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Professional Development Resources

Job Search Resources – Academic Jobs – Academic Job listings and job search portals

We suggest that you begin your search for tenure-track and other university teaching positions by visiting these sites:

Other search portals you might consult for jobs within the academy are:

Job Search Resources – Academic – Articles and handbooks on the academic job search

Job Search Resources – Non-Academic Jobs – Non-Academic Job listings and job search portals

  • American Alliance of Museums, http://www.aam-us.org/resources/careers
    • A good resource for people interested in museum work, with up-to-date postings
  • American Association for State and Local History, http://jobs.aaslh.org/jobs
    • Contains a variety of non-higher-ed job listings, from museum curators, to archivists, to internships
  • American Library Association Job List, http://joblist.ala.org
    • Good place to look for library jobs. Job search function does not have filters aside from geographic location.
  • Beyond the Professoriate, https://beyondprof.com
    • This is a two-day online conference for recent PhDs and graduate students put together by folks from From PhD to Life, the Lilli Research Group, and Career Path Writing Solutions (all of which can be found elsewhere on this list). In the fall of 2016 they are launching a new 10-week career coaching program (cost: $1000) for PhDs pursuing careers beyond the professoriate. There’s also a blog that includes info on recent conferences, who attended them, news, etc.
  • Carney, Sandoe and Associates, http://www.carneysandoe.com/job-seekers.aspx
    • A firm that recruits teachers for private, independent, and international schools
  • Council on Foundations, http://jobs.cof.org
    • The Council on Foundations, founded in 1949, is, in its own words, “a nonprofit leadership association of grant making foundations and corporations.” Its job search portal features a number of helpful filters and the postings appear to be pretty up-to-date. For people interested in jobs at non-profit organizations and other similar environments
  • Digital Humanities Now, http://digitalhumanitiesnow.org/category/news/job/
    • Their website features a job announcement board with recent postings, but is not a searchable database or portal
  • Global Museum, http://www.globalmuseum.org
    • Includes a bulletin board with recent museum jobs posted, not searchable or able to be filtered
  • HASTAC,https://www.hastac.org/events-opportunities/jobs-and-fellowships
    • Stands for Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory. Their job page has recent listings and a basic filter tool. The nature of jobs posted is all over the map, from elementary school teachers to programming coordinator for Duke’s Documentary Film Festival
  • Historical Associates, Inc., https://www.historyassociates.com/who-we-are/careers/
    • They are sort of a “historians for hire” company. Their job board is small because this is only a list of the positions available at this one company. Seems like a cool firm.
  • Historical Research Associates, Inc., http://hrassoc.com/about-us/employment/
    • This firm does historical and archaeological research, consulting, and cultural resource management from several offices, all located in the Pacific Northwest. Their job board is exclusive to their company.
  • Idealist, http://www.idealist.org/search/v2/?search_type=job
    • A large general job board with up-to-the-minute postings in a variety of fields. They offer email alerts and a variety of filters.
  • Indeed,http://www.indeed.com
    • Another large job site with recent postings, email alerts, and a variety of filters. “Advanced search” feature allows search by specific words and phrases; also ability to upload resumes.
  • Independent Educational Consultants Association, http://iecaonline-jobs.careerwebsite.com/home/index.cfm?site_id=16290
    • This is a consulting firm that helps families and students choose the right educational institutions. Their job board represents a wide variety of industries, features the ability to upload resumes, and appears to be up to date.
  • Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, http://www.marac.info/job-opportunities-3
    • Contains a list of archivist jobs available in the mid-Atlantic region.
  • National Association of Independent Schools, http://careers.nais.org/jobs
    • Jobs listed include teaching, administrative, and other positions, all at independent or private primary and secondary schools. Allows you to create your own profile, get job alerts, etc.
  • National Council on Public History, http://ncph.org/jobs
    • Quite a good list of jobs here, from archivist to museum curator etc., filterable by field
  • National Trust for Historic Preservation, http://forum.savingplaces.org/build/jobs
    • Job listings related to historic preservation. Good list with recent postings, but not able to filter, search, etc.
  • Public Service Careers, http://publicservicecareers.org
    • List of jobs is short (only 50) but up to date and with good filters, ability to upload resumes, job alerts, etc.
  • USAJobs,https://www.usajobs.gov
    • This is where you go to look if you want to work for the federal government. Site features many filters to narrow results.
  • VentureWell,https://venturewell.org/careers/
    • This organization “develop[s] programs in higher education, government, and philanthropy that prepare innovators to launch economically scalable, technological ventures around the world.” Jobs posted are internal to this organization.
  • Versatile PhD, https://versatilephd.com/jobs/
    • A site for people with PhDs seeking non-academic careers. You have to create a login in order to access the job search feature.

Job Search Resources – Non-Academic Jobs – Articles and handbooks on the non-academic job search for PhDs

Productivity, Career, and Professional Development Advice for Grad Students and Recent PhDs

Crafting CVs, Cover Letters, and Resumes

Teaching Resources

  • AHA, Classroom Content, https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/classroom-content
    • In a blog-like format, presents both actual classroom content (e.g. videos related to teaching WWI through food), and articles and resources treating topics like how to teach history to undergraduates.
  • AHA, Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age: Reconceptualizing the Introductory Survey Course, https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/classroom-content/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age
    • Offers resources for historians who want to use digitized primary sources in the classroom.
  • Library of Congress classroom materials and lesson plans, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/
    • The materials on this site mostly relate to American history and are generally intended for use in a high school setting, but are easily adapted for college students (especially survey courses). Includes sets of primary sources grouped by topic, as well as lesson plans. If you click on the “Themed Resources” link, you can choose a theme (e.g. baseball, civil rights, Abraham Lincoln) and see lesson plans, primary source sets, and information about collections specific to the LOC.
  • Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program and professional development modules, http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/
    • Free online courses and professional development modules for teaching with primary sources. Again, geared mostly toward high school teachers, but are especially appropriate for historians because they are geared toward training you how to teach with primary sources.
  • National Archives DocsTeach, https://www.docsteach.org
    • Allows the instructor to browse digitized primary source documents, access lesson plans and activities built around those sources, and also, if you create a free login, has a tool for creating your own primary source classroom activities. Concerning mostly American history.
  • National Archives Founders Online, http://founders.archives.gov
    • Features the correspondence and other writings of the founding fathers, with over 176,000 searchable primary source documents. A great resource.
  • National Archives Teaching with Documents lesson plans, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/
    • Features lesson plans grouped by period of American history. Each lesson plan includes a detailed summary of the lesson (super useful for lecture writing!), followed by links to digitized primary sources pertaining to that lesson.
  • National Coalition for History, http://historycoalition.org/resources/
    • If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, there’s an interesting list of teacher resources from various federal agencies and branches of government, including the history page of the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the National Park Service, etc.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities lesson plans, http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans
    • Grouped by subject area (history/social sciences, arts and culture, literature, foreign language, etc.) and easy to browse.
  • Stanford History Education Group, “Beyond the Bubble” assessments, http://beyondthebubble.stanford.edu
    • These are extremely valuable, easy to use, short classroom activities designed to teach students skills specific to the historian’s craft and to assess their critical thinking. I’ve used these in the classroom and love them. Each assessment also includes a rubric for the instructor to use in evaluating student responses. These can be either assigned individually, or used with small groups, or with the whole class. Mostly American history.
  • Stanford History Education Group, “Reading Like a Historian” primary source lessons plans, http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh
    • Resources geared toward training students to think and analyze texts like a historian. In addition to lesson plans on specific topics, they also have short activities to help students learn to deal with conflicting accounts of the same event or phenomenon, and how to critically analyze images. Excellent for introductory history courses. Features both American and world history (more detailed in the former; the latter good for Western Civ courses).

Crafting Effective Conference Presentations

 

Academic Writing Resources

General Professional Development Resources

  • AHA Career Diversity Resources, https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/career-diversity-for-historians/career-diversity-resources
    • The AHA’s initiative to better prepare graduate students and early career historians for a range of careers inside and outside of academia. See this page for a short bibliography and other resources. This is a relatively new project for the AHA, so the page is worth revisiting often.
  • AHA Resources for Graduate Students, https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/professional-life/resources-for-graduate-students
    • Page contains a pretty extensive list of resources for graduate students, including articles on graduate education, career paths, the job market, labor issues, etc., plus links to other resources.
  • Coursera,https://www.coursera.org
    • Offers all kinds of online courses. Financial aid available.
  • From PhD to Life, http://fromphdtolife.com
    • A blog run by Jennifer Polk, PhD. She also offers life and graduate school coaching. One month of individual coaching with Jen costs $350CDN.
  • Lilli Research Group, https://lilligroup.com
    • They specialize in helping PhDs prepare for careers outside the professoriate. They are a founding partner of Beyond the Professoriate (see above). They do webinars, boot camps for post-ac job seekers, dissertation writing coaching, and on-campus workshops.
  • Lynda,https://www.lynda.com
    • From LinkedIn, this is another site where you can take courses online. A lot of it is business, technology, and creativity-related. They offer a free ten-day trial.
  • The Professor Is In, http://theprofessorisin.com
    • A blog run by Karen Kelsky, PhD, who also writes for a number of other sites listed here. The blog has extensive articles on all aspects of the academic job search and she also offers personal consulting. She also has a recent book out by the same title.
  • UNM Job Search Guides and Databases, http://history.unm.edu/career-diversity/career-development/job-search-database.html
    • With UCLA, Columbia, and Chicago, UNM is one of the AHA’s career diversity pilot programs. This is their page of academic job search guides and databases, most of which also appear on this list. Columbia and Chicago did not have helpful pages like this which is why they are not included here.
  • UCLA Job Search Links, http://www.history.ucla.edu/academics/graduate/job-opportunities
    • With UNM, Columbia, and Chicago, UCLA is one of the AHA’s career diversity pilot programs. This page contains many portals and job sites, many of them specific to various regions. Columbia and Chicago did not have helpful pages like this which is why they are not included here.
  • UCSD Graduate Careers Blog, https://career.ucsd.edu/phd-and-masters-students/grad-blog.html#Career-Advice
    • Their job ads are not extensive, but the page features links to many other articles and various other career development resources.

On-Campus Resources at Carolina

Print Resources

  • The Academic Job Search Handbook, by Julia Vick, Jennifer Furlong, and Mary Heiberger, 4th edition (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
  • Behind the Academic Curtain: How to Find Success and Happiness with a PhD, by Frank F. Fursternberg (University of Chicago Press, 2013).
  • The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars form Graduate School through Tenure, by John Goldsmith, John Komlos, and Penny Schiine Gold (University of Chicago Press, 2001).
  • Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower, by Mary Ann Mason et al. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013).
  • Federal Resume Guidebook, Sixth Edition: Writing the Successful Outline Format Federal Resume, by Kathryn Troutman (Resume Place, 2016).
  • The Graduate School Mess and How We Can Fix It, by Leonard Cassuto (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015).
  • How to Negotiate Your First Job: 8 Steps That Will Create Value for You and Your New Employer, by Paul Levy and Farzana Mohamed (Cork: BookBaby, 2014)
  • Networking for Nerds: Find, Access and Land Hidden Game-Changing Career Opportunities Everywhere, by Alaina Levine (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2015).
  • Outside the Ivory Tower: A Guide for Academics Considering Alternative Careers, by Margaret Newhouse (Office of Career Services, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, 1993).
  • The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your PhD Into a Job, by Karen Kelsky (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2015).
  • So What Are You Going To Do With That? Finding Careers Outside Academia, by Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius, 3rd edition (University of Chicago Press, 2015).
  • What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job Hunters & Career Changers, by Richard Nelson Bolles (revd., Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2015).

554A Pauli Murray Hall*
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Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195

*Though the History Department uses the name Pauli Murray Hall for our building, on official maps you will find it as Hamilton Hall. Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton’s intellectually dishonest historical and archival work promoted white supremacy. In contrast, Pauli Murray marshaled unassailable evidence and analysis in the service of racial and gender equality. In July 2020, all of the departments housed in the building agreed to adopt the name Pauli Murray Hall in place of Hamilton Hall. An official request with the Chancellor is pending. For more information, please see here.
phone: 919.962.2115
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email: history@unc.edu
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