Starting this August, 8 online career webinars will be available for graduate students to attend! These sessions cover topics on how to prepare for academic and non-academic careers, or how to decide between the two. All can be accessed through the Beyond the Professoriate platform.
To attend webinars, log into Beyond the Professoriate with your Pitt credentials, navigate to “Live Webinars”, and register for the interested sessions. Once registered, you can attend the live event or access the recordings which will also be available for 14 days after each event. All events will be held on from 12-12:45pm ET unless otherwise noted. Participants must register in advance to attend the live event or access the recordings afterwards.
Schedule of Topics
This five-day virtual boot camp is designed to help you build and strengthen each component of your academic application package. Each session focuses on a specific document, giving you the knowledge and strategies to present yourself clearly and professionally as an educator and scholar. This boot camp is designed for doctoral students, PhDs, and postdocs from all academic disciplines who are preparing to apply for faculty positions.
• Aug 24: Cover Letters
• Aug 25: Research Statements
• Aug 26: Teaching Statements
• Aug 27: Teaching Portfolios
• Aug 28: What If I Am Not Successful This Year?
In this webinar, you will learn how to make the most of the PhD Career Training Platform. Access to this platform means you have a research-informed toolkit designed specifically to support doctoral students and postdocs in both academic and nonacademic job searches — so you can move forward with a clear strategy from day one. Topics covered include:
- How do I get started on the PhD Career Training Platform?
- What resources are available to support my academic or nonacademic job search?
- How long does a job search typically take, and what should I be doing right now?
Many doctoral students and postdocs enter their PhD program with the goal of becoming a university professor. But today’s academic job market is highly competitive, and a tenure-track role may not be the right fit for everyone. As your values, life circumstances, and career goals evolve, it is important to reassess what career paths align with your personal and professional needs. Topics include:
- How do I know if pursuing a faculty position is the right choice for me?
- How long should I stay on the academic job market?
- What are my options if I decide not to pursue a tenure-track path?
As a PhD exploring your career options, one of the most important things to understand is that academic and nonacademic employers value very different aspects of your PhD training and experience. This means that to job search effectively — in academia or beyond — you need to understand what each type of employer is looking for and adopt a strategy accordingly. Topics include:
- How is academic hiring different from nonacademic hiring?
- What do nonacademic employers look for in a candidate, and how will that affect my job search?
- Why do I need to focus my job search on a specific career pathway?
In this webinar, you will learn how to reflect on your graduate training, identify the transferable skills you’ve developed, and communicate your value clearly to nonacademic employers — in your job documents and in interviews. Topics include:
- How do I identify the skills I’ve developed in my graduate training?
- What do nonacademic employers look for in a candidate — and how does my background align?
- How do I communicate my value to employers when my expertise is highly specialized?
One of the most common struggles PhDs face early in their job search is identifying nonacademic career options that feel like a genuine fit. With a highly specialized background, it can be difficult to know where to begin — or how to evaluate whether a career path aligns with your skills, values, and goals. Topics include:
- Why is it so difficult to identify career options that align with my background and expertise?
- How do I research career options that fit my skills, values, and personal goals?
- Once I have identified career options, where do I begin my job search?
Networking is one of the most overlooked skills in a PhD job search. It is often seen as awkward, transactional, or evidence of “nepotism.” But in practice, networking is how academics AND professionals build community. It is through community that academics and professionals find mentors, learn from others in their field, and stay informed about opportunities and areas of growth. Networking is also standard practice outside of academia, and an essential part of an effective job search — academic or nonacademic. The earlier you start building your network, the more it will work in your favor when opportunities arise.
- How can networking help me in an academic or nonacademic job search?
- Where do I find people to connect with?
- How do I start if I have never done anything like this before?
This special workshop series is designed to walk doctoral students, PhDs, and postdocs through the key questions, frameworks, and strategies you need to clarify your values, identify your most marketable skills, and evaluate your options — so you can make an informed decision about whether a faculty career or a nonacademic path is the right fit for you. Attend this series of workshops to learn:
- Prerecorded: How to decide and what you will need to consider
- December 7: How to identify your values
- December 8: How to identify your most marketable skills
- December 9: How to build your network using on-campus resources
- December 10: Practical considerations and your decision rubric
