Higher Education

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.

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.

Jump to section:

Berkeley Resources
Faculty Careers in Higher Education
Careers Outside the United States
Careers at Teaching-focused Institutions (or teaching-focused roles)
Careers in Higher Education Administration

Berkeley Resources

Graduate Division’s GradPro(opens in a new tab), GSI Teaching & Resource Center(opens in a new tab) and Graduate Diversity(opens in a new tab); including the “Path to the Professoriate(opens in a new tab)” program
Berkeley Sponsored Projects – list of Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Biological Sciences(opens in a new tab)
Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs (VSPA)(opens in a new tab)
Career Center – offers workshops in the fall semester each year on the faculty job search. See Handshake(opens in a new tab) for details.
QB3-Berkeley’s interview with Professional in Residence Elise Kikis, PhD, “Balancing Teaching and Research at a Liberal Arts College”

Careers in Higher Education Administration

Chronicle of Higher Ed article, “From Doctoral Study to … Administration(opens in a new tab)”
AUTM(opens in a new tab) – Association for professionals in the field of technology transfer (see the section on Science and the Law for more on this career path)
AIR(opens in a new tab) – Association for Institutional Research and article, From Doctoral Study to … Institutional Research(opens in a new tab)
GCC(opens in a new tab) – Graduate Career Consortium
LADO(opens in a new tab) Liberal Arts Diversity Officers Consortium
National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Ed(opens in a new tab)
NADOHE(opens in a new tab) – National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education
NAFA(opens in a new tab) – National Association of Fellowship Advisors
NASPA(opens in a new tab) – Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education
NACADA(opens in a new tab) – National Academic Advising Association
NCURA(opens in a new tab) – National Council of University Research Administrators
NORDP (opens in a new tab)– National Organization of Research Development Professionals
SRA(opens in a new tab) – Society of Research Administrators

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
Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs (VSPA)
Career Center – 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”

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 – resource library includes “Tips for Applying & Interviewing for Postdoc Positions” and much more.
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
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
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

EURAXESS
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

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.”

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

Higher Education