GradProSkills

GPCB099 - PhD Career Connect


Description

PhD Career Connect is a career preparedness and training program with the objective of empowering PhD students to confidently pursue non-traditional career paths. The program occurs over a ten-week period and includes workshops centered on building a professional resume and LinkedIn profile, identifying your transferable skills and strengths, mastering job search and networking techniques and solving real-world problems through case study analysis. The workshops are designed and delivered in a strategic manner allowing you to build upon each week's lessons and culminate into a tangible career action plan at the end of the ten weeks.

Upon completion of the ten-week program, you will be invited to a two-day conference in June where you will have ample opportunity to network with employers, hear success stories from PhD Alumni, present your case study analysis to employers, and learn more about various non-traditional career opportunities.

Ultimately, you will come out of this ten-week training having learned about diverse career paths, gained new and meaningful connections with both employers and fellow colleagues, and feeling confident about the strengths and value you bring to the labor market.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of PhD Career Connect, you will:
 
  • Discover various non-traditional career paths  
  • Learn about the sought-after skills valued by employers 
  • Identify the transferable skills acquired through your PhD
  • Perfect your elevator pitch to highlight your professional value proposition to employers
  • Concretize your goals and define a potential career path
  • Engage with employers from various sectors in a professional setting
  • Develop tools and strategies to engage in a successful job search (elevator pitch, LinkedIn profile, professional CV, cover letter, information interviews)
  • Understand the importance of building and leveraging your networking
  • Understand how workplace cultures differ outside of academia
 

Leaders Information

Innovatank: Innovatank, co-founded by Samie Ly, MBA, MSc, Ph.D., and Stavros Athanasoulias, MBA, is a revolutionary force in the intersection of education and technology. Pioneering hands-on learning through cutting-edge data analytics, Innovatank has digitized global case competitions, hosting international events and direct challenges from businesses. By providing users with access to real-world problem-solving experiences, Innovatank aims to bridge industry recruitment needs with academic knowledge capacities. This project has evolved from initial brand development to becoming a catalyst for transformative education.  
 
Bob Menard: After obtaining his MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University, Bob moved to Montreal and took on the role of Graduate Career Advisor at the John Molson School of Business. In the over twenty years that Bob has been in his role, he has been advising students on career orientation/transition planning, job search strategy, and resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile preparation. 
 
Kristel Kabigting: Kristel Kabigting has been working as a Career Advisor at Concordia University since 2018 helping undergraduate and graduate students launch their job search and providing the tools and resources that they need to achieve their goals. Previously, she has worked in the non-profit sector for 8 years as an Employment Counsellor in a youth employment centre and assisted a highly diverse clientele, from newly arrived immigrants to youths in gangs or at-risk in gang involvement.
 
Barbara Tremblay: Has been working in the field of career, support, guidance and life/direction counseling for 20 years now.  The expectations related to the job market evolve at a fast pace and change constantly - It is more than important to focus on a career and skills set that will let our full potential to shine and evolve at its best.
 
Megan Marcoux: Megan has worked in the field of post-secondary education (PSE) for nearly 15 years and believes that the education system can play a powerful role in fostering inclusion, innovation, and social change. Since 2020, Megan has served as Concordia's Project Lead for the pan-Canadian Future Skills Innovation Network (FUSION). 
 
Sarah Sullivan: Sarah Sullivan is a Career Advisor with Concordia's Career Advising and Professional Success (CAPS) team and has worked in career centres at both Concordia and McGill University.  As a Career Advisor at Concordia, she teaches students from all faculties and degree levels how to navigate the job search process and has helped many students find meaningful employment.

Additional Information

There will be weekly workshops and deliverables for the duration of the program. Workshops will be held in-person at the SGW campus on Tuesday mornings and occasionally on Friday mornings. Deliverables will be due the Friday following the workshop. To ensure you get the most out of your experience with PhD Career Connect, we ask that you attend and participate in all workshops, complete the tasks according to the schedule and engage meaningfully with your peers and the content on Moodle.

Participant Feedback

“The workshops that came before the event, though, are so, so valuable, and are the real reason why I recommend this program to anyone who is thinking of taking their PhD out of academia. Learning how the non-academic job market works and what the expectations are for a CV, an interview, the type of networking required and all the other sundries that surround this mysterious thing called "getting a job" is so valuable and is not something that we're taught in our classrooms.” - Lucas Cober, PhD Religious Studies. PhD Career Connect 2023 candidate.
 
“I had one of the most memorable weeks of my life during the PhD Career Connect "intensive week" event… PhD students, candidates and graduates from different disciplines teamed up for a case study competition. We had the opportunity to showcase our analytical, problem-solving, accelerated learning and presentation skills to experts and get valuable feedback from them. As an introvert, I was reluctant to participate, but I'm glad I put myself out there. The experience and feedback I acquired during the whole program helped me to grow and I am certain it will benefit me in my long-term career.” - F M Anim Hossain, PhD candidate in signal processing and deep learning. PhD Career Connect 2022 candidate.

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