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Exploring Career Options

Career Options for PhDs

This is a list of common careers explored by our graduates. This list is by no means all inclusive. If there are any other areas that you are interested in, we highly encourage you to use informational interviews to investigate these other careers.

Start your exploration by visiting myIDP.

  • Clinical Research Management
  • Consulting
  • Entrepreneur Science Policy
  • Principal Investigator at Research Intensive Instituition
  • Public Health Related Careers
  • Research Adminstration
  • Research in Industry
  • Sales and Marketing of Scinece Related Products
  • Science Education (K-12) or Public Outreach
  • Science Policy
  • Science Writing
  • Teaching Intensice Career in Academia
  • Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property and Patenting
  • Venture Capitalist

Careers in Science Seminar Series

We offer a "Careers in Science" seminar series that showcases a wide array of career opportunities available to our students and postdoctoral fellows beyond that of an academic researcher. We draw on professionals in a variety of fields as well as alumni of our programs. Previous career talks have been representative of:

  • academic administration
  • patent law
  • industry
  • journal editing and writing
  • venture capital firms
  • government agencies
  • science policy
  • and many more!

If you are an alum of our university (either graduate or postdoctoral) and would like to give a talk about your career to our current students and postdoctoral fellows, please contact Jennifer Aumiller, MEd.


GPILS Individual Development Plans

The Graduate Program in Life Sciences and the Office of Postdoctoral Scholars are committed to providing a top-tier research training environment for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

To further support the development of trainees in their trajectory toward independent careers, each program provides an Individual Development Plan (IDP) as a mentoring guidance document.

Each program's IDP is linked below:

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Epidemiology and Human Genetics

Gerontology

  • Please reach out to the program coordinator for this document

Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Molecular Medicine

Neuroscience

Physical Rehabilitation Science


My IDP by Science Careers

MyIDP allows you to explore your career options and set goals by using a questionnaire that examines your skills, interests, and values and shows you careers that are the best fit.


MBTI

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a questionnaire that describes your preferred way of interacting. Please set up an appointment with Jennifer Aumiller to take the Myers-Briggs.


For more information please contact:

Jennifer Aumiller, MEd
Director
GPILS/OPS Career and Professional Development