Student Resources

The Wharton Communication Program helps Wharton students become more effective communicators.  For doctoral students, our help focuses on research presentations and job talks.

Each year we provide the following support to doctoral students from all departments:

• First-year or second-year speaking workshop (typically in September)
• Research paper presentations (typically 3^rd and 4^th year papers)
• Dissertation proposal presentations
• Job talk presentations

In addition, we occasionally help doctoral students with job interviews.

A key part of our coaching philosophy is the use of a robust feedback system. We execute this in two ways:

• Video recording of every presentation
• Written evaluation forms completed by faculty and other doctoral students. This form is particularly important because it often highlights unanswered questions raised by faculty members.

Typically, our coaches meet with students twice for each presentation: once before the presentation to review the structure of the talk and slide deck, and again after the presentation to review the video and faculty/doctoral student feedback.

For questions or assistance, please contact Reima Shakeir (reima@wharton.upenn.edu)

One-on-one writing support and services are available to all Wharton Doctoral students at no charge. Our experienced academic editor, Lynn Selhat, can help you to:

• Structure the Paper: creating a logical flow, organizing the introduction
• Engage the Reader: motivating your paper, positioning your work in the larger literature, identifying your contributions
• Improve Your Writing Style: cutting to be more succinct, tightening for better flow, editing for more active and clear language

Writing services are available at any point in the process: outline phase, draft, or rewriting an existing paper.

Lynn can be contacted via email at selhat@wharton.upenn.edu.

Career Services

Digital and real-world resources everyone should know about

Career Services subscribes to a variety of digital resources for the benefit of the students and postdocs we serve.

1. 1. 10 ways to use Career Services as a PhD student or postdoc: Get an overview of our resources relevant your academic career journey here. Don’t forget to stop by our office to use the free, self-service, professional photo booth!

    

   2. PhD Career Training Platform: The “PhD Career Training Platform” and provides you with an eLearning Platform with on-demand, self-paced learning modules that allow PhDs and Postdocs to discover career options and methods to apply the skills acquired through their education. By completing two programs of study, graduate students explore career options and learn job search strategies to pursue employment beyond the professoriate and in faculty roles. Through two programs of study (Faculty Careers and Professional Careers), members are empowered to make informed decisions about their career path and learn successful job search strategies from other PhDs. As a member of the platform, you have access to research-based, structured curriculum to help you through each stage of your job search. Video lessons, workbooks, and assessments will help facilitate your learning experience. Check out the one-of-a-kind video library and watch interviews with PhD holders working in all career sectors: academic, government, higher ed, industry, and non-profits. Listen to our members-only podcast to learn how PhDs successfully build meaningful careers. In addition to the guided video lessons, you also have access to monthly live events where you can learn the latest in industry hiring trends.

    

   1. National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity: The NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community for graduate students, post-docs, and faculty members. Resources for graduate students and post-docs include webinars, courses, discussion forums, and other resources on topics ranging from preparing for the academic job market to crafting book, grant, and fellowship proposals. Penn is an institutional member, so students can claim their institutional sub-account membership at no cost. To do so, click “Register Now” under “Institutional Sub-Account Membership” and be sure to register with your Penn email.

    

   1. Imagine PhD: This tool has been specifically designed for PhD students in humanities and social science fields, and is a fantastic way to assess you own values, interests, and skills, and to use this information to help you to explore the full range of career options that value an advanced degree, and where you can find many PhDs working in roles that they find intellectually satisfying.

    

   1. InterviewStream: Get access to over 7000 questions for all career fields and industries (including academic/faculty interviews) by accessing InterviewStream – an online, mock interview resource to help you to practice interview questions from the comfort of your own computer.

    

   1. Interview prep platforms for consulting and technical interviews: Management Consulted provides you with access to an entire library of resources – 500+ cases, 10K+ case structure & math drills, 8 online video courses, and 11 industry primers. In these resources (90+ hours of video content), you will learn the ins and outs of mental math, case and fit interviews, PowerPoint, Excel, and more – it’s soup-to-nuts, A-to-Z coverage of everything you need to know to ace your consulting interviews. Exponent is a learning platform that helps you prepare for tech interviews in product management, engineering and more. Exponent offers premium courses, hands-on coaching and a community of learners to help you advance your career. Learn to beat tech interviews directly from the FAANG employees who ask them. Built by experts for future experts with custom tools for acing the interview including interactive lessons and a peer mock interview matching platform.

    

   1. The Grant Advisor: Designed exclusively for U.S. colleges and universities, The Grant Advisor provides searchable databases of grant and fellowship opportunities organized by discipline and populations.

    

   1. LinkedIn – Penn Alumni: LinkedIn remains one of the most effective tools for finding Penn alumni in a wide range of career fields, including in faculty roles. Click on this link to explore the 200,000 Penn alumni and current students featured in an interactive, filterable and searchable table. Students can set up an appointment with a career advisor to learn how to take advantage of this resource, as well as the searchable mPenn database of over 470,000 Penn alumni.

    

   1. InterSECT Job Simulations: An online platform that allows PhD-level scientists and humanists, regardless of professional stage, to explore future career options. These true-to-life job simulation exercises can help individuals consider their professional interests and skills, determine how their interests and skills translate to potential careers, and discover additional career options.

    

   1. CareerShift: CareerShift offers a comprehensive online resource, designed to support the #1 request of job seekers: an easy-to-use website to conduct and organize their job search. With CareerShift, you can: 1) Search, store & record job listings at all publicly posted websites, company websites, and newspapers. 2) Set job alerts. 3) Get inside contact information immediately, including email addresses, for millions of companies, even alumni, then save and manage your lists. 4) Upload/ Copy and Paste as many targeted resumes and cover letters needed or upload your current documents. 5) Create personal marketing campaigns, including unlimited resumes and cover letters easily, and save them to access, print or e-mail. 6) Manage your confidential CareerShift account securely from any computer 24/7, to update & maintain your organized and recorded job search. CareerShift is free for Penn graduate students and postdocs to use.

    

   1. Interstride: An online platform specifically designed for international students exploring careers in the US. International students can find international student-friendly jobs and internships, immigration guidance, and mentorship. This platform also provides lists of jobs and internships in 80+ countries, immigration guidance and country insights for over 150 countries, and an opportunity for students to connect with their global student and alumni community.

    

   1. Penn Career Services YouTube channel: There are over 200 recorded workshops and presentations that address a diverse range of professional and career development topics, including recordings of sessions from the yearly Faculty Job Search Prep Camps. Follow and subscribe to get notified when new videos are posted.

    

Wharton Doctoral Student Event Planning Guide

To help you prepare and plan events, we’ve created the attached Wharton Doctoral Student Event Planning Guide. Inside you’ll find information on vendors, expenses, reservations and more. We hope this is a useful resource! If there’s any information that you think should be added or common questions that are not easily located, please let us know as we hope to better streamline event processes for our students.

The University requires that purchases are made via a purchase order (PO) or budget code. This is a benefit for your groups as well for several reasons including that expenses will be paid up front, eligible for tax exemption and charges are automatically tracked through the financial office. Only if there are no other payment options available can a reimbursement be approved.

Please check with our office prior to making purchases including vendors, caterers, space or rentals.

Graduate Student Center  – A great resource for graduate students across Penn.  GSC also offers various Health Insurance and Dependent Care grants for PhDs.

PEDAL@GSE stands for Practical English for Daily Living and offers free English classes to adult family members of Penn students, scholars, faculty, and staff.

Classes begin at 11:00am on Wednesday, January 26th, and will remain virtual via Zoom through April 13, 2022. For the first class, students may attend the level they feel best suits their English abilities; teachers will make adjustments later as needed.

As included on the flyer below, registration is now open here.

SP22 PEDAL@GSE Flyer