Beyond the Professoriate Certification

Professional Career Strategies

Successful completion of the Professional Career Strategy certificate ensures PhDs recognize their transferable skills, articulate their abilities to nonacademic employers, and apply proven professional strategies in their chosen career.

Any PhD who intends on pursuing a nonacademic career will benefit from completing the certification through Beyond the Professoriate. It provides necessary training for a successful non-academic job search, including:

preparation for career exploration
creating application documents
interviewing confidently
negotiating a job offer
identifying an appropriate career path
and applying effective networking strategies and social media engagement.

PhDs earn the certificate by completing two career exploration courses (Discover and Research) and the Implementation (Professional Careers) module. Completion of the course will take approximately 30 hours.

For doctoral students and postdocs certification will:

Not all employment opportunities are created equal. Certification prepares you to assess your best career fit where you’ll thrive.

Most people find their job through their network. Certification will teach you how to authentically build and grow a community that will help you during your career transition.

We often consider the academic tasks we perform, but not the skills we develop. Certification demonstrates you’ve considered the development of transferable skills and can describe them to an employer

You’ll be more confident as you navigate the path to employment. You’ll know what your skills are and the value you bring to potential employers.

Completion of the program of study demonstrates to potential employers that you’re committed to transitioning out of academia.

Earned your certificate?

You will need the certification number from the certificate that was emailed to you. Email member@beyondprof.com to apply for your certificate.

For graduate programs:

Universities that support graduate student skill enhancement, identify graduate student experience as a key priority, and include professional development for graduate students in their strategic plans should offer the Certification to their students. Certification is available through the Beyond the Professoriate PhD Career Training.

The certificate in Professional Career Strategies:

Prepares PhDs and Postdocs for securing employment outside of academia.
Creates employable PhDs who can articulate their transferable skills.
Complements existing on-campus graduate student career supports.
Promotes engaged learning through reflective activities that encourage students to apply what they’ve learned.
Offers recorded lessons, reflective prompts, and assessments that guide the student experience and foster user engagement.