PhD Roadmap

Your first year is for setting your foundation. The goal isn't to know what you'll do after the PhD, it's to know what you have to work with and where to get help.

• Activate UCR Handshake. Where you'll book Career Center appointments and find grad events.
• Take one career assessment: myIDP (STEM), ImaginePhD (humanities/social sciences), or ChemIDP (chemistry).
• Book a first appointment with the Graduate Student Career Specialist.
• Email GradSuccess / GSRC to introduce yourself and ask what's open this term.
• Update or draft a one-page CV or resume using the resume samples for graduate students.

The middle years are where you go from absorbing the field to operating in it. The most powerful move is talking to people who have already taken the paths you might consider.

• We recommend you conduct 2–3 informational interviews, one in academia, one in industry, one in nonprofit/government.
• Read alumni profiles on LinkedIn and your department's site.
• Take a leadership role, graduate student organization, conference organizing, workshop facilitation.
• Present at Grad Slam. Three minutes of clear communication is high-leverage practice.
• Build your LinkedIn profile and pick one curated LinkedIn Learning path.
• Draft a teaching philosophy or professional narrative from the Professional Narrative & Networking handout; see TADP.

This stage runs through your entire PhD. Employers, hiring committees, and collaborators look at how well you work across roles, disciplines, and communities, and good work depends on it.

• Attend at least one professional-development event on collaboration or working across roles each year.
• Research your target employers' company culture and hiring practices the same way you research their research areas.
• Build your network across communities, same-field peers, different-field peers, and cross-disciplinary connections.
• Engage NCFDD (free via UCR) if you're pursuing academia.

Most students under-budget time for the launch. Start 9–12 months out, not the last semester. Two tracks, academic and non-academic, share most of the work but diverge in the last six months.