The Career Design Workshop series is an eight-week sequence of one-hour professional development workshops for graduate students. The workshops are designed to address PhD students’ career goals but are open to professional and master’s students as well.
During these workshops, held once per week, students will get hands-on feedback and guidance to help them plan and start to implement their professional goals.
Sessions will include:
- Self-assessments,
- Resume/CV building,
- Tips on how to conduct informational interviews, and
- Guest speakers sharing resources, advice, and information about their professional journeys.
Students are invited to attend all eight workshops or drop in to whichever session(s) they find useful.
Spring 2025 Sessions
The Spring 2025 series schedule and registration information will be available in late January 2025.
If you have any questions, please reach out to graduate@pitt.edu.
Weekly Schedule
Week 1: Introduction & Self-Assessment
Identify skills, interests, and values that will guide career exploration and decision-making.
Week 2: Career Exploration: Job Families, Career Interests, Goal Setting
For this workshop, you will explore the breadth of career options available for people with graduate degrees.
Week 3: Reading Job Ads
You will learn how to read job postings in your field to identify required and valued skills and experiences and develop strategies for highlighting relevant and transferable skills in your resumes/CVs and cover letters.
Week 4: Resume/CV Building
We will build off Week 3 in this interactive session that will provide you with feedback on your own resume/CV.
Week 5: Create or Update LinkedIn Profile
Explore ways to frame your experience and skills in the digital space.
Week 6: Preparing for Job Interviews
In this workshop, you will learn about presenting yourself, asking specific questions, and establishing networks through informational interviews.
Week 7: Informational Interviews as Career Exploration
This workshop will build off of Week 6 by having participants share what they learned from the informational interviews they conducted. In preparation for Week 8, participants will begin to plan goals for their continued career exploration and job search.
Week 8: Writing Your Vision Statement/Visualizing Your Career Path
In the final workshop in the series, you will reflect on your career exploration process and set short- and long-term goals for your future professional exploration and job search.