The School of Graduate Studies is pleased to share our upcoming Grad CareerCraft workshops for Spring 2026, designed to support graduate students at every stage of their academic and professional journeys. These sessions are intentionally crafted to help students grow as scholars, teachers, researchers, and future professionals, while also equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to pursue a wide range of career pathways both within and beyond academia.
Grad CareerCraft reflects SGS’s strong commitment to holistic graduate education and is made possible through close collaboration with key partners across the university, including central offices, academic units, and student support services. By bringing together expertise from across Rutgers, these workshops offer practical, timely, and research-informed guidance that responds directly to the evolving needs of today’s graduate students. We are excited to continue building this cross-campus effort and to welcome students to another engaging and impactful semester of professional development.
February 17, 12:00 PM│In Collaboration with Graduate Student Life
Overview
The U.S. higher education system is incredibly diverse, with many types of institutions that shape faculty work, research expectations, and hiring in different ways. This session will help you make sense of that landscape, enabling you to plan your next career steps with confidence.
What We’ll Cover
- Institution types: Community colleges, regional public universities, research-intensive institutions (R1/R2), liberal arts colleges, and for-profit institutions, and how each serves its students and communities.
- How they operate: The essentials of governance, accreditation, and funding, and how these structures influence mission and priorities.
- Career implications: How teaching, research, tenure and promotion, and service vary across institution types, and what that means for your CV, portfolio, and job search strategy.
You’ll Leave With
- A clear visual map of U.S. higher education and how different institutions compare.
- A short self-assessment to help you identify which environments best fit your values, strengths, and long-term goals.
February 18, 3:00 PM│In Collaboration Rutgers Learning Centers
Zoom Workshop + Q&A
Effective communication is essential for graduate students to share their research with diverse audiences, from academic peers to potential employers in non-academic sectors and the broader community. In this interactive workshop, Dr. Ramazan Güngör, Assistant Dean at the School of Graduate Studies (SGS), and Dr. Wilson Ng, Senior Program Coordinator at Rutgers Learning Centers, will provide practical strategies and techniques to enhance your ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively.
Join us to gain confidence in presenting your research, foster meaningful scholarly discussions, and amplify your professional impact, whether your career path leads inside or outside academia.
Workshop Goals:
- Develop effective strategies for clear research communication.
- Learn techniques for engaging diverse, interdisciplinary, and professional audiences.
- Understand the role of communication skills in non-academic career development.
- Access university resources to support ongoing skill development.
Who Should Attend: Graduate students across disciplines who aim to communicate their research effectively to academic and non-academic audiences, and who are interested in exploring and preparing for careers beyond academia.
February 24, 12:00 PM │In Collaboration with Institute for Teaching, Innovation, & Inclusive Pedagogy
Interactive Zoom Workshop with Q+A
This interactive workshop, offered in collaboration with the Institute for Teaching, Innovation & Inclusive Pedagogy, provides graduate instructors with evidence-based practices for fostering meaningful learner engagement across online and hybrid teaching environments. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience teaching fully online graduate courses and the latest educational research on the topic, Dr. Ramazan Güngör will guide participants through practical approaches that support student motivation, participation, and success, whether teaching asynchronous discussion-based courses, synchronous Zoom seminars, or hybrid classes that blend modalities.
Topics will include designing intentional learning interactions, building instructor presence, structuring activities that invite deeper thinking, facilitating inclusive discussions, providing effective feedback, and using simple technologies to enhance engagement without overwhelming students.
Examples and templates will be tailored to the realities of graduate students teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at Rutgers, though faculty are also welcome to attend. Participants will leave with adaptable strategies they can apply immediately, along with a clearer understanding of how to create learning environments, online or otherwise, that are active, engaging, and supportive of deep learning. This session fulfills the requirement for the Teaching with Technology certificate program for graduate students and postdocs.
January 30, 2026 at 12:00 PM │In Collaboration with Institute for Teaching, Innovation, & Inclusive Pedagogy
This interactive session will help you consider and design your teaching philosophy statement which is often an integral component of the job application for faculty positions. Please bring a copy of your own drafts (or a general idea of what you might write about) to share during small group discussions as well as a laptop or pen and paper. This session is part of the Improving Your Classroom Skills certificate program for graduate students and postdocs.