Professional development & careers

Jill Doucette founded Synergy, a green business consulting company, which was awarded the 2009 Nicol Entrepreneurial Award.

What is graduate student professional development?

Complementing academic and disciplinary knowledge, professional development is focused on expanding and/or integrating knowledge, skills and capacities to support you in meeting your career and life aspirations. 

As a UVic graduate student, we encourage you to engage in professional development planning throughout your time here. 

You can draw upon the expertise of your supervisor(s), graduate adviser and the university community to seek out resources related to your professional learning goals.

There are as many different reasons for pursuing a graduate degree as there are types of degrees. There also is no such thing as a “typical” graduate student. Many pursue a master’s or doctoral  degree part time while being employed full time, many take a leave from their employer to go to university full time and many go directly into graduate work after completing their undergraduate degrees.

Whatever the path, your experience at UVic contributes significantly to your employability, providing you with an array of transferrable skills and experience beyond your coursework, thesis, or dissertation that can be added to and highlight your resume or CV.

Many students leave, or prepare to leave, UVic and have no idea what to do with the degree they have worked so hard to attain.  The research, teaching, writing, management, and analytical skills you develop while in graduate studies at UVic are of real value to potential employers, so it is important to recognize them, and find opportunities to develop them during your time here.

Your experience here at UVic is a significant achievement and you should value the skills that you can develop while studying! Follow the links below to open up a world of possibilities for you and make your experience at UVic even more valuable. Good Luck!