Career Club

2024 SESSIONS:

2024 Session 1 - Careers for PhDs (Jan. 18, 2023) in person - BST S120, 5:30 - 7:30pm

Students in this year's cohort began the career exploration process in the club by reflecting on their interests, skills, and values. In incremental pieces, students worked through different aspects to consider in their evaluation of specific career paths they may be interested in considering. Thank you to Susi Varvayanis for her wonderful collaboration on the development of this session!

Session 1 SlidesAll Worksheets | Additional Self-reflection resource

2024 Session 2 - Conversations with Mentors (Feb. 15, 2023) - Zoom , 5:30 - 7:30pm

This session provided space and structure for students and mentors to have conversations about student career goals. It featured case-based discussions between groups of students and mentors on topics around career planning that included alignment of mutual expectations, work-life balance, and finding time for career planning. It concluded with mentor-trainee(s) meetings with suggested topics to provide direction to continue discussions about individualized career plans.

Mentoring-related Resources:

  • "Mentoring Up": Learning to Manage Your Mentoring Relationships - Lee, S.; McGee, R.; Pfund, C.; Branchaw, J. book chapter in The Mentoring Continuum: From Graduate School Through Tenure, Syracuse University Press, Glenn Wright, editor, 2015.

  • Questionnaire for Aligning Expectations in Research Mentoring Relationships - Revised by Steve Lee and Stephanie House, originated from Ingrid Moses, Adapted by Margaret Kiley and Kate Cadman

2024 Session 3 - Building Your Network: Part 1 (March 21, 2024) - Zoom - 5:30 - 7:30pm

Alumni participating in this session are in careers aligned with the interests of students in the club!

  • Dr. Adriana Forero, Assistant Professor at Ohio State University. Dr. Forero graduated from Pitt in 2014, from the Molecular Virology and Microbiology Program.
  • Dr. Bartholomew Roland, Staff Scientist at Septerna, and has had project management experience in the past. Dr. Roland graduated from Pitt in 2014, from the Molecular Pharmacology Program.
  • Dr. Dawn Taylor-Mulneix, Technology Transfer Manager at the NIH. Dr. Taylor-Mulneix is a 2014 Pitt graduate, also from the Molecular Virology and Microbiology Program.
  • Dr. Matthew F Brown, Medical Affairs Director at MERCK. Dr. Brown is a graduate from Pitt’s Cellular and Molecular Pathology Program – he graduated in 2013.

2024 Session 4 - Building Your Network: Part 2 (April 18, 2024) - Zoom - 5:30 - 7:30pm

More Pitt alumni with careers aligned with students' interests will join this session to network with club students.

2024 Session 5: Resume/CV & Cover Letter Review (May 16, 2024) - TBA - 5:30 - 7:30pm

This session provides club students with best practices, individual feedback, and insights on their CVs, Resumes, and cover letters from invited panelists! 

Students prepare CVs, resumes, or cover letters ahead of time, which will be distributed among the consultants based on the students' career interests. The consultants provide feedback on these material, and shared best practices on improving these materials to help the students stand out when applying to future positions.

2024 Session 6 - Marketing Yourself (June 20, 2024) - BST S120 - 5:30 - 7:30pm

Students will learn about best practices for elevator pitches, use of LinkedIn, and reaching out to professionals to make connections.

Career CluB ARCHIVE (click here!)

Our Current Cohort!

Our First Cohort in 2021!

Feeback on the program from 2021 Cohort!

Moving Forward!

We presented our initiatives at the AAMC GREAT 2022 conference - see results from our first Club cohort!