Introduction

Steps to Improving Your Career

The APS Professional Development Guide section is organized into ten "chapters" that represent the steps that a scientist can take to improve his or her professional development while working concurrently on a technical project, which may include but is not limited to working on a PhD, completing a thesis, or working on a career.  Interested readers are welcome to submit additional resources to be included in this area.  Please send your ideas and suggestions to APS Careers.

Sorting Through Career Advice

In today’s career environment, there are many types of employment opportunities and career choices available to scientists. Common to each of the many career choices are skills that are important to achieve success in a job. Typically, many of these skills are non-technical and are not part of a standard academic curriculum. Furthermore, each scientist is responsible for his or her own career development. Although many resources have been written to provide advice on this topic, the resources have been written at various times and exist in different publications, such as books, newsletters, magazines, and the Internet. The purpose of this Guide is to assemble existing resources into one reference guide with a simple format.

Thus, by its nature, this guide presents material compiled across many disciplines and sources beyond those covered directly by American Physical Society. The APS Committee on Careers and Professional Development believes these are valuable references for consideration, albeit without specifically endorsing the views presented. We thank the APS Executive Officer, Judy Franz, for her comments and support of this effort.