech Career Center - A complete listing of all Southern California Biotech Companies.
SoCal High Tech Jobs - Primarily in Southern California with links to some national and international listings.
Job Listings - A collection of industry-specific job sites.

Informational Resources:
Job Seeking Experiences (requires free registration) - The Chronicle of Higher Education's discussion forum.
Beyond Academe - Non-academic job information for historians.

UCR Career Center