Graduate School

Professional Development

Landing a professional position in today’s market requires more than just completing a degree. We've outlined a list of tools, resources and professional development programs to help you discover and develop your career potential.

Professional Topics, Advice & Tools

The Graduate School and other offices across campus offer professional development assistance in key areas.

3MT Competition

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is an academic research communication competition that challenges graduate students to explain their research project and its significance to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.

Career Guidance

As a graduate student, you are acquiring advanced transferable skills that academic and non-academic employers seek. The following resources are designed to help you convey, develop, and leverage your skill set for professional positions, particularly those in industry and non-academic settings.

Communication & Negotiation

The ability to express your ideas clearly in speech and writing is vitally important as a scholar. It can also help you secure funding and increase your employability in the academy, industry and beyond.

Entrepreneurship

The University of South Carolina is famous for fostering entrepreneurship. Our graduates rank nationally in number of startup businesses created.

Grant & Proposal Writing

We encourage graduate students to seek out grants and sponsored awards. Help is available across campus for writing proposals and submitting funding applications.

Individual Development Plans

Your individual development plan (IDP) outlines past accomplishments, identifies areas in need of development and creates feasible professional goals to work towards your desired career.

Professional Development Events

The Graduate School, in collaboration with other offices across campus, offers a variety of free personal and professional development workshops and events to help you succeed. These events are open to all USC graduate students.

Publishing

Publishing your written work is an important part of scholarship, but it can be hard to know how to go from thesis or dissertation to peer-reviewed article or book. Resources both on and off campus can help you get a good start.

Teaching Training

We help graduate student teaching assistants and those interested in teaching develop professional skills that will enhance their effectiveness as a future member of faculty.