Non-Academic Jobs
Panels report (from 2019)
Host
Ignacio Escalante, former ESPM Community Events and Inclusion Graduate Student Coordinator (GSC).
Goals
1. To provide an overview of ways and resources to explore and apply to non-academic jobs available and relevant for graduate students in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM).
2. Compile a list of relevant online and campus resources and make them available for students.
Introduction and disclaimers
The department of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management (ESPM) at UC Berkeley is very diverse in research interest, approaches, and prospective career paths (graduate student interest in the department here). The department has ~150 grad students, ~70 faculty, and 3 divisions: Organisms and Environment (O&E), Ecosystem Science (ES), and Society and Environment (S&E).
In this panel, we did our best to give general advice on how to explore, prepare and apply for a non-academic job. Such advice can be useful across divisions, systems, labs, etc. in ESPM.
A non-academic job in the context of this panel refers to any position outside the traditional path to a tenure-track principal investigator/professor at a university or college, or other affiliated research institutions. Other teaching-oriented positions, including other forms of professorships and lecturer, are also considered academic positions.
This report summarizes the key points covered during the panel. By no means this panel aimed to be a formal or comprehensive guide of how to approach the job hunt quest.
ESPM alumni currently hold positions as professors, researchers, consultants, educators, etc. An updated alumni list is currently being compiled. Preliminary, alumni work in R1 universities, liberal arts colleges, environmental NGOs, industry, governmental agencies (EPA, USDA), museums and other outreach initiatives, philanthropy (administering trusts), among others.
Additionally, this is a work in progress. Feel free to contact the author (Ignacio Escalante, iescalante@berkeley.edu) with suggestions, comments, and feedback.
Notes from Dec 02 2019 panel
[these are paraphrased notes from what the panelists said or the conversation with the attendees]
- Conducting informational interviews is very informative
- Sometimes there are trade-offs in the positions. For instance and work/life balance to salary in NGOs
- People’s experience is sometimes shaped by family or ‘geography’ factors.
- Beyond Academia (LINK) conference. Feb 27 and 28, 2020, Clark Kerr Campus, Berkeley
o Panels, workshops, networking
o How to market your skills, how to prepare your CV/resumé, etc.
o Session on Linked In, etc.
- Do a Post doc if pursuing a non-academic track?
o In industry sometimes there are postdoc that are basically staff-track
o There are teaching postdocs
- Support from advisors and resources in ESPM is crucial
- In industry and NGOs the position is frequently called ‘staff scientist’, look for that.
- Outreach and mentorship are usually supported in industry and NGOs
- Outlets to look for positions (see resource list below too):
o Chronicle of Higher Education
o Nature Jobs
o NPA, National Postdoc Association
- What to do while still in graduate school?
o Networking
o Take advantage of campus resources. Check the GradPro calendar
o D-lab resources
o UCB Entrepreneur ecosystem startup (LINK)
o CCST Fellowship (to work in policy in the state capitol). Application open! (LINK)
o AAAS fellowship (LINK)
- Use your early years to explore options. Resources on campus offer ‘mapping’, and a 5-year plan or summer planning, for example.
- MyIDP career planning for STEM (link below)
- Alumni Association
- ImaginePHD for social scientists (link below)
- And many other Career Center Workshops.
- When writing a cover letter
o Highlight work you have done in different fields
o Outreach writing or work, and beyond… is crucial for NGOs
o Mention any practical tools and publications you have done
- CV vs Resumé, order of presentation based on what’s relevant for the actual position you are applying to.
- Being able to work in teams is crucial for industry and NGOs. Demonstrating that in your materials is very important.
- Go to events (workshops, panels, talks, etc.) that sound interesting to you. Although they sound tangential. Those events could eventually be very helpful in preparing you for exploring careers, or making connections.
- ABAG Bay Area Gov jobs (LINK). Look for jobs locally, with city, county or state agencies
- Follow companies and labs in LinkedIn. That way you hear about what they do, and they have you on their radar.
- Find internships during the summer.
- Another option to having an official internship is to just collaborate. Volunteering 1 day a week or something like that to develop a lit review, op-ed, etc. could be a great way to form a relationship that can develop into a position
- Summer GSRs opportunities on campus are also good.
- See what institutes on campus are doing, Berkeley Food Institute, Center for Latin American Studies, for example.
- Publish an op-ed is also good.
o Venues can include: EcoWatch, Alternate The Nation, The Conversation
o Writing for the public is great and gives you plenty of exposure
- Having a PhD from UC Berkeley says that ‘you’re smart and you learn quickly’. Use that in your favor when looking and applying for jobs outside your skillset.
- For international students: GoingGlobal (LINK), companies that can sponsor H1B visas and etc.
- Clubs on campus
- Handshake has Masters and PhDs directory search tools.
- Professional associations have job openings too.
o Translatable skills. There’s a 2017 survey that highlights the main skill employers are looking for in PhD holders. Use those to market yourself. Skills include field-specific knowledge, project management, information gathering and analysis.
Useful online resources
USGS jobs (Jobs in EPA, USDA, etc.)
https://geology.usgs.gov/postdoc/opps/research.html
CompassPoint (a non-profit based in Oakland)
ImaginePhD initiative for social science students.
https://grad.berkeley.edu/news/professional-development/imagine-phd/
VersatilePHD. Non-academic career resources for STEM Ph.D. students (sample resumes and cover letters, panel discussions, job postings)
UCB Career Center (Plenty of resources, from planning your progress to prepare your CV/resume, to search for jobs in different areas, etc.)
UCB Career Center (Career Connections event)
https://career.berkeley.edu/Schedule/CareerConnect
Career Development Initiative for the Physical Sciences (A graduate student-run organization that provides resources to graduate students and postdocs in the physical and mathematical sciences about their options outside academia through a speaker series, the Data Science Workshop, and improved access to alumni).
http://cdips.physics.berkeley.edu/
Digital Humanities at Berkeley (Supports the thoughtful application of digital tools and methodologies to humanistic inquiry by offering project consulting, summer workshops, grants…)
https://digitalhumanities.berkeley.edu/
American Physical Society - Professional Guidebook
https://www.aps.org/careers/guidebook/index.cfm
American Physical Society - tools for career advisors
https://www.aps.org/careers/advisors/index.cfm
AAAS Fellowships (Fellowships in policy)
https://www.aaas.org/fellowships
CA Council of Science and Technology fellowships
https://ccst.us/ccst-science-fellows-program/
D-Lab on campus (Assistance and training with technical skills.)
Graduate Writing Center
https://grad.berkeley.edu/professional-development/graduate-writing-center/
Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) (A central hub of research and education at UC Berkeley designed to facilitate and nurture data-intensive science.)
Thriving in Science A campus-wide professional development initiative at UC Berkeley intended to provide graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with the resources and support to make the most of their academic training.
https://thriving.berkeley.edu/
Townsend Center for the Humanities. (The Center offers an array of fellowship and grant programs designed to support research and scholarship at all levels of the university community, with emphasis on social sciences initiatives. )
http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/funding/graduate-professional-development
The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity
https://www.facultydiversity.org/
Beyond Academia
http://www.beyondacademia.org/events/upcoming-events/
BoardMatch (A networking event that gives chief executives and current board members the chance to meet and talk with highly qualified board candidates from major employers, across government, financial services, legal, health care, etc.)
GradSLAM
https://qb3.berkeley.edu/slam/
Careers in Life Sciences seminar series, from MCB department
https://mcb.berkeley.edu/course/mcb295/index.php
2018 Berkeley Data Science Panel (organized by the Data Science Society @ UCB)
https://dss.berkeley.edu/?fbclid=IwAR30P55t8a-lUj4-wmCMHWsxoTfTO6IXI9IjY6m6BwGUBFUnqYhjrQy5PF0
The Conversation (A platform to publish op-ed articles about your research. [Contact Mackenzie Smith, mackenzie.smith@berkeley.edu, she can point you out to a great editor to work with and tell her a bit about the piece you want to write. ESPM students and faculty have written there]. )
https://theconversation.com/us
UCB Handshake (Platform to look for positions and network with employers.)
https://career.berkeley.edu/handshake
AAAS Individual Development Plan (myIDP) (A guide to examine your skills and search for career paths and resources)
http://myidp.sciencecareers.org/
HigherEdJobs (A tool to look for administrative, executive and faculty positions. )
https://www.higheredjobs.com/
UCB GradDivision (Many resources to work and explore professional development. Also, make sure you read their GradPro digest emails)
https://grad.berkeley.edu/professional-development/about-gpd/
UCB GradDivision - Professional Development Guide
https://grad.berkeley.edu/professional-development/guide/
UCB GradDivision - Career Plan Essentials
https://career.berkeley.edu/Plan/Essentials
UCB GradDivision - Paid internship: professional development Liaison
General notes and advice from the 2018 Panel
[this is mostly unedited notes from the panel].
- It’s good to having conversations / think of what kind of job one could get early on
- Think about skills you get trained on that you’ll use later.
- Develop skills to communicate. Develop the skills to clearly communicate meaningful content to broad audiences. That translates to the hiring committee, etc.
- There are always geographic constraint/considerations on how to look for positions.
- Read job descriptions now, to see what positions are out there and what requirements they have.
- Inter-disciplinary helps a lot. Especially when communicating with people from different sectors.
- Some skills come back! Stats, GSI, writing, etc. and many other are translatable skills.
- In NGO you have to learn new skills. Project management, build a budget, supervise, writing grants, reporting, fundraising and communicate what you’re doing, conflict mgmt (partners, donors, people on the ground). Many of those skills can be translated from your dissertation work. For example, if you organized field work with a team (not to mention writing grants to pay for it).
- Learn how to be a good facilitator (establish agenda, results, lead people), bringing different groups together. Also, negotiation.
- Go out there and volunteer, that sometimes can lead to an offer.
- How to acquire those skills?
- You can get those skills outside your department, even outside of campus. Join a club, etc.
- Speaking skills (Grad SLAM in the Spring). 3 min speech about research workshop. Even though you’re not competing.
- There is a lot of training once hired.
- Some positions involve translating scientific papers to make regulatory decisions.
- Sometimes leaving grad school is not a bad idea. At some jobs you are over credentialed.
- Reevaluations of your goals of what you want to in the future.
- CSS skills, multimedia, web-development skills, etc… knowing them helps!
- Explore private industry.
- Finding people to guide you.
- Market yourself.
- Do a lot of networking.
- Informational interviews. Call people that are offering jobs. Ask people about what’s their day-to-day. In informational interview.
- Employers care less about your training but more about skills and how you approach a problem. What you can do for the company.
- CV is about you, resume is about what you can do for the company.
- Learning to know how to do things or how scientists do things to know how to translate it. Being a scientist means being able to read science, and translate it.
- In certain jobs you are on the hook for deliverables to donors/funding.
- Look for recommendation for the application process. For example, how to apply in USAJOBS. Spend a good amount of time researching the application platform.
- Information in your application will be checked with job description. Use the same buzzwords and phrases! Mirroring language.
- Interview process. Ask questions at the end! Each candidate gets the same questions.
- Handshake, CareerCenter. Schedule appointments to counseling (get coached on how to market yourself). Workshops and postings.
- How to determine if jobs are a match for you? A job description has a wish list (Required skills and a a wish list). Ideal candidate will have, things that are desired. You don’t have to have all of those. Having a few work.
- Years of professional experience, don’t worry too much about not having it. Some experience is relevant even though if it happened long ago. And frame graduate school as a job works (teaching, lab work, field work, mentoring, etc).
- It’s all about framing your work as phd students as professional work, because it is actual work.
- Learn how to phrase things to pass the stages.
- That would help you get a bigger scope of potential opportunities.
- Look at positions outside your field, and are from different areas that you could apply…
- Find someone that has a job that you want, and do informational interviews. Do a deep dive in LinkedIn. People want to talk about, and it’s flattering!
- CareerCenter tabs for both academic and non-academia, divided by sector.
- Look for people working at consulting jobs. There are a lot of contractors out there.
- Sometimes you’re hired first as a consultant, before long-term. Short term might lead.