Enhance your employability

For academic and research positions, your research outcomes including publications, conferences and awards, and potential to attract funding are central to your employability, along with your teaching experience and involvement in University activities (conference organisation, faculty committees etc.).

For other sectors, your research outcomes may be directly relevant to the role, or have relevance as evidence of your problem solving, research and other skills and also the quality of your work.

Research shows employers in all sectors are looking for interpersonal and communication skills, passion and commitment, critical reasoning, analytical and problem solving skills, all skills gained by PHD and Masters by Research students (Matthews, D. (2016) Graduate Outlook 2015 Melbourne: Graduate Careers Australia ).

Gain experience & develop your skills

Take every opportunity to present your progress e.g. faculty HDR conferences and competitions such as the Three Minute Thesis to demonstrate your communication skills with a wide range of audiences.
Use your problem-solving, analytical and research skills in an applied context by participating in Univative.
Interested in business and start-ups? Attend iAccelerate events.
Ask your Supervisor or at your faculty office about casual teaching opportunities.
Get involved in Faculty committees, student representation such as WUPA or organising conferences – skills such as negotiation and influence, organisation and planning are relevant to a wide range of roles and sectors
Reflect on skills gained from previous career experience, are they any gaps? How can you fill them through your research or while you are completing it?
Enrol in Career Ready Learning for Higher Degree Researchers CRLH900: reflect on your career possibilities and plan how best to develop your employability.
Develop your learning and teaching skills through Continuing Professional Development (CPD) modules and learn from academics teaching at all levels