Careers

Beyond Tenure Track

Career possibilities beyond the tenure track include work in community colleges, academic administration, non-profit administration, government, publishing, consulting, library and information services, humanities centers, museums, archives, foundations, and more. The resources below are for humanities PhDs seeking to expand their job search. 

Berkeley Career Resources:

  • Grad Pro: GradPro is the campus Graduate Student Professional Development Resource Hub. Grad Pro supports students through all stages of exploring and preparing for a wide range of careers, within and beyond academia. GradPro also works with departments and faculty on developing discipline-specific professional development programming for graduate students.
  • Berkeley Career Engagement: Grad Student and PhD Services: Whether you are interested in pursuing a career in academia or exploring the broad range of other professional options, Berkeley Career Engagement has workshops, events and online resources that can help you find job announcements, prepare your credentials, and bring you face-to-face with potential employers. 
  • Berkeley Career Engagement: Masters and PhD Career Fair: This fair takes place in the fall semester of each year and is exclusively for our graduate students, and is designed for recruiting of Masters, PhDs, and Postdocs for a wide variety of roles and industries.
  • Berkeley Career Engagement: Graduate Students & Internships: Experiential learning includes activities such as internships, mentoring programs and externships. These experiences provide exposure to professional roles in business, government and/ or nonprofit sectors. They can also offer opportunities to develop skills, and translate knowledge and insights into practical application. 
  • Beyond Academia: Beyond Academia is a non-profit organization run by UC Berkeley graduate students with the goal of empowering graduate students and postdocs to expand their career options beyond the traditional academic track. It accomplishes this career education through a series of events including an annual conference, workshops, tutorials and panels that connect academics with those who have made a transition to non-academic jobs.

Supplementary Berkeley Career Resources: 

  • Department of History’s Career Development and Diversity (Website) and Career Development Resources (Guide)
  • Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Program (BPEP): The vision of the BPEP is to create an empowered UC Berkeley postdoctoral and graduate student community by providing them tools to translate their research to products via startups.
  • Social Sector Solutions: Social impact organizations face many challenges in addressing society’s largest and most complex problems. With guidance from Haas faculty and coaching from experienced McKinsey & Company volunteer consultants, multi-disciplinary student teams are paired with organizations and delve into semester-long consulting projects to address strategy or organization development questions put forth by their nonprofit clients. This is a fee-for-service offering, based on 18 years of proven, high-quality work that provides top value and demonstrated results.
  • Berkeley Gateway to Innovation (BEGIN): The University of California, Berkeley is home to one of the most vibrant innovation ecosystems in the world. BEGIN features Berkeley innovation and entrepreneurship resources, opportunities, events, and news to help you connect with the Berkeley ecosystem and take the next step in your entrepreneurial journey.
  • Insight (McKinsey): For students who are pursuing a PhD, postdoc or MD, come see what it’s like to work in management consulting at a two-day workshop this spring, with opportunities to further engage after the program. Insight offers a program tailored to participants with academic backgrounds in STEM and healthcare.
  • ADvantage (Bain): We welcome advanced degrees (graduate students, post docs, and medical residents) to join us for a one-week program that immerses you in the consulting world and life at Bain. You’ll be trained and then staffed on an actual case team working with clients. It’s an opportunity to develop your business acumen, expand outside academia, and learn first-hand what it’s like to be a Bain consultant.

External Career Resources: 

  • Academic Job Market Support Network: This group is for those who would like to share resources related to the academic job market (and, perhaps, the alt-ac market). It is a collegial, supportive community driven by hope and pragmatism. It includes an Alt-Ac Support Network spreadsheet of professionals available for individual mentorships.
  • Connected Academics: Connected Academics will help prepare doctoral students—already well trained for postsecondary faculty positions—to use their humanistic training in a broader range of occupations than doctoral programs have, up to now, characteristically acknowledged and honored.
  • Humanists@Work: Humanists@Work (HumWork) is the graduate career initiative for the University of California. HumWork is organized by the University of California Humanities Research Institute and has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Modern Language Association’s Mellon-funded Connected Academics grant, and the Council of Graduate Schools Career Pathways Project. HumWork believes that career initiatives and programs should be led by graduate students in the humanities, supporting and amplifying their varied experiences, interests, and points of view. HumWork is deeply invested in exploring and documenting humanities expertise at work in the world, its possibilities and limits. We see engaging with all UC humanities PhD alumni as central to this work. And we believe that to be meaningful, career “diversity” initiatives must change to address the concerns of heterogeneous stakeholders, beyond those who have always been in the room.
  • Imagine PhD: ImaginePhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
  • National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD): NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of faculty, postdocs, & graduate students from over 450 colleges and universities.
  • PhDs in the Humanities: PhDs in the Humanities is a LinkedIn group for individuals who hold or are pursuing advanced degrees in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, particularly those employed in or considering careers outside or alongside the academy. Moderated by the University of California Humanities Research Institute, PhDs in the Humanities will address the unique challenges PhDs in humanities disciplines face as they pursue career paths, including declining tenure-track jobs, translating learned skills to a variety of careers, and addressing systemic problems in PhD training that often undervalue non-tenure-track career paths and don’t adequately prepare students for the current job climate.
  • Versatile PhD: The Versatile PhD mission is to help graduate students, ABDs and PhDs identify, prepare for and excel in professional careers. We currently serve many of the leading North American research universities, including their PhD students, post-docs and alumni, by providing unique and instructive content, networks, job analytics and readiness tools.
  • Harvard - Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Mignone Center for Career Success- PhD Resume & Cover Letter Guide
  • Stanford - Career Education - Careers Strategies Guide for PhDs and Postdocs

Career Exploration Articles: 

External Job Posting and Search Sites: 

Postdocs and Search Sites: 

Postdoctoral fellowship applications are usually due in early fall, so make sure to plan accordingly. Some schools may offer opportunities that are not widely advertised outside of their official job websites or forums, so the list below may may not cover all possibilities. 

Journals: 

Professional Organizations: 

Arts & Humanities Centers and Networks at Berkeley: