Penn Career Services is a centralized office on campus supporting the majority of students, postdocs, and alumni in their professional and career development. But we are not alone, and many staff and faculty play an indispensable role in helping these populations find career success. We are part of a growing “career everywhere” community, and want to take this opportunity to view content from our 2023 Penn Career Champions Conference!

Why Career Champions?
The Career Champions initiative is designed to support informal career advising and resource sharing happening broadly across campus in a consistent, meaningful way to benefit the lives students. This initiative is a professional development opportunity that trains and empowers staff and faculty to have strategic career conversations with students who seek their advice and counsel in situations and spaces beyond the programs and resources offered directly by Career Services. Students are already reaching out to people they trust around campus, and asking for help making new contacts and connections, updating resumes/personal statements, and getting ready for upcoming interviews. The Career Champions initiative provides a toolkit of resources that will support our partners as they have these conversations. This approach has significant benefits for many underserved populations who can be more comfortable connecting with familiar faculty or staff before taking full advantage of formal career resources through programs offered by Penn Career Services.

Recorded sessions from the 2023 conference

These workshops are focused on Penn staff/faculty and on your professional and career growth, but the advice and resources we will be sharing are the same that we share with students, postdocs, and alumni in our programs and 1:1 advising. By watching these videos, you will gain insight into your own professional and career development, and will also be able to share these insights and resources with students/postdocs at Penn as you engage with them during the next academic year. 

Career Champions – a case study, and how you can get involved at Penn

Making the most of your first year in a new job at Penn as part of your professional growth

The top 10 career resources you and your students need to be using in 2023-2024

Networking 101 – 5 steps you can take as a higher ed professional to grow and cultivate your network

Creating a website to showcase your professional identities at Penn – free tool!

How AI tools like ChatGPT can help you in your professional and career development

How to find out about an employer’s commitment to DEI while exploring your career next steps

Career Everywhere – a new philosophy, and how you can get involved at Penn

Questions? Comments? Please contact Joseph Barber (Penn Career Services) at barberjo@upenn.edu

Organizing Committee:
Joseph Barber, J. Michael DeAngelis, Natty Leach, Jackie Moriniere, Esther Ra, and Dianne Hull