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 following are resources for humanities PhDs seeking to expand their job search:
Resources at Berkeley:
GradPro (Graduate Professional Development) collaborates with graduate programs and departments to offer activities and resources that help graduate students set professional development goals, recognize potential career paths, and build skills vital to a variety of careers, both within and beyond the academy.
Whether you are interested in pursuing a career in academia or exploring the broad range of other professional options, the Career Center 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. Take a look at the Grad Student & PhD Services we offer.
- Beyond Academia [student contact: Nicole Jones – nicolejones@berkeley.edu]
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 lectures that connect connect academics with those who have made a transition to industry.
- Department of History: Career Development and Diversity. They also have a great downloadable resource guide)
- Visiting Scholars and Postdoc Affairs office
- Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Program
- Bridge to BCG, Insight (McKinsey), ADvantage (Bain) (two-to-five-day introductions to management consulting)
- PhD consulting club (student organization that helps non-business grad students prepare for careers in consulting)
- Berkeley Board Fellows (initiative to place students on non-profit board)
- Social Sector Solutions (work on a team to improve performance of non-profit organization)
- Fundamentals of Business (Intro to business for nonbusiness grad students)
- ORIAS Speakers’ Bureau (get paid – and trained – to present in high school and community college classrooms)
- Berkeley Gateway to Innovation (BEGIN) (portal to all entrepreneurship centers, competitions, and resources at Berkeley – includes a very useful list of courses; see article on humanists breaking into the world of business and entrepreneurship (link))
- Curatorial Practicum in the History of Art Department (undergraduate courses like this are also sometimes offered through Anthropology)
- Guide to finding on-campus internships
- Master’s and Ph.D. Career Fair (each Fall); see article on “Attending a Berkeley Career Fair as a humanities PhD” (link)
- Externships (see article on doing an externship arranged by the Berkeley Career Center (link); next offered Fall 2019)
Arts & Humanities Centers and Networks at Berkeley:
- The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities
- Digital Humanities
- Global Urban Humanities
- Berkeley Arts + Design
- Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM)
- Arts Research Center (ARC)
- University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI)
- The American Cultures Center
Other resources and opportunities:
- ACLS/Mellon Public Humanities fellowships (yearly Postdocs)
- Columbia’s History in Action Project
- ImaginePhD – online career exploration; see article on making the best use of ImaginePhD
- Humanists@Work
- PhD Matters (career consulting for PhDs)
- The Versatile PhD
- PhDs in the Humanities (LinkedIn Group administered by Humanists@Work staff)
- National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (mostly aimed at faculty careers and dissertation success/time management/etc., but covers community college/other teaching careers, and occasionally they have webinars on other topics including “beyond academia” searches)
- Chronicle of Higher Education job search (includes non-academic categories)
- Modern Language Association: Connected Academics The MLA’s Connected Academics program has a number of resources for people seeking careers in modern languages both within and outside of academia. In addition to their annual Career Development Boot Camp Fellowship program, they have an extensive blog, and excellent resources and advice for faculty and departments on professional development.
- American Historical Association The AHA has its own career center website for both academic and non-academic jobs in history and the humanities, an advice column, statistics on where historians work, information on workshops and podcasts on career diversity, and more.
- American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS links to numerous tools for STEMs careers, including job postings, volunteer opportunities, and classroom education tools. They also have a networking platform where AAAS members can seek career advice and mentoring from peers or senior members.
- Linguistic Society The Linguistics Society career development resources include research and statistics on graduate school, as well as tools to navigate the academic and non-academic job markets.
- American Public Health Association APHA’s Public Health CareerMart has numerous resources to connect job seekers with employers. Their resources include a Career Learning Center, Career Coaching, Resume Writing, and Reference Checking. Many of their resources are available for free in online videos.
- Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows Program: Expanding the Reach of Doctoral Education in the Humanities The Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows Program is a 2-year fellowship in which recent PhDs from the humanities or humanistic social sciences are paired with nonprofits or government organizations to work and receive professional mentoring. The partnering organizations change annually. See “Profiles of Berkeley students awarded Mellon Public Fellowships” here
Mellon-AHA Career Diversity Pilot Programs: Chicago, UCLA, Columbia, UNM)
- American Philosophers Association: Beyond Academia The APA’s Beyond Academia is a publication with statistics, job categories, interviews, biographical essays, and advice on applying for jobs outside of academia. Their booklet is helpful for anyone in a humanistic field.
- American Psychological Association: Individual Development Planning Tool: The APA’s Individual Development Planning Tool can help all academics think ahead in terms of career planning. Users can take self-assessments, research job opportunities, set goals, and create an individual plan to help them achieve those goals.
- American Astronomical Association The American Astronomical Association’s career website has career advice and career profiles for academics and non-academics in astronomy, resources for communication outreach, numerous links to job sites, and employment statistics. Many of their resources are applicable to other STEMs fields.
- Council of Graduate Schools: PhD Career Pathways The PhD Career Pathways project is a large scale project that collects data on PhD trajectories during and after graduate school in both STEMs and Humanities/Social Science fields. They also have some professional development resources for students, particularly in STEMs fields.
- Presidential Management Fellows program (federal program placing recent PhDs in federal agencies)