A New and Improved PhD and Postdoc Careers Webpage!

One of the exciting projects that I was working on this past summer and early fall was revamping our webpage for PhDs and postdocs in collaboration with my colleagues. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our new Ph.D./Postdoc Careers page! This new webpage centralizes all job and career-related resources for Penn doctoral students and postdocs. It’s structured into three main sections to help you easily find the information you’re looking for.

Here’s a quick run-down of how you can use the webpage:

If you’re currently in a PhD program or postdoc and have questions about which career paths would interest you or how you should prepare for your career, check out the Making the Most of Your Ph.D./Postdoc page. It features a four-step career exploration process to guide you in identifying and preparing for careers that would be a strong fit for your interests.

Are you actively applying for academic jobs and/or jobs beyond academia? The Searching, Applying, Interviewing & Negotiating for Jobs page contains information on the entire job search process for postdoc/faculty careers as well as careers beyond academia. You can find resources on preparing your job application materials as well as preparing for job interviews and negotiations.

If you are looking to find out what Career Services can offer you, take a look at the Taking Advantage of Career Services page, which lists all of our services for doctoral students and postdocs—from one-on-one advising to workshops to digital career resources.

We hope you’ll check out our new webpage—you’ll see below some testimonials from your fellow peers on their experiences using the webpage in our focus group.

The Graduate Student and Postdoc Team at Career Services is eager to help you in all aspects of your career exploration and planning process, for jobs in academia and beyond, so make an appointment to see us!

“The breakdown of the four-step Career Exploration Process on the Making the Most of Your Ph.D./Postdoc page was helpful in clarifying what had initially seemed nebulous to me, and it allowed me to move through the steps systematically without feeling overwhelmed.” –Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English

“I found the Professionalize and Gain Experience page extremely useful because it lists several concrete ways in which one can gain work experience at Penn that extends beyond academia.” –Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Linguistics

“I gravitated towards the Making the Most of Your PhD page. I didn’t realize there were job simulations until now, and I am definitely going to play around with that resource!” –Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Genomics and Computational Biology

“I was really impressed with the Career Exploration Process information. That is a really concise, concrete and useful resource.” –Ph.D. Candidate, School of Engineering & Applied Science

“The webpage’s new step by step overview of how best to use your time in grad school is an invaluable resource!” –Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations

New To Handshake This Fall

Natty Leach, Associate Director

As we approach the last month of Summer, I wanted to take the time to share some exciting new features that will go live to Handshake this Fall.

New Homepage:

The “For You” tab which offers tailored collections of jobs to explore will be clearer and more inviting. While there’s no sample to share right now, the mockups look more inviting and easier to browse.

Reviews:

During the Spring semester, we participated in a trial that allowed Penn students early access to the online Reviews submitted by both Penn students and others in the limited trial. In the fall, this will open up to all other Handshake schools (over 700 nationally) so you will benefit from the input of peers at schools like Princeton, Columbia, UChicago, UVA, Stanford, and many more. You can access these reviews by going to an employer’s profile in Handshake:


In total, you’ll now benefit from:

100,000+ reviews from students from

700+ schools nationwide, covering

300,000+ companies

Q&A:

Also on an employer’s profile will be question and answer responses between students and young alumni. Ask students and alumni questions about anything career related:

OCR – Interviewing on Campus Filter:

When looking at what employers are coming to campus this fall, you can now easily search for specific jobs by adding the “Interviewing on campus” filter to your search:

Android App:

Handshake has made a ton of improvements to their OS app and will be unrolling an Android specific app near the beginning of the Fall semester. The app includes the ability to apply to positions in just one click, register for events and fairs, sign up for appointments, or just browse what’s posted in the system:

Spring Break!!!!!

Happy spring break everyone! We hope that you have a safe and relaxing week next week.

Career Services remains open 9am-5pm every day during the break. It’s the perfect time to come by or have a call with us. Check our website for daily walk-in hours or give us a call to schedule an appointment.

See you all in a week!

Happy Winter Break from Career Services!

Here are the remaining office hours for Career Services:
Thursday, December 21st – 9am-5pm
Friday, December 22nd – 9am-12noon

We will be closed from 12noon on December 22nd until 9am on Tuesday, January 2nd. Feel free to make a phone or in person for those early January days while you’re still on break – we’re here and it’s a great time to get seen before the start of the semester rush!

From everyone at Career Services, we wish you a happy holiday season and a bright new year. It’s our pleasure to serve you and we look forward to seeing you again in 2018! Have a safe and relaxing winter break.

Thanksgiving

Career Services will be closing at 2:00pm on Wednesday, November 22nd for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will reopen at 9:00am on Monday, November 27th. We hope you have a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving break, whether you are traveling or staying here on campus. We’re thankful to be able to serve you and look forward to seeing you again after the break.