It is important to think about professional development and take advantage of the great opportunities that you have on campus. We are fortunate to have an abundance of resources from the Plant Pathology Department, UW Madison Campus, and access to other career opportunities.

We have asked some of our recent alumni in different types of positions some questions about their our journey.

• Ken Frost (PhD, 2012), tenure-tracked faculty
• Audrey Kalil (PhD, 2015), university extension
• Jenna Lind (MS, 2014), industry extension
• Renee Rioux (PhD, 2014), UW Madison Faculty

This page is designed as a resource to get started, if you have additional ideas for content, please contact us

Campus Resources

• UW-Madison Graduate School’s Office of Professional Development
  • Workshops available throughout the year for people focused on both academic and non-academic careers
  • Opportunities for leadership
  • Email lists
  • Access to resources such as Versatile PhD
• College of Agricultural & Life Sciences Career Services office
  • Individual career advising appointments
  • Access to Handshake
  • Career related events
• DELTA : Program for those interested in teaching
• UW Madison Broader Impacts: Useful resource for science communication and outreach
• Wisconsin Teaching Fellows: Program for those interested in teaching
• WiSolve: Business and Consulting Graduate Group
• CaSP: Science Policy and Communication Group

Departmental Resources

• Student Internship & Job Resources webpage contains information for:
  • Providing individual meetings to discuss careers
  • Can do either email or in-person resume/CV review
  • Offers workshops throughout the semester on IDP (individual development plans, federal jobs, etc.)
• Your advisor
• Student Services Coordinator, Todd Courtenay
• Weekly SAPS seminars
• Your fellow students
• Graduate handbook
• Alumni (See Here)
• UW-Madison Plant Pathology Webpage contains some more information about on and off Campus Job and internship resources: HERE

Career Opportunities

• U.S Office of Personnel Management internship program:
  • Provides Students opportunities to work in federal agencies and explore federal careers
  • Students who complete the program maybe eligible for permanent opportunities in the federal government
• USDA Pathways Recent Graduates Program:
  • Individuals who are recently graduated within 2 years of obtaining degree qualify
  • Successful applicants are placed in a 1 year career development program and agencies may non-competitively convert participants to permanent competitive position
• EBRC Industry Internship Program
  • EBRC is launching a pilot Summer Industry Internship Program for U.S.-based graduate students to gain experience in small- and medium-sized biotechnology companies. The program’s goal is to provide students with opportunities that will better prepare them to become leaders in the next-generation biotech workforce and strengthen the interactions between academia and industry
• APS Careers page
  • Resource with information on finding jobs, but also background information before you begin to search
• FFAR fellowship program
  • Applicable for 1st and 2nd year PhD students. Very good opportunity for plant pathology students to become exposed to industry.

Workshops/Courses

APS workshops: Varies every year depending on the APS conference

Biotechnology Center

ComBEE: Host Python and R workshops Weekly

ComPS: TBD

SAPs: Occasionally hosts introductory workshops in conjunction with ComPS

Marine Biological Laboratory Workshops

• Workshop on Molecular Evolution and Microbial Diversity maybe of interest

Stat 679: Special Topics in Stats

• Previous Year students have taken a “Intro to Data Science” course usually offered in the fall semester
• Occasionally have courses about statistical computation as well

MIC 879: Dr. Suen teaches a bioinformatics course geared towards biologist

Computational Tools

Combee Group: Computational group of microbial ecologist with weekly Workshops with Python and R

ComPS: Computation for Plant Scientists

Data Science Hub

Microbiome Hub

HTC Condor : Center for High Throughput Computing at UW Madison

• Need a supercomputer to aid in research, here ya go.
• Only open to people who are associated with the University of Wisconsin Madison

Other

• LinkedIn
  • Search by institution—find an institution and click on the “Explore Careers….” link, filter from there
  • Search by employer—search for an employer and click on “see all” under “How You’re Connected”
  • Search by group—search for a group and click on “See all members”, use key words and filter
  • LinkedIn – Student Jobs 101
• Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Vitae
    • Resource for advice and information on beginning a job search
• HigherEdJobs
• Academic Jobs Wiki
  • Search here for information regarding other candidate’s searches and experiences by institution