Professional Development

Advance Your Career

Seek Good Advice

Networking is more than talking. Find out how to develop helpful contacts.
  Network Effectively

The APS Professional Development material provides a single point of reference for the most useful career resources for physicists seeking to improve their careers or choose other jobs. 

Send Us Your Suggestions
Interested readers are welcome to submit additional resources that will be considered for inclusion in the guide.  Please send us your ideas and suggestions.
  Contact APS Careers (careers@aps.org)

Professional Development Topics

• Follow Current Events 
• Hone your Communication Skills
• Know Your Potential Employers 
• Learn to Self-Advocate  
• Network Effectively
• Prepare a Well-Thought-Out CV 
• Practice Presentation Skills 

Heed Sound Warnings

James Patterson with two retirement friends.

Protect Your Career

Ten Errors to Avoid

James Patterson, Professor Emeritus at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, offers hard-won career advice on “The Backpage,” in APS News. 

1. Moving Ahead Before Being Ready
2. Losing Focus
3. Not Making Fundamentals a Working Part of Memory
4. Not Focusing on Physical Ideas While Obsessing Over the Mathematics
5. Not Fitting Goals to Abilities
6. Ignoring Your Personal Life
7. Using Secondary Sources
8. Always Rejecting Authority
9. Letting Anger Rule Behavior
10. Not Keeping in Physical Shape

  “What Not to Do: Ten Mistakes for Physicists to Avoid”