THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

NCA Spring Quarter Career Development Series – Chicago Campus

Northwestern Career Advancement (NCA) is excited to be returning in person regularly to the Chicago campus! This quarter, we’ll be facilitating our career workshop series every other Wednesday afternoon on the downtown campus. With our return downtown, NCA will be offering in-person appointments downtown on Wednesdays and maintaining virtual options to connect with NCA staff throughout the week. Students can schedule virtual and in-person appointments with our PhD-dedicated staff via Handshake, our career portal.

Please note, NCA will be running its career course this summer, as in past years, with a presence on both campuses. If you’re Evanston-based, there will be more programming on-site come June.

The below workshops are open to all PhD students, regardless of the year in program or discipline. You are not required to attend every session in the series.  

Each of the below sessions will be held on Wednesdays from 4:00–5:00 PM in the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center (SQBRC) Trienens Conference Room (1M-209). 

• Job Search Resources and SMART Professional Goal Setting
  
  • Wednesday, April 5
    To kick off the spring quarter series, we welcome PhD students at all levels and will explore job search strategies and resources offered at Northwestern. Participants will spend time exploring resources for all disciplines and career pathways. The workshop concludes with a framework for establishing professional goals at every stage of degree progress. 
• Skills, Values, and Your Career
  
  • Wednesday, April 19
    In the second session of the series, we’ll reflect on the value of your research, service, teaching, and leadership to audiences outside of academic disciplines. Whether you’re considering postdoctoral opportunities, a career in data science, nonprofits, think tanks, or a myriad of other fields, you’ll need to develop a professional narrative and speak to your experiences. Through skills and values-based activities, you’ll learn how to think through the impact of your research, talk about it with generalist audiences, and find the best career options. 
• Developing Professional Relationships On and Off-line
  
  • Wednesday, May 3
    This session is for PhD students to learn more about developing professional relationships, the role they play in career exploration, and effective ways to communicate professionally on and off-line. Attendees will spend time reviewing LinkedIn best practices and exploring alumni platforms and networks, in addition to discussing communication approaches.  
• Best Practices in Resume Writing
  
  • Wednesday, May 17
    This session is for PhD students to understand the difference between an academic CV and a resume for non-academic roles. Attendees will learn to reframe scholarly experiences in terms of skills and tailor documents to specific roles. We’ll also have some time at the end of the session to review best practices in structuring non-academic cover letters.  
• Intro to Behavioral Interviewing
  
  • Wednesday, May 31
    Attendees will learn how to prepare for behavioral interview questions and stand out as strong candidates across all industries of interest. This interactive workshop focuses on classic fit questions and how to frame their unique experiences to specific positions. Attendees have an opportunity to reflect and build on their stories, and to practice sharing them.

Categories: Broad Interest