Professional Development (PD) - Information & Resources

Academic Job Resources (General)

• National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity: Contains a large collection of webinars and multi-week courses on topics like dissertation success and navigating the academic job market. Also hosts writing challenges and includes a membership program.
• The Professor Is In: A resource with advice on the academic and post-academic career life. Additional resources include the book, The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide To Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job, a new podcast, and a Facebook community.
• Common Academic Experiences No One Talks About: Really excellent article that highlights different academics' perspectives on burnout, rejection, and imposter syndrome.
• A lab at Northeastern University (the PINE lab) compiled some helpful resources for different stages of academic development, from grad school, to postdoc, to going on the job market, to becoming a new PI.
• Society for Personality and Social Psychology academic job market
• Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues: Contains helpful advice for planning ahead for academic jobs in psychology beginning your first day of graduate school.
• Teaching Resources 
  • Workshops and trainings at UA: https://oia.arizona.edu/node/8
  • Graduate Certificate in College Teaching: https://cct.oia.arizona.edu/
• Finding a Postdoc: This document contains helpful resources and advice on finding a postdoc including links to databases where postdoc positions are listed, funding resources, and real advice from current/former postdocs on how they secured their position.

Non-Academic Job Resources (General)

• https://beyondprof.com/ - “Beyond the Professoriate helps grad students and PhDs leverage their education into meaningful careers, whether in academia or beyond. We have resources to support individuals and partner with institutions to help PhDs and grad students land jobs in: Industry, Non-Profit, Higher Education Administration, Faculty, and the Private Sector.”
• https://cheekyscientist.com/ - “The world’s largest job search training platform specifically for helping PhDs get hired into industry career”
• https://versatilephd.com/phd-career-finder/ - “The Versatile PhD is a web-based, socially positive business that helps universities provide graduate students with non-academic professional development. Our mission is to help graduate students and PhDs envision, prepare for, and excel in non-academic and professional careers.”
• Advice on transitioning from academia to non-academia careers. This includes reworking a CV. This page also provides resources that describe the types of jobs that are available.
• Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Non-Academic Career Directory
• Society for Personality and Social Psychology non-academic internships
• Duke Careers Beyond Academia panel series videos

Specific Career Path Resources

• Scientific Policy and Advocacy 
  • General Resource
  • Specific Policy Resources, such as how to write a policy brief, applying science to advocacy, etc.
  • Government Careers Guide
  • Non-profit Career Guide
• Industry Research 
• Careers in Data Science
• Consulting  
  • General resources
  • Article "The Science Careers Guide to Consulting Careers for Ph.D. Scientists"
  • Consulting Careers for PhDs in Psychology
• Scientific Communications

Data Science

• UA Computer Training: Free license to Microsoft Imagine Academy, a platform that provides students and educators with industry aligned curricula and certifications to build competencies and validate skills for high-demand technologies.
• UA Data Science Institute 
  • Data Science Events/Workshops Calendar
  • Data Science Fellowship Program
  • UA 24-week Data Analytics Bootcamp
• Coursera  
  • Intro Data Science in Python Course
  • Applied Data Science in Python
  • Repository of other data science courses
• Data/Software "Carpentries" - "Build the skills and perspectives to work more effectively and reproducibly with data and software 
• Other Coding Resources 
  • Database of Resources to Learn R
  • An Introduction to Python for R Users
  • Introduction to Data Science - Rafeal A. Irizarry
• Data Engineering and Validation 
  • Data Engineering and Validation Free Online Textbook - Dr. Michael Mullarkey hosted a workshop for the department in Spring 2024 and developed this textbook as a resource to support research groups in implementing best practices to validate data

Statistics

• SMaRT Workshops: Fantastic workshops organized by Aidan Wright, Jeffrey Girard, and Kelley Kidwell. Statistics workshops in particular are unique in that they are accessible (geared towards applied researchers; aka psychologists) without sacrificing methodological rigor.

 psychology Undergraduate Teaching & Mentoring Onboarding 

• Graduate Certificate in College Teaching: https://cct.oia.arizona.edu/
• University Mentor Training: https://facultyaffairs.arizona.edu/mentor-institute/mentoring-training 

University Center for Assessment, Teaching and Technology (UCATT)
Teaching tools you need, in one place. The mission of UCATT is to build capacity for excellence in teaching. To that end, we offer a learning-centered toolkit packed with everything our instructors need: professional development courses, mentor programs, multimedia solutions, digital technology and support services.  
UCATT Home | UCATT (arizona.edu)

Center for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) 
We have access to local and national professional development resources through this network to support careers in higher education, including the offering of certificates of teaching. This resource is available for Graduate students, Postdocs, Staff, and Faculty. The UA joined this international network in 2020.

Offerings include: Faculty Learning Community (FLC), Postdoc Pathway program, Teaching As Research program (grad and postdoc), Tri-level certificates, Courses, workshops, discussions, and podcasts
Check out all of the details here: https://academicaffairs.arizona.edu/cirtl

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) is a nationally recognized, independent organization that provides online career development and mentoring resources for faculty, postdocs, and graduate students.  Because the University of Arizona is an Institutional Member, all of our faculty, postdocs, and graduate students are granted free membership.   
More Information: National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity | UA Faculty Affairs (arizona.edu)

Solidarity Coalition trainings (formerly known as Safe Zone)

• Clinical
  • Meetings: Twice a semester
  • To join: Emails with information will be sent to the listservs as applicable 
• Cognition & Neural Systems (CNS)
  • Meetings: Weekly - Every Wednesday
  • To join: CNS grads will receive information through the CNS listserv. Interested students outside of CNS, please contact CNS Program Director Stephen Cowen: scowen@arizona.edu
• Social 
  • Meetings: See full schedule here
  • To join: If you would like to be added to the listserv, please contact Social Program Director Daniel Sullivan, swolf22@arizona.edu
     

• New Faculty
  • New Faculty Resources | UA Faculty Affairs (arizona.edu)
• Career-Track Faculty
  • Career Track Guidelines for Promotion

Graduate Center (UA)

• University of Arizona Graduate Center: Contains general resources for graduate students and postdocs on topics like professional development, job search and preparation, writing and publishing, research, teaching, mentoring, community engagement, funding, and finances.
• Graduate Center Events Calendar: Includes list of workshop events occurring at the UA on topics such like writing, coding, and data management.
• Graduate Communities for Academic Fellowship & Efficacy (Grad CAFE) is a Peer Mentorship program for first & second year doctoral students. Participants will attend a weekly one-hour student success seminar led by experienced doctoral students, offering professional development, small group mentoring, and a supportive interdisciplinary community. Designed for students who identify as racial/ethnic minorities, gender minorities, women in STEM, queer or gender nonconforming individuals, disabled, or first-generation/low-income students, the program aims to foster a diverse and inclusive academic environment. Contact Dr. Celeste Arkins for more information: catkins@arizona.edu.

Science Communication

• UArizona Graduate Certificate in Science Communication:

• Career Resources | Postdoctoral Affairs (arizona.edu)

CoSSAC Professional Development Grant

The College of Science Staff Advisory Council (CoSSAC) offers grants at different times throughout the academic year to assist with fees related to professional development. This includes funding for training and travel.

Deadlines:

Applications are due every:

• March 15th - for events occurring between Jan 1 and May 31
• July 15th - for events occurring between May 1 and Sept 30 
• November 15th - for events occurring between Sept 1 and Jan 31

Eligibility:

To apply for this grant, you will need to meet the following requirements:

• Must be a UA Staff member (Students, faculty, and post-docs are not eligible for this particular award.)
• Employed for at least 6 months in the College of Science
• Have not already yet received a grant award within the same academic year

Award Amount:

• Ranges between $50 - $400

More Information:

Professional Development Committee Members

• Christy Ball (chair)
  Lee Ryan 
  Jolene Jacquart 
  Vanessa Noonkester (Admin Staff)
  Kristina Irwin (Research Staff)
  Diego Guevara-Beltran (Post-doc)
  Sarah Leighton (Grad)

Updated: 06/20/24