The Associate Director is part of the Graduate Student/Postdoctoral Fellow Team at Career Services. Career Services is a centralized office which serves all undergraduates and most graduate students at Penn. This team is focused on masters and doctoral students, postdocs, and graduate alumni from 7 of 12 schools at Penn: Annenberg, School of Arts and Sciences, Carey Law School, Perelman School of Medicine, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Weitzman School of Design, and the Wharton School. To support the career and professional development of graduate students and postdocs at Penn, this role has three areas of focus: 1) individual career advising, 2) building and cultivating relationships with key stakeholders across campus and beyond including faculty, alumni, and employers, and 3) enhancing career opportunities for graduate students through experiential learning opportunities. The Associate Director will actively contribute to programming to support graduate students in exploring their career goals and reports to the Senior Associate Director of the Graduate Student/Postdoctoral Fellow Team.

Job Description

• Along with the Graduate Student/Postdoc team, advise graduate students, postdocs, and graduate alumni on all aspects of career planning and development through individual career advising appointments, mock interviews, and same-day advising hours.
• Create and implement engaging, informative, and actionable programs, including workshops, panels, and other events on topics ranging from exploring careers to preparing for the faculty job search to interviewing and negotiating job offers.
• Plan, manage, and implement the annual PhD Career Exploration Fellowship (CEF) program, including overseeing engagement with new and returning hosts, fostering professional development and community-building opportunities for Fellows, and assessing overall program effectiveness. Hire and supervise a PhD student to work as our PhD Professionalism Fellow who supports the CEF program.
• Design and implement a faculty job search prep camp for PhDs and postdocs seeking faculty roles. Lead a cohort of PhDs and postdocs on the academic job market during the fall semester.
• Establish and maintain relationships with faculty across 7 of Penn’s graduate schools. Collaborate with campus partners, including the Grad Center and the Center for Teaching and Learning, to develop and execute programming. Contribute to the development of novel approaches in collaboration with campus stakeholders to support the professional development of PhD students/postdocs. Connect with underserved populations across campus through outreach to student/postdoc groups and campus initiatives.
• Contribute to team and office priorities, including internal office committees and office-wide events such as career fairs. Design and create digital materials (blog posts, videos) for the Career Services website. Contribute to social media to both advertise and raise awareness of programming. Oversee communications of resources from the Center for Graduate Career Success, track engagement with their platforms by graduate and postdoctoral populations, and identify opportunities to increase campus usage.
• Represent Penn and Career Services in local and national conferences to stay current with industry standards and changes; participate in planning and implementation of the GCC annual career fair in 2024 to be held in Philadelphia.