Postdoc Core Professional Skills

UCLA has defined the Core Professional Skills that each postdoctoral scholar should develop during their training and divided them into 6 categories below.

Check out the UCLA Campus Resources under each category to find out where you can develop your skills.

See the key below to identify which UCLA offices and units provide training in specific Core Professional Skill categories.

KEY: UCLA Offices and Units Providing Training in Core Professional Skills

🎓 Your Department or Program

💼 UCLA Career Center Graduate Career Services

🍎 UCLA Teaching Centers: TLC & CIRTL

📚 UCLA Division of Graduate Education

🔧Other Campus Resources

Career Path Preparation Skills

  • Assessing your knowledge, values, and interests to identify potential career paths 💼🔧
  • Developing an online professional presence 💼🍎
  • Building professional relationships and networks 🎓💼🔧
  • Researching and locating appropriate jobs and internships 🎓💼🔧
  • Preparing job application documents 🎓💼🍎🔧
  • Translating your academic skills to different careers and communicating them to potential employers 💼🍎
  • Understanding and navigating interview preparation and process 💼
  • Learning to negotiate a job offer 💼
  • Transitioning from training to a professional career and understanding professional culture 💼
  • Understanding the visa and work requirements for your career path 💼🔧

🎓 Your Department or Program

Check with your department or program for opportunities to network with alumni, speakers and visiting scientists. Research common funding opportunities for those in your area. Speak with visitors and alumni about their experiences in their career path and jobs and for advice on preparation and application. Seek out additional mentors with expertise in the types of careers, training, and network you want to cultivate.

💼 UCLA Graduate Career Services (GCS)

Graduate Career Services (GCS) at the UCLA Career Center provides one-on-one coaching, workshops, and networking events for graduate students, around topics of career exploration, networking, job search strategy, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and negotiation. Look for event announcements in your email. Log in to their online professional development platform, 12twenty, to access upcoming events, schedule coaching sessions, and check out their resources below.

🍎Teaching and Learning Center (TLC)

The Teaching & Learning Center’s Graduate Student & Postdoctoral Scholar Engagement unit (GSPSE) offers consultations, workshops, and learning communities that help graduate students and postdocs prepare for teaching-oriented careers. In particular, TLC helps job applicants develop a reflective teaching practice, create syllabi, and prepare for teaching demonstrations. Learn more on the TLC website.

🔧 Other Campus Resources

BioCareers
UCLA is a member of BioCareers, the largest jobs board for job seekers in the biomedical and life sciences. In addition to the jobs board, they have other resources for bioscience research professional development. You can join for free with our UCLA Affiliate membership!

Graduate Programs in Bioscience
GPB hosts career planning workshops on Creating an Individual Development and hosts or advises several networking and affinity groups that can help grow your professional networks, such as Black Scholars in Biosciences, Bioscience Women’s Circle, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) UCLA Chapter, and Association for Multi-Ethnic Bioscientists’ Advancement (AMEBA).

Communication Skills

  • Scholarly and professional writing in one’s field 🎓
  • Managing complex writing projects 🎓
  • Public speaking 🎓🍎
  • Making formal presentations in one’s field 🎓🍎
  • Employing effective visual communication 🎓🍎
  • Communicating with diverse audiences 🎓🍎📚
  • Communicating across multiple platforms 🎓🍎

🎓 Your Department or Program

Check with your department or program for opportunities to network with alumni, speakers and visiting scientists. Research common funding opportunities for those in your area. Speak with visitors and alumni about their experiences in their career path and jobs and for advice on preparation and application. Seek out additional mentors with expertise in the types of careers, training, and network you want to cultivate.

🍎Teaching and Learning Center (TLC)

By attending workshops and events hosted by the Teaching & Learning Center, presenting flash talks on teaching-related topics at gatherings such as the annual TA & Postdoc Teaching Conference, and gaining classroom teaching experience, graduate students can develop skills for communicating with diverse audiences orally and in writing. Learn more on the TLC website.

📚 Division of Graduate Education

Grad Slam
Grad Slam is a campus and UC-wide competition that showcases and awards the best 3-minute research presentations by graduate students. Think TED Talks on steroids. The competition aims to strengthen the important career development skill of articulating graduate research concisely and effectively to a non-specialist audience. It also highlights the excellence, importance and relevance of UCLA graduate students and their research.

Wellness and Self Development Skills

  • Time management 💼🔧
  • Setting realistic goals 🎓💼🔧
  • Maintaining progress towards goals 🎓💼🔧
  • Understanding and navigating requirements and expectations of my program 🎓📚🔧
  • Balancing academic and research responsibilities with other aspects of my life 🎓🔧
  • Managing physical and mental health and wellness 📚🔧
  • Managing personal finances and planning for the future 📚🔧
  • Developing community and social relationships 🎓📚🔧
  • Actively engaging with different identities and opinions 🎓📚🔧
  • Developing healthy boundaries and self-advocacy skills 🎓📚🔧

🎓 Your Department or Program

Your mentor, department or program should be able to help you with realistic goal-setting, maintaining progress, and navigating program requirements. Programs and disciplinary areas offer many avenues to practice engaging with different identities and opinions and developing self-advocacy skills. 

💼 UCLA Graduate Career Services (GCS)

Graduate Career Services (GCS) at the UCLA Career Center provides one-on-one coaching, workshops, and networking events for graduate students, around topics of career exploration, networking, job search strategy, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and negotiation. Look for event announcements in your email. Log in to their online professional development platform, 12twenty, to access upcoming events, schedule coaching sessions, and check out their resources below.

📚 Division of Graduate Education

Graduate Division oversees graduate student appointments and services and provides a number of centralized resources. In particular, graduate students facing challenges to their training progress for any reason, should reach out to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Case Managers for assistance and guidance to available resources. Graduate Division also provides workshops for graduate students related to navigating your training, obtaining fellowship funding, financial wellness, diversity and inclusion and other topics. 

🔧 Other Campus Resources

UCLA Wellness and Self Development Resources
UCLA offers a number of wellness and self development resources for graduate students.

Wellness:

Financial Wellness:

Finding Community:

Engage Across Difference:

UCLA Equity Diversity and Inclusion Training Hub

Graduate Programs in Bioscience (GPB)
GPB hosts workshops related to time management and achieving balance, goal-setting, mentoring relationships, successfully navigating your training, personal wellness, and diversity and inclusion. 

Leadership, Collaboration, and Project Management Skills

  • Managing projects 🎓🔧
  • Developing entrepreneurial skills 🔧
  • Leading the planning of an event or initiative 🔧
  • Working in a diverse team 🎓🔧
  • Collaborating across different working styles 🎓
  • Resolving interpersonal conflict 🎓🔧
  • Managing mentor and mentee relationships 🎓🔧
  • Identifying opportunities for service and community engagement 🎓💼🔧

🎓 Your Department or Program

Your mentor, department or program should be able to help you with realistic goal-setting, maintaining progress, and navigating program requirements. Programs and disciplinary areas offer many avenues to practice engaging with different identities and opinions and developing self-advocacy skills. 

💼 UCLA Career Center – Graduate Career Services


The Graduate Career Services team at the UCLA Career Center provides one-on-one coaching, workshops and networking events for graduate students, around topics of career exploration, career path preparation, job search, networking and interviewing skills, in preparation for jobs inside and beyond academia. Look for event announcements in your email. Log in to their online professional development platform, 12twenty, to access upcoming events, schedule coaching sessions, AND check out their resources below.

🔧 Other Campus Resources

UCLA Leadership, Project Management and Collaboration Resources
UCLA offers a number of leadership resources for graduate students

Finding and Obtaining Funding:

  • The Division of Graduate Education hosts a searchable graduate student funding database and holds several workshops per year on fellowship funding and financial aid. 

Entrepreneurial:

Leading a group or planning events:

Opportunities for Service and Community Engagement:

Graduate Programs in Bioscience (GPB)
GPB hosts workshops related to time management and achieving balance, goal-setting, mentoring relationships, successfully navigating your training, personal wellness, and diversity and inclusion. 

Teaching and Mentorship Skills

  • Creating an inclusive environment for all learners 🍎🔧
  • Applying evidence-based pedagogical methods 🍎🔧
  • Aligning assessments and activities with learning objectives 🍎🔧
  • Training learners in research skills and techniques 🎓🍎🔧
  • Advising, role modeling, and mentoring 🍎🔧
  • Using instructional technology effectively 🍎🔧
  • Interpreting and applying feedback on teaching effectiveness 💼🍎🔧

🎓 Your Department or Program

Check with your department or program, and mentors for opportunities to mentor more junior research trainees, including undergraduates, new graduate students, summer researchers, etc.

💼 UCLA Career Center – Graduate Career Services


The Graduate Career Services team at the UCLA Career Center provides one-on-one coaching, workshops and networking events for graduate students, around topics of career exploration, career path preparation, job search, networking and interviewing skills, in preparation for jobs inside and beyond academia. Look for event announcements in your email. Log in to their online professional development platform, 12twenty, to access upcoming events, schedule coaching sessions, AND check out their resource guides below.

🍎Teaching and Learning Center (TLC)

Graduate students can develop core teaching skills by completing UCLA’s TA Training Requirements; those looking to take their training to the next level may be interested in serving as a Teaching Assistant Consultant. The TLC also offers tailored support for graduate students through the annual TA & Postdoc Teaching conference and quarterly workshops and other events, and offers self-paced online resources and teaching consultations. Learn more on the TLC website.

🔧 Other Campus Resources

Graduate Programs in Bioscience (GPB)
GPB hosts courses and workshops related to developing research mentorship skills, both as a mentee and mentor. 

Scholarly Expertise and Integrity Skills

  • Understanding how to access and assess literature and research in your discipline 🎓🔧
  • Developing command of the existing knowledge in your discipline 🎓
  • Developing familiarity with interdisciplinary knowledge and research approaches 🎓
  • Developing critical AI literacy 🔧
  • Collaborating effectively in research 🎓🔧
  • Upholding ethical norms and practicing responsible conduct and dissemination of research 🎓🔧
  • Practicing civility in scholarly exchange and the research environment 🎓

🎓 Your Department or Program

Your mentor, department and program should be your primary resources for developing your research, scholarship and academic skills. There may be questions or issues around your research and the way your research group/mentor operates that you do not even know to ask.

🔧 Other Campus Resources

Scholarly Expertise and Integrity Resources

UCLA Library:

Graduate Programs in Bioscience (GPB)
Graduate Programs in Bioscience and Bioscience Postdoc Affairs host courses in Responsible Conduct of Research and Rigor and Reproducibility that meet NIH and NSF Fellowship and Traineeship requirements. Also, many workshops provided by GPB touch on effective collaboration, mentoring relationships, and other best practices in research settings.