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Getting Started: Roadmap and Individual Development Plans

Our career and professional development roadmap for postdocs is designed to help you navigate your path toward a successful career. Download a PDF of the Postdocs Career and Professional Development Roadmap.

After you take a look at the roadmap, we strongly recommend that you draft your own individual development plan (IDP). The IDP is a process designed to help individuals understand their own abilities, determine career possibilities, and set professional development objectives. The aim is for you to create a document that clearly identifies current goals in a way that resonates with your own long-term professional goals and is informed by your mentor(s) expertise. View Georgia Tech's resource on IDPs.

Our Programs

The Office of Postdoctoral Services offers specialized career and professional workshops for postdocs. Please view the Cohort-Based Programs for Postdocs for a current list of workshop series and programs.

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Career Exploration and Advising

Individual Career Advising

One-on-one career advising is available to postdocs. With individual advising, we can help you do the following:

  • Explore career options.
  • Define career goals.
  • Develop a plan for development of professional skills.
  • Develop effective job application documents.
  • Prepare for job interviews.

To set up an appointment for career advising, email postdocs@gatech.edu.

Career Center Events

Postdocs are welcome to attend:

If you have questions about the availability of additional services, please email postdocs@gatech.edu.

Exploring Career Options Online

Choosing a Career Path

Building Your Network

Developing your career path usually involves a variety of individuals who can help you gather career information, develop skills, build professional relationships, or obtain internships and job opportunities.

Getting Started

  • View a range of resources to support your networking and informational interview efforts.
  • Check out the Career Center website for resources and tools. The Career Center offers workshops each fall and spring that will help you explore career options. Through the Career Center, you can schedule an appointment to meet with a career advisor to discuss your job search.

Current Connections

Start practicing with people you see daily including faculty and research staff. Family, friends, and people you volunteer with can also be great connections. Ask them about their career path or what they’re planning to do after graduation. Tell them about what you’re interested in, and ask if they know anyone working in those areas. Keep building the relationship by sending your contact articles or job postings that they might find interesting.

Attend the Career, Research, and Innovation Development Conference (CRIDC) 

Each year, the Graduate Student Government Association (Grad SGA), the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, the Career Center, and Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE) host CRIDC, a combined effort of the previously known Graduate Career Symposium and Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Conference.

Connect with Employers

  • Monitor the Georgia Tech Career Center workshops to stay up to date on opportunities to connect with employers. These events include career fairs and employer information sessions.
  • If you are interested in an internship or full-time job in industry, create a CareerBuzz account. By establishing your CareerBuzz profile, you can follow specific employers’ activities and view job postings open to your major and degree level. Find out which employers are scheduled to conduct interviews along with the position and application details in CareerBuzz.
  • You can also connect via LinkedIn, which is an online professional networking platform.

Connect with Others in Your Discipline

There are many ways to connect with other people in your discipline at Tech and beyond. Ask faculty members about organizations or groups that you should be involved with. Introduce yourself to people at seminars and conferences, and ask about their career paths. Check out your discipline’s professional society to see if it offers any mentoring programs or career resources.

Informational Interviewing

Informational interviewing allows individuals to learn about specific occupational fields and employers by interviewing professionals about their experience. Instead of trying to lock in an employment offer, your goal is to get an insider’s perspective on working in a particular field. In addition to a greater understanding of your career options, it can lead to additional connections in academia, industry, consulting, nonprofits, and other fields.

Here are some tips:

Job Searches

Search Strategies

Searching for an Academic Job

Finding Open Positions

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Additional Resources

Job Applications and Interviews

View the following resources on job applications and interviews:

Teaching and Future Faculty Development

Many of the Center for Teaching and Learning's programs and services support postdocs in developing and improving their teaching skills and becoming successful teachers in the college classroom.

Professional Communication

The following communication resources are available to postdocs at Tech.

Center for Teaching and Learning

The Center for Teaching and Learning offers resources to support postdocs in developing their teaching skills, exploring career options, and navigating the academic job search.

Grant Proposal Development

The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education previously offered a Grant Proposal Development Workshop Series several times a year, including summer. This workshop series is currently on hiatus, though we hope to bring it back.

Language Institute 

The mission of the Language Institute is to increase the English language proficiency and cultural understanding of the Tech community to help members meet their academic, professional, and social needs. The Language Institute offers credit courses to help nonnative English-speaking students and postdocs improve their communication skills in English. These courses are a semester-long combination of in-class instruction and individual one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Short courses for spouses are also offered

Certificates and Training

Professional Development Certificates and Programs

These programs generally provide recognition that you completed the requirements, but the certificates earned will likely not show up on your Georgia Tech transcript.

Professional Certificates Offered by Georgia Tech Professional Education

Professional Education courses and programs may require tuition. Completion is shown on a Professional Education transcript that is separate from any other transcript. Professional Education certificates include:

  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt
  • Defense Technology
  • Occupational Health and Safety, Power Systems
  • Project Management
  • Supply Chair and Logistics
  • Full Stack Flex Web Development

Other Opportunities

Professional development workshops and other training opportunities postdocs are advertised via the events feed on this website and the newsletter. Here are some units that offer workshops open to postdocs:

Entrepreneurship and Start-Ups

The Enterprise Innovation Institute is Tech’s business outreach organization and serves as the primary vehicle to achieve Tech’s goal of expanded local, regional, and global outreach.