Postdoctoral Scholars

Welcome!

As a Postdoctoral Scholar, you are furthering your training with skills and experiences that can be valuable across many career paths. Graduate Career Services (GCS) is here to help you balance the many competing and/or shifting professional and personal priorities you will navigate throughout your time at UCLA, with services and resources tailored specifically to your needs. We are here to support you as you teach, conduct research, perform university service and position yourself for life after UCLA.

Your values, interests, and skills will evolve during your fellowship at UCLA, and this will likely cause your career goals to evolve as well. With this in mind, we have organized our resources into three main areas to facilitate your exploration of and preparation for different possible career paths: Getting Started, Academic Job Market, and Careers Beyond Academia.

Getting Started
It is never too early to start thinking about what you want to do after you leave UCLA.  Starting early will help you to develop the skills you will need to successfully transition to the career of your choice at the end of your time at UCLA. Check out our resources to identify and assess your values, skills, and interests. Gaining a better understanding of the intersection of these three areas will allow you to take the first step towards creating a plan for your professional development.

Academic Job Market
If you decide to pursue teaching and/or research-focused positions at the university-level, check out our resources to learn about best practices across disciplines to craft the core documents that make up an academic job package as well as how to tailor your documents to the specific needs of the program to which you are applying.

Careers Beyond Academia
If you are interested in a career outside of the Academy, check out our resources to explore different possible career paths, learn about conventions for application materials, and make a plan to continue to develop valuable skills as you finish your postdoctoral fellowship. Remember: there is a whole world of possibilities beyond academia just waiting to be explored. The skills you develop throughout your degree can be applied in many different spaces. We are here to support your as you decide what you want to do with them!

Though creating and enacting a professional development plan can be challenging, it can also be exciting. We encourage you to approach the process of career exploration and growth as an opportunity to daydream about your future, and we hope that the resources on this website help you along the way. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to a GCS team member or book an appointment on Handshake.

Best,