Though a number of students seeking advanced degrees in philosophy choose to pursue careers in non-academic fields such as law, politics, computers, or business, the majority of grad students in philosophy find their niche in academic careers as college professors. Marquette's graduate program in philosophy is unique in that it offers grad students the possibility of teaching and being fully responsible for undergraduate courses. Unlike some programs whose "teaching assistants" are mostly responsible for assisting a full-time faculty member with tasks such as grading papers and exams, leading break-out discussion groups, etc., teaching assistants in Marquette's philosophy program are directly responsible for everything about their courses, from the creation of the syllabus and the list of readings to giving daily lectures and grading exams. This has proven to be an invaluable asset to Marquette's students in the job market, and surely accounts at least in part for Marquette's excellent placement record.

       In addition to this excellent teaching opportunity, Marquette offers to teaching assistants the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program, whose purpose is to provide teaching assistants with opportunities to learn about the role which they will eventually take on as faculty members, especially some of the important aspects of that role which they wouldn't ordinarily learn about in the course of their own experience as graduate students. The core of the PFF program is the mentoring relationship, in which a graduate student is paired with a faculty member who serves as a mentor and guide for that student. This one-on-one partnership with a faculty member enables grad students to get an inside look at what it is like to be a faculty member, as well as to get invaluable input about their teaching. Each mentoring pair is unique, but generally speaking every mentoring pair participating in the PFF program is encouraged to focus upon topics such as teaching methods, professional activities (publications, conferences), departmental duties (committees, etc), and other aspects of being a faculty member (see the concise explanation of PFF on the PFF site for more information).