Discover resources, connect with mentors, dive deeper into MIT’s 7 professional development competencies, and find out about upcoming events and opportunities.
Graduate professional development is skills-based training complementary to your academic coursework that will augment any career path you decide to follow, within and beyond academe.
Individual Development Plans, or IDPs, are a key professional development tool used within both academia and industry to establish priorities, set goals, and track progress. You can create your own tailored Individual Development Plan to guide you in self-assessment, exploration, goal setting, implementation, recording milestones, and reflection.
By creating and using an IDP, you can optimize your PhD years by planning experiences that will help you build the competencies and skills you need not only to finish your degree but to keep rising throughout your career.
Flagship Programs
Graduate Student of Color Mentoring Circles
The Graduate Student of Color Mentoring Circlesconnect students with alumni who provide culturally relevant perspectives on academic and industry careers. The next program will run in Fall 2022. Interested graduate students, email Elsie Otero at eotero@mit.edu.
The Path of Professorship
This exceptional 3-day event for MIT graduate and post-doctoral womxn provides information about academic scientific careers and the application process.
MIT Alumni Advisors Hub
Think of the worldwide community of MIT alumni as a vast and renewable resource that you, as an MIT graduate student, are invited to tap and leverage. Using the Alumni Advisors Hub is one of the most powerful ways there is to augment your technical training. There’s no better source of information and wisdom to inform your journey than the scholars and professionals who have been where you are now, and gone on to discover, teach, influence, and lead with excellence in the world beyond the Infinite Corridor.
Resource Library
Ready to dive in? The Graduate Professional Development Resource Library is a curated collection of articles, web resources, podcasts, books, and more.
Many entities throughout MIT are invested in graduate student professional development. These essential partners fuel our programs and serve as excellent resources for graduate students.
Interested in non-academic career paths for humanities & social sciences PhDs? Watch the recording of the American Council of Learned Societies’ May 17 2022 panel discussion, “Beyond the Academy: Pathways to Non-Academic Careers for PhDs”: https://bit.ly/3wSW7lP
This summer, Career Advising and Professional Development will help you prepare for your upcoming academic job search. When tenure track faculty jobs post this fall, you’ll be ready! Join us as we discuss the application process and consider the documents …
By Alexis Boyer
Alexis BoyerAssistant Director of Graduate Student Career Services
Spilling the Tea is a summer alumni mentoring conversation series for women identifying graduate students at MIT. These events will open with a short discussion of a case study and evolve into organic conversations. Registration is limited.
Spilling the Tea …
By Alexis Boyer
Alexis BoyerAssistant Director of Graduate Student Career Services
InterSECT is an online platform that allows PhD-level scientists and humanists, regardless of professional stage, to explore future career options. Our goal is to provide true-to-life job simulation exercises that help individuals consider the following questions:
What are my professional interests …
gwaMIT(graduate womxn at MIT) is a student organization to enhance the professional development, individual growth, and empowerment of all graduate womxn at MIT, while strengthening connections between existing groups.
Want to …
By Amanda Cornwall
Amanda CornwallAssociate Director, Graduate Student Professional Development
