Career Resources to Share

Planetary science has always been a competitive field. Times with declining and uncertain budgets are particularly challenging.  Here are some career resources to share.  Please add your favorites as well!

Some of the below are focused around academic jobs, while others offer advice on getting a job outside of academe.  They all have general professional development resources that might be helpful.  Some of these links contain a lot of information, so try searching for something you are particularly interested in.

– DPS (Division of Planetary Sciences) Jobs listing: http://dps.aas.org/jobs

– GSA (Geological Society of America) careers: http://www.geosociety.org/profdev/

– AGU (American Geophysical Union) careers: http://sites.agu.org/careers/

– AAS (American Astronomical Society) careers: http://aas.org/learn/careers-astronomy

– DPS Professional Development Subcommittee: http://dps.aas.org/development (also see the facebook page for announcements)

– WIPS: You can follow the jobs and graduate student announcements pages on this blog.  And check out the career path interviews from the ongoing 51+ Women in Planetary Science project for lots of great advice.

– AAS CSWA (Committee on the Status of Women in Astrnomy): http://www.aas.org/cswa/ – Along with compiling career advice, the CSWA also has a series of interviews with astronomers about their career trajectories.  Visit the Women in Astronomy blog and/or sign up for the AASWomen newsletter to get post with all sort of great information.

– Astrobetter blog: www.astrobetter.com – Great interviews with those who have moved to careers outside of astronomy – (search for interview or career profiles).  Also check out the resources on the wiki.

– ScienceCareers.org: Good overall science careers website with lots of resources.  You can setup and “Individual Development Plan” to help you decided what you might like to do and how to go about getting a job.

– SERC: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/index.html  Centered around academic jobs in the geosciences, but many of the resources could also be useful for jobs outside of academe because they are helping educators prepare students for the workforce.

– CIRTL: http://www.cirtl.net/  A collaboration between many schools working on education research, but they also have professional development materials, specifically there are some in the coffee hours (and cirtl casts http://www.cirtl.net/coffeehour/archive).

–> From one of the webcasts on alternate academic careers – here are two links, one for transferable skills, and one for career options.

–> If your institution participates, some of the past webcasts have been recorded.

– AWIS (Association for Women in Science): www.awis.org – Collected resources and great professionals development webinars (must be a member but they also recorded webinars so you have access to all past ones).

MentorNet.net – This is a cross-STEM e-mentoring platform, designed to help you find a mentor or a mentee.  They are currently revamping their website, but check back at a later date because this is a great resource.

Chronicle of Higher Ed: Has a career advice section with tons of information.  Here is an article titled “The Ph.D.’s Guide to a Nonfaculty Job Search”.

Inside Higher Ed – Also maintains a career advice section, like this article on telling your dissertation advisor you may want to leave academia.