Choosing a career is a tough decision. Typically, CIS Ph.D. students take one of three tracks: academics, industry labs, or government labs, but there are, of course, more options. We have put together various resources that may help you make a decision about what you want to do after you graduate. You should also look at the Job Hunting Page, which has information about getting a job.

The CRA-W has held several career mentoring workshops that provide lots of valuable career information. You will find some of the documents from the mentoring workshops with the appropriate topics below.

• Schedule and Slides from the 2005 CRA-W Mentoring Workshop

From a different perspective, Ed Lazowska gives advice to CS faculty for helping CS Ph.D. students find a job.

In general, professors at academic institutions are judged by their research, teaching, and service. The relative importance of these tasks depends on your institution.

Below are some documents from the CRA-W Mentoring Workshops

• Obtaining Federal Funding
• Tenure

• Building a Research Career from the CRA-W Career Workshops

The CRA-W has hosted some career mentoring workshops specifically for women in teaching-oriented positions. They posted slides containing the advice that was presented at the workshop.

• The 2005 workshop schedule, with links to slides
• The 2003 Workshop Schedule and Slides
• A Perspective on Small Schools by Sheila Castañeda