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UCSB graduate students and postdocs are invited to join us for a new career development course! It is free of charge and will help you explore alternative careers to academia. This is essentially a “career class” where you will get individualized feedback, insider information on how to best sell your skills and network with the right people. This free 10-week course runs from Oct 5 - Dec 11 and is self-paced, asynchronous, engaging, and will help hold you accountable for you to finally make progress on your career goals. Sign up by September 25!

By Lana Smith-Hale, Graduate Career Counselor
Wednesday, September 9th, 2020 - 8:50am

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Join us for a new career development opportunity through a partnership with Free the PhD and UCSB Career Services generously sponsored through the UCSB Individualized Professional Skills (IPS) program!
This course was developed specifically for UCSB grad students and postdocs to explore alternative careers to academia.


The real deal: This is essentially a "career class" where you will get individualized feedback, insider information on how to best sell your skills and network with the right people, and engage with a cohort of UCSB graduate students and postdocs to engage and learn from your peers who are literally going through the same career concerns you are.

How will this work? This free 10-week course is self-paced, asynchronous, engaging, and will help hold you accountable for you to finally make progress on your career goals. Through a forum, chats, zoom office hours, and career conversations we are here to help you with whatever career need you have. Want to learn how to make your resume better? What to finally make your cover letter engaging? What to figure out what the best industry job is for you? Want to learn how to articulate your skills to another professional? Want to understand how people "magically" get a job? By joining UCSB's Free the PhD course, you will learn these skills that will help your career the rest of your life. There are up to 40 spots available and is sponsored by the IPS program.

Please fill out a brief application here.*
*Be sure to select the option"I am requesting no more than $100 in funding from IPS (e.g., Free the PhD Career Development Course)" on the application. You may enter "N/A" for all of the budget questions on the form.

Details Spelled out: Graduate Career Counselor Lana Smith-Hale is excited to partner with Vay Cao, owner and creator of Free the PhD, who brings a wealth of expert knowledge on transitioning the PhD into the "real world." Through an engaging platform, we will be able to offer diversified support and further personalized career programming to help you learn tools through a career course that will be motivating and not burdensome on your time. We know finding a job can feel overwhelming, so let us walk this path with you to get you where you want to go. The course runs from October 5 - December 11. This opportunity is free of charge to students (thanks to the IPS program!) and is open to those who have received IPS grants before.

Ready to sign up? The Free the PhD platform will provide a structured, interactive, self-paced career resource that is informed by advice and perspectives from PhDs working outside academia. This course will provide regular weekly engagement opportunities for STEM and SHEF PhDs with career advocates - both institutional and external to learn concrete ways to explore, apply, or work towards your career goals.

This is recommended for graduate students and postdocs from any discipline who are either graduating Fall 2020-Fall 2021 and are looking for help for how to navigate the job finding process. Please sign up by September 25 and email Lana Smith-Hale with any questions.