Are you looking for ways to build your online presence and professional portfolio? Do you know a  Graduate School alumnus with a great career story that you’d like to tell? Are you learning about professional development opportunities at Duke and interested in becoming a guest contributor to this blog? Check out these FAQs to find out how!

What is this blog, and who’s the intended audience?

The Professional Development blog is a new initiative that offers current graduate students an opportunity to learn about professional development in a dynamic virtual format, to share their experiences through their own posts, and to build their career networks in an online professional community. It will showcase professional development programming as well as profiling student successes, and is oriented toward current students, alumni networks, and potential employers.

Why should I write a post for the professional development blog?

You already know how important a polished, professional online presence can be to your career, no matter what your career aspirations are. When you contribute to the Graduate School’s professional development blog, we will make sure that you have a professional-looking headshot that you can also use on LinkedIn, Twitter, and your other web profiles. You will have the opportunity to promote your own accomplishments and research, and provide links to your own blog or website. Contributing to the professional development blog is an opportunity to grow and highlight your online portfolio.

What should I write about?

Because this blog is focused specifically on graduate student professional development, most of our student posts will fall into three main categories: profiles, resources, and personal reflections.

•  A profile is a short article or interview focusing on a Graduate School alumnus and the path of his or her professional development.
•  A resources piece should describe some professional development resource that you have found useful: what is it, how did you use it, and why was it useful? The focus could be an on-campus speaker or workshop, a book, a blog or online tool, etc.
• A reflection focuses on your own experiences with professional development, especially at Duke. Have you attended Graduate School programming and come away with new insights or opportunities, or even published work to show for it? Did you land an exciting summer internship or a job, and want to share your story?

Regardless of the topic, your blog post will include your name and photo, and should also specify your department/program, year, and the degree you are seeking. You will want to be sure to properly introduce the subject (whether an individual or event) for an external audience and describe why it is interesting. Blogging is a great change of pace from your academic writing, because it allows you to communicate in a tone that expresses your personality while remaining professional, conversational, and jargon-free.

Who should I contact in order to get involved?

If you already have an idea in mind for a blog post, we would love to hear about it. On the other hand, if you know you would like to take advantage of the opportunity to be a guest-blogger, but you don’t know where to begin, we can help you develop a topic. Email us at grad-profdev@duke.edu to get started!