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Career and Professional Development

Preparing for a variety of careers

The BBS Program, the Yale Graduate School, and University offices partner to prepare students for success in careers both within and beyond academia. Explore the resources and groups that provide career and professional development activities. Also view the career outcomes for BBS graduates.

Professional Development

The BBS Program and Yale offer numerous opportunities for students (and faculty) to develop non-bench skills. Below are key resources:

Upcoming events offered by the BBS Program are noted below:

Faculty

Mentor Training for BBS Faculty is a multi-part course intended for both junior and senior faculty. Offered 3 times per year, the course is based on a curriculum developed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research and is facilitated by CIMER-certified instructors. The upcoming course schedule is below:

FALL

  • Part I: Friday, November 3, 9:00 - 11:00 am
  • Part II: Friday, November 17, 9:00 - 11:00 am
  • Part III: Friday, December 1, 9:00 - 11:00 am

SPRING

  • Part I: Monday, April 1, 9:00 - 11:00 am
  • Part II: Monday, April 8, 9:00 - 11:00 am
  • Part III: Monday, April 15, 9:00 - 11:00 am

Contact bbs@yale.edu for more information.


Students

The BBS Program, MD/PhD Program, School of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and medical student Mental Health & Wellness Program host Thriving in the Training Environment (THRIVE). This 4 part series teaches skills necessary to succeed in the biomedical research enterprise. Enrollment for the fall 2023 series has filled. We will post spring dates when they become available.

THRIVE was developed through an NIH supplement to MSTP T32 GM136651.

Yale Resources

Below are some of the main university resources for assisting students with both current training and future career development.

Student Organizations

Below are a number of student organizations that offer career exploration opportunities to Yale graduate students. Many of these groups are led by BBS students.

Internships

Internships are an invaluable way to learn about a future career path without formally committing to it.

Also visit the Office of Career Strategy's internship site for more information about conducting an internship as a graduate student.

Career Outcomes

The BBS Program, the Yale Graduate School, and the university as a whole strongly encourage students to investigate careers both within and beyond academia. As shown in the graphs below, BBS students have been extraordinarily successful in their career pursuits and do enter very diverse career paths. Of the 1,370 students who have graduated since 2001, career data are available for 98% of these graduates. Of those for whom data exist, the unemployment rate is less than 1%.

The graphs included divide graduates into two pools:

  • recent graduates, many of whom pursue postdoctoral training upon graduation
  • older graduates, most of whom are now in established careers.

Current Positions of Student who graduated in 2018-2022

  • Pharma, Biotech, Tech 34%
  • Academia 15%
  • Consulting, Finance, & Law 10%
  • Further Training 30%
  • Medicine and Healthcare 1%
  • Government <1%
  • Publishing & Communications 1%
  • K-12 Education 1%
  • Unknown 3%
  • Other 2%
  • Nonprofit Organizations 1%
  • Not In Workforce 2%

For a more granular view of career outcomes for students who graduated within the past 5 years, please visit our Graduate School program statistics page. Use the pull-down menu on the top left of the page to view data on each of the 11 PhD programs under the BBS umbrella. A 12th PhD program in Translational Biomedicine is too new to have any graduates yet, and data for this program are not available.

Current Positions of Students who Graduated 2001-2017

  • Pharma, Biotech, Tech 34%
  • Academia 30%
  • Consulting, Finance, & Law 9%
  • Further Training 9%
  • Medicine and Healthcare 5%
  • Government 4%
  • Publishing & Communications 2%
  • K-12 Education 2%
  • Unknown 2%
  • Other 1%
  • Nonprofit Organizations 1%
  • Not In Workforce 1%