In the first year or two of your graduate degree, you will prioritize learning about your chosen discipline and research area.

Your additional professional development at this stage should include:

• SFU Learning Commons workshops, particularly those on time management, writing skills and research skills
• Specific scholarship workshops including those geared to Tri-Council scholarships (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR, Vanier and Banting post-doctoral) and towards private scholarships (including the Trudeau Foundation and the IODE)
• Lab skills workshops as organized by your department and faculty
• Attending departmental seminars and university seminars by visiting faculty members, both to build your professional network and to learn about the best ways to present information in your field. (Presentation skills are incredibly useful in all aspects of your future career.)
• Attending student conferences (such as the interdisciplinary English Grad Students annual conference) to get practice as a presenter and to socialize with graduate students outside your department
  
• Considering if your post-graduate career will be in academia or in a profession or industry. This will probably influence both the kind of research you should pursue, and the types of professional development you should make time to attend
• Preparing a Curriculum Vitae (CV) which outlines your academic accomplishments, including awards, publications and other distinctions. If you have a CV ready, you'll be better-prepared to apply for awards and scholarships; it's not just for jobs.
• Reading the Useful Links on the right side of this page to get more background on some of the decisions you'll have to make in the next few years.

• Learning Commons videos on Presentation Skills for Graduate Students and on SFU's SUMMIT repository

• Mentoring Toolkit from the Southern Association for Women Historians (contains great career advice for all students, not just historians)
• University Affairs: Career Advice
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Manage Your Career section
  
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Graduate School Is a Means to a Job