University Career Services (UCS) offers comprehensive career services to graduate students. Students across all graduate departments are eligible to receive services to address their career planning and job search needs. The UCS staff are well-informed about the search process and prepared to assist you with your individual needs.

Our office provides the following:

• Services
• Databases
• Career Programming
• Career Fairs
• Career Counseling
• Academic Employment
• File Services
• Non-academic Employment
• Taking Time Off

Registering and Using UCS Services

To access our services, we ask that you first sign-up on CareerCat. Thereafter, you can:

• Come to our walk-in hours from 11:00 to 3:00, Tuesday through Friday
• OR
• Contact Lonnie Dunlap, Executive Director for Career Services, via email at l-dunlap@northwestern.edu to schedule an initial appointment

Your initial UCS appointment may include the following:

1. Meeting with a member of our staff to receive an overview of our services
2. Referral to the most appropriate staff member for follow-up appointments
3. Discussing your career aspirations, concerns, and challenges
4. A review of your resume or curriculum vita
5. Referrals to other resources to get your process started

Follow up Appointments

Our Associate Director for Career Development or our Career Counselors can assist you with any aspect of your career development as well as other life/work concerns you may have. This includes assistance with self-assessment, career exploration, employment preparation and transition from graduate school to the work world.

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Services

1. Career counseling
2. Career assessment
3. Individual job search counseling and consultation
4. Job search tips for faculty spouses/partners
5. Access to the career library located on the ground floor of UCS (620 Lincoln Street)
6. Resume referral service through CareerCat

Databases

1. CareerCat for on-campus interviewing and on-line job listings
2. MonsterTRAK for on-line job listings 
3. Dossier file service for the academic job search
4. Career Search – a national employer database (contact UCS for the username and password)

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Career Programming

1. TGS NU Directions Professional Development Programming
2. Backpack to Briefcase series in the Fall
3. Life After College series in the Spring
4. All other career workshops and seminars

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Career Fairs

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Career Counseling

Career counseling is a confidential and supportive process through which you and your counselor work together to explore career options and make career decisions. You will work at your own pace, on the parts of the career planning process appropriate to your needs. Career counseling can include discussing your strengths, areas of growth, and challenges. Additionally, career counseling can include an assessment of your skills, abilities, interests, and work values.

Career counseling issues for graduate students often include:

1. Evaluating academic and non-academic career choices
2. Discussing the impact of graduate school on career options
3. Learning, evaluating, and refining your interviewing skills
4. Examining familial, cultural, gender, sexual orientation and/or disability issues related to career decisions
5. Managing feelings of being rushed/pressured to make career decisions
6. Considering the transition from student to professional
7. Learning about employment opportunities
8. Making decisions that are most appropriate given lifestyle considerations

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Academic Employment

UCS also provides job search consultation for the academic job search. We can help you:

1. Prepare an effective curriculum vita
2. Write appropriate cover letters
3. Improve your interviewing skills
4. Implement effective job search strategies

Resources for the Academic Job Search

• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Academic360.com
• Higheredjobs Online
• Hire-Ed
• Education Week
• Academic Position Network
• List of U.S. College and Universities

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File Services

Graduate students seeking teaching or administrative positions in academia may set up a dossier file within UCS.

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Non-Academic Employment

The decision to pursue a non-academic position may present unique challenges. The process of obtaining a professorship is very different than the process for obtaining other positions. Searching for alternatives to professorships can be an ambiguous and difficult undertaking.

Once you decide not to pursue academic employment, you must determine what employers are looking for and revise your resume to highlight how your degree(s) and experiences fit with what potential employers seek. While there are plenty of employers in all industries interested in hiring Northwestern graduate students, many do not actively seek out graduate students to fill their positions through the same channels they use to recruit undergraduate students (e.g., on-campus interviewing, on-line job postings). Working with someone from UCS can help you think through additional options.

Additionally, some employers are simply not aware of the added value your advanced education would provide them. As such, you must be very proactive and learn how to market your education and training to potential employers. This will likely include transforming your curriculum vita into a one or two page resume, becoming more creative in uncovering potential job opportunities, and utilizing a variety of resources. UCS staff can assist with job-search techniques, interview tips, and resource referrals/recommendations.

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Taking Time Off

If you are considering taking some time off before beginning any type of job search, UCS can assist you with identifying alternate plans.

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