Career Development Opportunities

Career Workshops Series: In these sessions, Career Services examines critical topics and skills in the career development process and are facilitated by the career services team.

Employer Information Sessions: Based on student interest, CIR hosts informational sessions led by hiring managers and organizational representatives.

Professional Development Workspace: These new workshops are meant to provide the fundamentals of key transferrable skills often needed in the workplace. Topics such as project management, grantwriting, business coomunication, visually appealing presentations, and pitches and proposals were included this past quarter.

Alumni Career Mentors Program: CIR invites alumni to campus as Mentors-in-Residence every year. The program enables alumni to spend a full day on campus supporting the career development of students in their field. Depending on the alum's preferences the program may feature small group workshops, individual office hours, a research lecture, and/or a reception. Students will be able to register to participate in these programs throughout the year.

Alumni Symposium on Careers: Every year, CIR hosts an alumni and career event known as the CIR Alumni Symposium on Careers.  It is the flagship alumni and career event and features alumni from across the country and from different industries. The program includes a series of talks and panel discussions in which alumni share critical career lessons they’ve learned and how the CIR degree has been relevant to their success. After the talks and discussion, the event concludes with a reception that allows students to talk with alumni one-on-one.

Chicago Consular Corps Global Research Awards: Launched in 2021, this annual MA thesis award recognizes work that is global in scope and has compelling policy implications or is practically beneficial to global society.  Each award comes with a USD 1,000 stipend, the opportunity to present one's research to members of the Chicago Consular Corps (CCC), and to publish an executive summary on the CCC website.  

Opportunities through Campus Partners: UChicagoGRAD, the Institute of Politics, and the International Innovation Corps all offer opportunities for internships which can be self-designed or secured through competitive application processes.

CIR Internship and Summer Research Funding: CIR offers internal funding on a competitive basis for students who have secured internships relevant to their future career goals that are unpaid or require significant out-of-pocket expense. This fund also covers summer travel related to master’s thesis research and can also be used to help defray costs associated with the pursuit of extracurricular career training or preparation programs, such as language or data science programs.

Self-designed and competitive opportunities will be given priority over opt-in fee-based programs. All funding requests should be submitted as a single pdf document to the Director of Career Services.  The early deadline for funding requests is March 15, and the regular deadline is June 1.  Students may submit multiple applications for funding and request up to USD 4,000.

Supporting materials for internship funding:

• A professional resume
• Job/project/program description (250 words max)
• Statement of interest (500 words max). Demonstrate why your background, experience, work in CIR, and career goals align with the scope of the opportunity. Be as specific as you can and state clearly how much money you are requesting.
• Letter of Intent from the host or partner organization.  The letter should detail start and end date, number of hours, location, and pay, if any. 

Supporting materials for MA thesis research funding:

• An academic CV
• A project abstract (250 words max)
• A project narrative (2,000 words max). Outline the research question(s), research design, importance of the item(s) for which you seek funding, and qualifications to execute the project with success
• An annotated budget with estimates of spending
• Contact information for a faculty sponsor, most likely your MA thesis faculty reader. No letter of recommendation is required, but students must identify a member of the faculty who is familiar with the work and can speak to the feasibility and promise of the proposed project.

Supporting materials for funding of extra-curricular activities:

• An academic CV or professional resume
• Project/program description (250 words max.)
• Statement of interest (500 words max). Demonstrate why your background, experience, work in CIR, and career goals align with the scope of the opportunity. Be as specific as you can and state clearly how much money you are requesting.
• Proof of employment or enrollment
• Contact information for an employer or program administrator.

CIR places more graduates in research, in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, than any other field. Looking at the Class of 2021, 94% of our graduates accepted full-time employment or were accepted into doctoral programs within 9 months of graduation. When contract and part-time roles were added, this outcome increased to 95%.