3MT Competition
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is an academic research communication competition that challenges graduate students to explain their research project and its significance to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.
Professional Topics, Advice & Tools
The Graduate School and other offices across campus offer professional development assistance in key areas.
Career Guidance
As a graduate student, you are acquiring advanced transferable skills that academic and non-academic employers seek. The following resources are designed to help you convey, develop, and leverage your skill set for professional positions, particularly those in industry and non-academic settings.
Communication & Negotiation
The ability to express your ideas clearly in speech and writing is vitally important as a scholar. It can also help you secure funding and increase your employability in the academy, industry and beyond.
Entrepreneurship
The University of South Carolina is famous for fostering entrepreneurship. Our graduates rank nationally in number of startup businesses created.
Grant & Proposal Writing
We encourage graduate students to seek out grants and sponsored awards. Help is available across campus for writing proposals and submitting funding applications.
Individual Development Plans
Your individual development plan (IDP) outlines past accomplishments, identifies areas in need of development and creates feasible professional goals to work towards your desired career.
Professional Development Events
The Graduate School, in collaboration with other offices across campus, offers a variety of free personal and professional development workshops and events to help you succeed. These events are open to all USC graduate students.
Publishing
Publishing your written work is an important part of scholarship, but it can be hard to know how to go from thesis or dissertation to peer-reviewed article or book. Resources both on and off campus can help you get a good start.
Teaching Training
We help graduate student teaching assistants and those interested in teaching develop professional skills that will enhance their effectiveness as a future member of faculty.
Programs & Subscriptions
Take part in innovative professional development programming and opportunities that will prepare you for a career after your degree.
See All Upcoming Programs
Go to Graduate School Calendar »
Topics Include...
- Abstracts
- Ethics
- Mentoring
- Networking
- Professional Presentations
- Salary Negotiation
- Self-Assessment and Reflection
- Resume & CV Development
- Teaching Philosophies
- Resume & CV Development
- Writing Help
See All Upcoming Webinars
Go to the Graduate School Calendar »
Register for a webinar to join live and receive a link to the recorded version.
Watch Previous Webinars
2019-2020 #GRADprofdev Webinars:
- Creating a Better Poster (4/7/2020)
- Creating an Online Research Presence (4/3/2020)
- Overview of the USC Career Center Resources (2/28/2020)
- Focus on Faculty Salary Negotiations (2/14/2020)
- Writing Abstracts for Discover USC (2/7/2020)
- Getting the Mentoring You Need (11/22/2019)
- How to Conduct Successful Informational Interviews (10/25/2019)
- General Tips for Resumes and CVs (9/27/2019)
For previous webinars, visit the Graduate School's You Tube channel.
#GRADprofdev
Every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, we post professional development advice and opportunities on our social media channels.
Search #GRADprofdev on...
Graduate Student Memberships
Both of these organizations feature professional development resources for graduate students.
Signing Up
Use your USC email address.
Productive Writer Listserv
For graduate students who are writing their proposal, thesis, dissertation, fellowship applications or other manuscripts.
Subscribe
Subscribers receive email messages every other week with writing tips, strategies and encouragement.