Foundations of Career Planning Program

As a Postdoctoral Fellow, you’ve made several key career decisions along the way and as you consider your next steps, it’s important to take time to pause and reflect on how your own characteristics and context fit with your future career direction. This 2-part workshop will provide an opportunity to refine your vision for the future and craft an action plan rooted in a deepened understanding of yourself.

Pre-work: Prior to Part 1, ensure you’ve completed the Skill Scan and Career Values Scale assessments. Participants will not be required to purchase these assessments - the PDFO will purchase assessments and provide each participant with an access code.

Part 1: Clarifying Key Characteristics

Career development is a lifelong process which, as described in hope-action theory, cycles through self-reflection and self-clarity through to implementation and adaptation. Understanding how your key characteristics and contextual factors tie into your work, life, and learning goals is fundamental. This session is focused on getting to know yourself more deeply. Leave better equipped to express your unique set of skills, interests, values, and personal style, within the context of your relationships, responsibilities, and resources, identifying common themes and patterns to inform the next phase of career development (i.e., visioning, decision making, and action planning).

Learning objectives:

• Explore the career planning and development process and how your career path may be impacted depending on where you are in your life
• Apply conceptual frameworks for understanding yourself and your future (e.g., the Wheel, UN SDGs, Career Engagement model, Hope-Action theory)
• Take stock of your personal characteristics (e.g., motivated and transferrable skills, interests, values, and personal style)
• Integrate results from career assessment tools and reflective activities, identifying common themes and patterns

Part 2: Personalizing Your Development Plan

Building from Part 1, participants will shift their focus towards developing a vision for the future and making informed career decisions grounded in a deepened understanding of themselves and their contexts and the full spectrum of opportunities potentially available to them (e.g., academia vs. industry, contract vs. employee, local vs. international). This session will review the goal setting and action planning process leaving participants better equipped to personalize a development plan which aligns to their key characteristics and contexts and is responsive to shifts in work, life, and learning realities.

Learning objectives:

• Explore diverse career opportunities and workforce realties of the highly educated
• Craft a vision for the future tied to self-reflection activities
• Engage in a goal setting and action planning process
• Acknowledge the importance of adaptability and hope within the career development process

FACILITATOR

Dr. Roberta Borgen

Dr. Roberta Borgen (Neault), CCC, GCDF-i, CCDP, is an award-winning leader in the career development sector, in Canada and internationally. She is a published author and international speaker on topics related to career management. Roberta's academic career has involved contract work at 10 universities across Canada, the US, and Asia, including serving as the Associate Dean of a university in New Brunswick and later serving as an Adjunct Professor and Director of the Psychological Services and Counselling Training Centre (PSCTC) at UBC while running her BC-based consulting company. Her extensive experience supporting graduate students, postdocs, managers, executive leaders, and professionals brings unique perspective to crafting professional work search documents.

Compiling professional work search documents is an essential step in your career journey; however, effectively communicating your expertise and value to potential employers, whether for academic or industry positions, can be a difficult task, even for the most seasoned writers. Participants will leave this two-part session equipped to identify relevant positions, analyze job advertisements, and customize a wide variety of work search documents with clear, concise, and consistent messaging, style, and tone.

This interactive session mixes small group activities with content delivery to provide participants with practical, hands-on experience in creating work-search documents. Participants are asked to come prepared with their current resume and/or CV, bios, profiles, or any other work-search documents they would like to refer to. Please also bring or bookmark at least one specific job description or posting of interest.

Pre-work:

• Search online for 1-2 samples of resumes and/or CVs, identifying what appeals to you and what doesn’t.
• Gather your existing resumes or CVs so that you’ll have all that you need to create a “master” resume. Please create one Word document with your existing bios and/or profiles.
• Identify at least one job description, posting, or advertisement that interests you – even if you aren’t in a position to apply for that position at the moment, it will give you some concrete information to help with targeting your work search documents. The job description will be used as a reference tool to help in the creation of these work search documents.
• Come to the session with 2-3 specific questions or areas to focus on.

Part 1: Compiling Your CV for Academic Positions

Your Academic CV is a key part of many job and grant applications and, as your academic “life story,” is a vital tool for researchers at any stage of their academic career. Over time, your CV will continue to grow in length and complexity; however, subtle organizational and design elements can support readability.

This webinar will discuss the essential considerations for your CV, review the Canadian Common CV (CCV) system, and touch on the basics of writing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) statements and teaching philosophies. Participants should leave this session feeling better equipped to build and maintain their CVs.

Learning objectives:

• Explore the full spectrum of employment possibilities within academia (e.g., lecturer vs. tenure track; research-focused vs. teaching-focused universities and colleges; local vs. international)
• Critically analyze qualifications for positions of interest using job posting criteria (e.g., years of experience, skills/competencies, professional designations)
• Practice crafting and customizing your CV and other support documents (e.g., teaching philosophy, EDI statement), applying key content, structure, and design considerations

Part 2: Crafting Compelling Resumes for Non-Academic Industry Positions

Your resume is one of the most important tools in your job search. It is used by employers to assess your fit both for a specific position and for the overall organization, and unlike an academic CV, the expectation is that your professional resume will be customized for the industry, employer, and specific position for which you are applying. Compelling, targeted resumes quickly and concisely express your value and expertise; generic resumes get lost in the shuffle.

This webinar will dive into how to craft compelling resumes and associated work-search documents (e.g., cover letters, profiles/bios) for industry positions. Participants will leave equipped to effectively communicate their “elevator pitch” and to prepare an industry-ready resume format, customized for a specific position or sector.

Learning objectives:

• Explore the full spectrum of employment possibilities within “industry” (e.g., part-time, full-time, or contract work; research laboratories; government; corporate)
• Critically analyze qualifications for positions of interest using job posting criteria (e.g., years of experience, skills/competencies)
• Practice crafting and customizing your resume and other support documents (e.g., cover letter, profile/bio), communicating your relevant accomplishments, and applying key content, structure, and design considerations

FACILITATORS

Dr. Roberta Borgen (Facilitator, Part 1: Compiling Your CV for Academic Positions)

Dr. Roberta Borgen (Neault), CCC, GCDF-i, CCDP, is an award-winning leader in the career development sector, in Canada and internationally. She is a published author and international speaker on topics related to career management. Roberta's academic career has involved contract work at 10 universities across Canada, the US, and Asia and including serving as the Associate Dean of a university in New Brunswick while running her BC-based consulting company. Her extensive experience supporting graduate students, postdocs, managers, executive leaders, and professionals brings unique perspective to crafting professional work search documents. At UBC, Roberta currently serves as an Online Education Faculty Mentor, Adjunct Faculty within the Masters of Counselling Psychology Program, and Interim Director of the Psychological Services and Counselling Training Centre (PSCTC).

Dr. Deirdre Pickerell (Facilitator, Part 2: Crafting Compelling Resumes for Non-Academic Industry Positions)

Dr. Deirdre Pickerell is a nationally recognized, award-winning, industry thought-leader with close to 30 years’ experience as a career development specialist, human resource professional, and adult educator. She brings a strong history of strategic and collaborative leadership, ensuring individuals, and the organizations that employ them, have the tools, resources, and skills that allow them to thrive. Deirdre served as the Dean of Academics and Dean of Student Success at Yorkville University and is currently Program Director with the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF).

The Best Candidate Wins is a highly experiential workshop that will build your confidence and help you to:

• Strategize on ways to get your foot in the door and deliver your pitch or get an interview
• Practice pitching the value you provide to a potential “employer” in a telephone screening call and informal in-person setting;
• Prepare for and successfully respond to questions in a simulated interview; and
• Negotiate your compensation package once you are offered the position.

Pre-work is required for this session, and will be distributed by the PDFO in advance of the session date.

FACILITATOR

Dene Rossouw, Principal & Learning Coach, Possibil.com

Dene is Principal and Learning Coach at team Possibil. He has facilitated hundreds of programs for various organizations in Africa and Canada and is known for his ability to demystify complexity and explain processes using transferable concepts and dynamic models.

Dene brings an eclectic background to the table: he’s been a paratrooper and preacher and is currently a learning coach and a wildlife photographer at Fotomoods.com.

Dene is the author of A Complicated Love and Credible – The Six Leadership Conversations and the co-creator of Back.Chat, the anti-bullying web app.

Each experience has provided a rich backdrop to his approach to inviting possibility and building influence through the power of authentic dialogue, persuasive writing and compelling storytelling.