Frequently Asked Questions

The Graduate Career Consortium (GCC) is a professional international organization of higher education professionals leading and providing professional and career development for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at their institutions.

Full membership in the GCC is available to individuals who provide career and/or professional development support to graduate students and/or postdoctoral scholars at: nonprofit institutions of higher education; medical schools; research institutes; or government or nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Canada, and around the world.

Trainee membership is available to graduate students or postdoctoral fellows who are interested in pursuing careers in the profession. Please see the New Member Registration page for details about trainee membership.

Yes! We absolutely welcome members who only work with master's students or only with postdocs. If you have questions about whether you qualify for membership, please contact secretary@gradcareerconsortium.org.

There will be no refunds granted on annual membership dues. Membership may not be transferred to another individual at your institution or another institution. For questions, please contact info@gradcareerconsortium.org.

The dues support the infrastructure of the organization including the website and membership features (online forums for information sharing, benchmarking, access to member information, etc.), financial and conference/event operations, portions of conference expenses, and organization-wide initiatives.

The online forum is available to all full members for communication with members around topics such as best practices, professional and career program ideas, benchmarking among peer institutions, job sharing, as well as current articles and information sharing in the field.

Full members have access to resources and information from past meetings and conferences as well as forums through the member‘s only portal of the website. When you pay dues, you will be given an individual username and password for the member‘s only information.

The GCC has an Executive Committee with a President, President-Elect, Past-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Communications Officer, Diversity & Member Engagement Officer, and a Professional Development Officer. Elections are held in the spring with new officers taking office on  August 1st. In addition there are several standing committees (Communications, Data & Analytics, Governance, Conference Committee, Membership & Belonging, Finance, Professional Development) as well as many projects and programs with a specific focus such as the Diversity Program, The Mentoring Program, The Virtual Career Expo, ImaginePhD, and The Graduate Education Program, the Non-Academic Career Readiness Assessment Project, Carpe Careers Program, PhD Outcomes Program, and the Benchmarking Program.  We also have a Regional Directors program who provide regional connection and community for GCC members, and our Communities of Practice, which are member-driven topical or identity-based groups. To learn more about our committees, programs, and projects, visit this page and reach out directly to the committee lead(s) for more information.

Trainee membership is available to graduate students or postdoctoral fellows who are interested in pursuing careers in the profession. Please see the New Member Registration page for details about trainee membership. We also encourage you to check with your university‘s career center or graduate school to see if their staff members are members of the GCC.

The GCC‘s email address is info@gradcareerconsortium.org. Please direct all questions to this email address and one of our officers will respond to you.