As graduate students you already have extensive experience in project management, that is, your master’s thesis or dissertation is a multi-year project that you manage with the help of your faculty advisors. Think of your own research project. You developed an idea or a problem. Then you built the necessary expertise to expand your idea or solve your problem. You likely negotiated funding and travel arrangements to pursue your research. You did all this within a scheduled timetable that concluded with the production of a thesis or dissertation as your deliverable.
That is project management, taking an idea and moving it through the necessary processes to create something tangible.
You have experience as a project manager in academia as well as in your own personal life (each meal you cook is a small exercise in project management), but experience alone does not confer ability. Like all things, project management is a skill that you can improve through training and practice. The resources gathered here will help you develop the skills necessary to excel in different project management scenarios. A crucial aspect of managing any project is working with people. Leadership, that is, motivating and mobilizing others to work toward a common objective, is a critical attribute of effective project managers. Building a competent team that can work together and collaborate to achieve its goals is vital to successful project management.
- mobilize diverse teams to work collaboratively toward common goals
- create timelines for projects and achievable benchmarks to measure progress
- foster innovation and creativity among team members
Internal Yale Resources for GSAS Students
Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking Programs
Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design
Yale Center for Business and the Environment Programs
[include dissertation prospectus-type resources in here? department specific?]
[leadership resources – include wellness/mindfulness resources, for managing stress in self & others?]
External Online Resources
Free Linkedin Learning Courses:
– Building Trust and Collaborating with Others
– Project Management Foundations
– Leading Projects
– Project Management Simplified
– Building High Performance Teams
– Build and Manage Effective Teams
Free Coursera Classes:
– Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management
– Create a Simple Project Timeline in Google Sheets
– Google Suite for Project CollaborationÂ
– Create a Project Management Tracker Using Google Sheets
NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education
– Leadership, Mentorship, Management Youtube Playlist
Articles & Other Resources
– What is the Relationship between Operations Management to the overall Organizational Strategy?
– Organizational Management Careers: Job Descriptions and Salaries
Experiential Learning Opportunities and Job Simulations
GSAS Professional Experience Fellowships
McDougal Career Fellowships
McDougal Graduate Student Life Fellowships
Summer Internships for Ph.D. Students
Yale Office of Cooperative Research
Yale Greenlight
Yale Entrepreneurial InstituteÂ
Yale Center for Business and the Environment
Yale Public Humanities Internship Opportunities
Organizational Management: Job Simulation
Develop a Prospect Research Profile: Job SimulationÂ
Creating a Pitch Deck for Potential Partners: Job Simulation
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How do PhDs use their Project Management and Leadership Skills?
As a content developer for Bitcoin
As a manager and writer in Global Professional Services
As a Technical Trainer for a Medical Software Company
As a Linguistic Analyst at Google
As a Corporate Director of Learning and Development
As a Management Consultant