Graduate Pathways to Success | Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

Our award-winning Graduate Pathways to Success program is a palette of non-credit workshops, seminars and other activities designed to complement your graduate program's academic curriculum and mentorship experience.

Our offerings cover a wide range of personal and professional development topics to support you throughout your time in graduate school and to allow you to develop some of the skills and competencies needed to thrive as professionals and to make meaningful contributions to society. As you move forward in your studies and on into your career, it will be important for you to develop competencies for:

Graduate School Success: Skills in academic writing and applying for funding, for example, help you to complete your program successfully and graduate in a timely fashion.
Self Management: The ability to manage stress and time are among the many needed to help you achieve balance in life and effectiveness in educational and work environments.
Professional Effectiveness: Success as a professional, whether in academia or outside, requires a range of skills and knowledge related to areas such as communication, management, interaction with people, and ethical conduct.
Career Building: A proactive approach to career preparation involves investigating options, developing competencies, and learning how to present yourself for career opportunities.
Leadership: As professionals, you will likely be (or already are being) called upon to lead others. Acquiring leadership skills and learning from accomplished leaders will contribute towards your success as a constructive leader.

Integral to all the above areas is development in critical thinking, creativity, integrity, and a recognition of our global and societal responsibility.

We invite you to participate in our workshops and events, and to use The Graduate Game Plan, the Guides and the Graduate Pathways to Success Resources.

Graduate Pathways to Success Workshops and Events

Each year we plan and organize programming designed to strengthen skills and competencies that can support your development throughout graduate school and in your professional and personal life. These generally align with the GPS development areas: Graduate School Success, Self-Management, Professional Effectiveness, Career Building, and Leadership.

Check this calendar of workshops and events (by choosing "Graduate Pathways to Success" as provider) for upcoming sessions.

Below's year-at-a-glance shows the sessions we regularly offer, loosely arranged by thematic series, and presented with the time of year they generally occur. This is not an inclusive list and each year we complement our offerings with unique events. Session titles also change from year-to-year.

Recordings and materials for most of our past sessions are available here. We welcome suggestions for new sessions.

Career Building

Session TOPIC	Frequency	Timing
Career Options/ Exploration	Once a year	Fall
Finding and Applying for a Job	Once a year	Fall
Resumes and Cover Letters	Once a year	Fall
Interviewing	Once a year	Winter
Academic CV	Once a year	Winter
Negotiating	Once a year	Winter
Panels on various career topics	Throughout the year
Leveraging your Strengths for Success	Twice a year	Fall and Winter

Graduate School Success

Session TOPIC	Frequency	Timing
Preparing Excellent Fellowship Applications	Once a Year	Late Spring/ Summer
Applying for Scholarships: Doctoral programs	Once a Year	Summer
Applying for Scholarships: Master’s programs	Once a Year	Fall
Building Effective Supervisory Relationships	Twice a Year	Fall and Spring
Submitting your Thesis	Twice a year	Fall and Winter
Copyright and academic work	Twice to three times a year	Fall, Winter and Spring
Doctoral Exams and Defence Procedures	Multiple times a year	All year
Managing / Designing your Grad School Strategy	Twice a year	Fall and Spring

Wellbeing

Session TOPIC	Frequency	Timing
Self-care Strategies for Managing Stress and Avoiding Burnout	Twice a year	Fall and Spring
Assertiveness	Once a year	Spring
Resilience and Anxiety	Once a year	Fall
Imposter Phenomenon	Twice a year	Fall and Spring
Perfectionism	Once or twice a year	Fall, Winter or Spring
Procrastination	Once or twice a year	Fall, Winter or Spring

Communicating your Research

Session TOPIC	Frequency	Timing
Putting it into Words: The Why's and How's of honing the key messages of your research	Once a year	Winter
From the editor's desk: Ins and outs of Publishing research	Once a year	Winter
Habits of academic writers	Once a year	Winter

Fundamentals of Statistics

Session TOPIC	Frequency	Timing
Exploratory Data Analysis	Once a Year	Fall
Study Design and Data Collection Essentials	Once a Year	Fall
Two group comparisons and ANOVA	Once a Year	Winter
Correlation and Linear Regression	Once a Year	Winter
Intro to Mixed Effects Models	Once a Year	Winter

*Fall: September – December, Winter: January – March, Spring: April – June, Summer: July - August

We would like to acknowledge the presenters from many of our campus partners that help to provide these sessions, including G+PS, the UBC Library, the Centre for Student Involvement and Careers, the Applied Statistics and Data Science Group, Health Promotion and Education, and others.

The Graduate Game Plan

The Graduate Game Plan provides advice and guidance for graduate students at all stages of their graduate careers. We encourage all graduate students to read and follow the suggestions provided, whether you have just arrived at UBC, or are well into your program. Don't get lost in your graduate journey, just follow the steps to cross the finish line successfully!

For additional professional development events, services, and resources available to you at UBC, visit the Professional Development page.