Your Ph.D. equips you with deep subject matter expertise and a broad set of transferable skills—critical and innovative thinking, written and oral communications, project management, and a deep analytical toolkit. These skills are in high demand across a wide range of job functions and industries. Some common career pathways beyond academia include:
- Academic administration
- Public policy and advocacy
- Nonprofits and NGOs
- Publishing, journalism, and communications
- Consulting and research organizations
- Museums, archives, and cultural institutions
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industry
- Entrepreneurship, Startups, & Venture Capital
- Consulting
- Science & Health Policy
- Science Education & Outreach
- Technology, Data Science, and Engineering
If you haven’t already, we recommend starting with a self-assessment of your skills, interests, and values. Then, use the resources on this page to research roles that align with your strengths and goals.With your self-assessment in hand, explore careers by considering both:
- Function – What kind of work do you want to do? (e.g., research, writing, teaching, project management, policy analysis)
- Industry – Where do you want to do it? (e.g., higher education, nonprofit, tech, government, publishing)
This dual lens helps you uncover roles that match your strengths and preferences—even in sectors you may not have considered. For example, a tech company might hire Ph.D.s as content strategists, user researchers, or learning designers. This approach is especially useful if you’re navigating constraints like geographic location or visa requirements.
Get Started with AI
AI Assistants such as CoPilot or ChatGPT can help you take a first step towards generating lists of career possibilities. Review your self-assessment, and Identify those interests, strengths and values that resonate most strongly with you. . Then try the prompts below to generate an initial list to jumpstart your career thinking.
Prompt 1: Generate Career Ideas Based on Your Skills and Interests:
Input the following into your AI Assistant (customize the placeholders with your information): “I am a [X]-year PhD student in the [X] department at Yale University. I am great at [X] and passionate about [Y]. What are 10 specific career paths that align with my skills and interests?”
Prompt 2: Prioritize Career Paths Based on Your Values
Once you receive a list of potential roles, you can evaluate them using your personal values. Try: “Generate a table that ranks these roles based on the following criteria: [VALUE 1], [VALUE 2], and [VALUE 3].”(Example: Compensation, Work-Life Balance, Social Impact)
Prompt 3: Explore Employers in Your Target Field and Location
To dig deeper into specific opportunities, use: “Generate a list of the top 20 employers for [X role] in [Y location].”.
Research Career Paths
Take advantage of the many resources available to you to learn more about careers open to PhDs and to determine which ones may be a great fit for you. The OCS website offers curated webpages on PhD career pathways for Humanities & Social Sciences PhDs and STEM PhDs, as well as industry-specific resources – see our webpages on Common Good and Creative Careers, Business, Law and Industry, and STEMConnect. Other useful online resources include:
- Vault Career Guides – Find comprehensive industry-specific resources that provide detailed insights into career paths, job roles, required skills, hiring processes, and company profiles
- ImaginePhD – Explore career, networking and job search resources for 15 career families of interest to humanities and social science PhDs.
- Job Market Insights: Search for a role or occupation to find core competencies required, average salaries, job titles and employment trends.
- LinkedIn: Find Yale GSAS alumni in related disciplines to identify possible organizations, job titles and career paths of interest. Also use LinkedIn or other jobs boards to read job descriptions to understand the qualifications, responsibilities, and experiences required, and note how they differ from academic expectations.
- Professional associations or societies related to your field: (e.g., AAAS, American Historical Association) often offer resources for careers beyond the academy.
As you gather information, keep a career journal or spreadsheet to track roles, organizations, and insights that resonate with you. This will help you compare options and spot patterns in what appeals to you most.
Learn from PhD Alumni and Other Professionals
While online research is useful, there is no substitute for hearing directly from alums or others about their experience in a particular job. They can provide important insights into a job’s intellectual and organizational challenges and rewards, daily work life, and company culture.
- Take advantage of alumni career workshops and employer events organized by OCS throughout the year
- Attend Where Do I Go From Yale? (annual GSAS career conference organized by the Graduate School Alumni Association)
- Sign up for an alum mentor and on Yale Cross Campus
- Conduct one-on-one informational interviews with professionals to gain firsthand insights that aren’t easily found online.
- Read our GSAS Alumni Spotlights.
Test Careers and Job Functions
Gain exposure to job functions through online tools and part-time campus experiences. Unlike a traditional summer internship, many of these activities are flexible and require relatively low time commitments, and therefore can be managed alongside research and teaching responsibilities. Visit our page for PhDs and postdocs on building skills and experience for more ideas on ways to gain hands-on exposure to job functions, applied problem-solving, organizational management, and collaborative work environments. Below are just a few resources to get started:
- Forage: Virtual job simulations designed by top companies
- LinkedIn Learning (free courtesy of the Yale Library): Short, accessible courses to build skills and test interests.
- Yale GPE Fellowship: Part-time, semester-long work experiences in offices and institutes across Yale
- Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking programs, workshops and intensives
- Yale Ventures fellowships for graduate students
Need more suggestions about how to uncover career options? Connect with an OCS Career Advisor.
