The Career Field Resource pages describe the more common fields that employ scientists with advanced training, with a short list of websites which will help you understand the field. Each section has:
- at least one or two articles to provide an overview of the field or career paths;
- resources specific to Berkeley (access to opportunities you can pursue while a student or postdoc);
- more general sources of information including professional associations, sites with industry news and career advice, and fellowship/job listings.
Higher Education
Opportunities include faculty positions at research or teaching focused institutions, or roles in academic administration. A small sampling of non-faculty roles include: working in institutional research, grants administration, student affairs, research administration, tech transfer.
Berkeley Resources
- Graduate Division’s GradPro, GSI Teaching & Resource Center and Graduate Diversity; including the “Path to the Professoriate” program
- Berkeley Sponsored Projects – list of Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Biological Sciences
- Thriving in Science – Trainee led professional development initiative for STEM PhDs, “intended to provide graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with the resources and support to make the most of their academic training.”
- Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs (VSPA)
- Career Center – overview on pursuing faculty careers. The Career Center also offers workshops in the fall semester each year on the faculty job search. See Handshake for details.
- QB3-Berkeley’s interview with Professional in Residence Elise Kikis, PhD, “Balancing Teaching and Research at a Liberal Arts College”
Faculty Careers in Higher Education
- ASCB articles – “What your PI forgot to tell you: why you actually might want a job running a research lab” and “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Career as an Academic Scientist”
- NRMN – National Research Mentoring Network supports trainees and faculty with the aim to strengthen diversity in the biomedical research workforce
- National Postdoc Association – see Graduate Student Resource for Choosing a Postdoc
- HERC – Higher Education Recruitment Consortium – resource especially useful for both faculty and administrative job postings, dual careers and other issues of identity, work-life balance. Look for job application guides/webinars, for example “Writing Your Diversity Statement in 4 Steps“
- Preparing Future Faculty – see the resources pages in particular
- National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
- Insights from a survey based analysis of the academic job market bioRxiv preprint (Dec 2019)
- NIH OITE presentation (webinar) on preparing your job package (June 2020)
- UCSF’s Academic Career Readiness Assessment (ACRA)
- UC Berkeley’s Rubric for Assessing Candidate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
- The Academic Job Search Handbook – borrow a copy from our office
- Article with advice from HHMI faculty – “Making the jump: Expert guidance on transitioning to academic independence”
- MBOC article, “How to Design a Chalk Talk – the Million Dollar Sales Pitch“
- AAUP Faculty Compensation Surveys – accessible, searchable databases from Inside Higher Ed and Chronicle of Higher Ed help you search data by type of job (assistant professor tenure track vs. adjunct, for example) or discipline, or by institution.
- HigherEd Jobs and Inside Higher Ed – job postings, job search advice, and current information about trends, news and events in the field.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education – job postings and resources in the Vitae section, look for advice columns written by 1) Jenny Furlong and Julie Vick and 2) Karen Kelsky
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund – BWF’s goals include helping early career scientists develop as independent investigators (see resources in the Career Tools sections including Lab Management Guides) and funding: Career Award at the Scientific Interface (CASI)
- “Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty, Second Edition (HHMI)
- Resources for research fellowships: Institute for Broadening Participation (Pathways to Science Grad and Postdoc portals); NIH Project Reporter
Careers Outside the United States
- EURAXESS Researchers in Motion
- The Association of Commonwealth Universities
- Times Higher Education
- German Academic International Network (GAIN)
- Global Academy Jobs
- Academicpositions.com lists opportunities by discipline, primarily in Western Europe, also has a “by country” feature
Careers at Teaching-focused Institutions (or teaching focus roles)
- California Community Colleges Registry – information about annual job fairs, one for Southern CA and the other for Northern CA, as well as other resources
- National Institutes of Scientific Teaching– summer professional development activities nationally
- UC Teaching Professor initiative
- Council on Undergraduate Research
- List of Bay Area colleges and universities
- American Association of Community Colleges
- Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities
- POD – The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education is “devoted to improving teaching and learning in higher education.”
Careers in Higher Education Administration
- Chronicle of Higher Ed article, “From Doctoral Study to … Administration”
- AUTM – Association for professionals in the field of technology transfer (see the section on Science and the Law for more on this career path)
- AIR – Association for Institutional Research and article, From Doctoral Study to … Institutional Research
- GCC – Graduate Career Consortium
- LADO Liberal Arts Diversity Officers Consortium
- National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Ed
- NADOHE – National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education
- NAFA – National Association of Fellowship Advisors
- NASPA – Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education
- NACADA – National Academic Advising Association
- NCURA – National Council of University Research Administrators
- NORDP – National Organization of Research Development Professionals
- SRA – Society of Research Administrators