Cave against the world
Volunteer!
Promote a culture of volunteerism in the department. Volunteer for anything that helps build your Curriculum Vitae (and it doesn’t hurt to volunteer for things that are meaningless for your CV – like most Ling Circle stuff). Some stuff that doesn’t look promising for your CV can turn into more official experience.
If you want to teach stuff or get experience with a particular class, you can always volunteer to help the professor of that class with grading or whatever. Teachers are often open to free graduate help. The benefit for you is being able to become more acquainted with the professor and the content of the course.
If you are on Fellowship through the department some given semester, take the opportunity to:
- take an extra course or two and/or
- volunteer to help some professor who has no Teaching Assistant and/or
- volunteer to help out some professor without a Research Assistant
Get involved, Get involved, Get involved. It’s great for fostering relationships with fellow students, but it’s also visible outside the student circle. Professors and others will notice and it could make a difference at an important time in your career.