Career Development

If you're looking for top-notch online professional development resources for grad students and postdocs, then check out the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. Take advantage of their weekly motivational emails, Career Center, webinars, and multi-week courses.

By Nicole Poletto, Professional Development Peer
Wednesday, June 7th, 2017 - 4:13pm


Attention grad students and postdocs! UCSB recently renewed its membership ​to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of over 71,000 graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members. NCFDD membership provides a series of mentoring services, including workshops focused on research and writing strategies, networking opportunities, and other forms of professional support and development. With institutional support from Susan Carlson, Vice Provost for Academic Personnel in the University of California Office of the President, as well as UCSB's Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, UCSB graduate students and postdocs will be able to take advantage of NCFDD programming and resources free of charge.

To activate your institutionally sponsored membership, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity website.
  2. Select the "Become a Member" tab and choose "Join Now."
  3. On the "Join NCFDD" page, scroll down and select "Institutional Sub-Account."
  4. On the "Select a Username" page, use your institution-issued email address in the Username box.
  5. Complete the registration process.
  6. You will receive a welcome email within 24 business hours confirming that your account is now active and you can begin fully using your new NCFDD membership.

Bonus: by becoming a member, you are automatically signed up for The Monday Motivator email message service, ​which UCSB grad students ranked as the #1 most helpful resource from the NDFCC. In addition to The Monday Motivator, you will also gain access to resources such as the Career Center, webinars, and multi-week courses. But don't just take our word for it, check out the full list of benefits for signing up.

Planning on being away from campus for ​the summer? We highly recommend this online resource for students that are in absentia or otherwise not on the UCSB campus.

For questions, please contact María Herrera-Sobek, UCSB's Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Academic Services.