Career coach Jennifer Polk, PhD is an invited speaker and workshop facilitator at universities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia
Job search strategy
Finding meaningful work outside academia
Choosing a career path
Online networking and LinkedIn
Resume development
Job interview preparation
Book Jen as a workshop facilitator or speaker for your event
View Jen’s recent workshop
Custom Workshops and Series
Every workshop Jen delivers is customized for the organization, audience, and context. She works with organizers to understand their participants, priorities, and programming goals, then adapts the focus, content, activities, and format accordingly.
The examples below illustrate the range of subjects Jen has addressed in recent engagements. They are not fixed workshop packages or a menu to choose from.
Recent Workshops
Examples
What’s Next, PhD? Navigate Your Career Next Steps with Intention and Confidence
Developed for CAS Future Leaders Top 100
This workshop helped participants approach career decisions with greater clarity and intention. They examined assumptions that could limit their thinking, identified what they wanted and had to offer, explored possible directions, and determined meaningful next steps.
Telling Your Story: Effectively Market Your Skills and Experiences in Resumes, Cover Letters, and During Interviews
Developed for Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
This practical workshop helped participants translate their experience into evidence relevant to employers. They learned to interpret job advertisements, select appropriate accomplishments, develop STAR stories, and use those stories across résumés, cover letters, and interviews.
Beyond Your Degree: Leverage Your Online Presence for Success During and After Graduate School
Developed for the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University
This workshop helped participants develop a more intentional professional presence online. They considered what they wanted potential employers and collaborators to understand about them, explored appropriate ways to share their work and accomplishments, and made practical improvements to their LinkedIn presence.
Series
Example
Industry Job Search Workshop Series
Developed for the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST)
This coordinated four-part series guided participants through developing a focused industry job-search strategy, translating graduate experience into employer value, communicating accomplishments through compelling stories, and using networking and online visibility to pursue opportunities.
Sessions in this series
- Designing Your Industry Job Search: Strategy and Smart Decision-Making
- From Transferable Skills to Employer Value: Positioning Your Experience for Industry Roles
- Communicating Your Impact: STAR Stories That Make You Competitive
- Networking and Visibility: Gathering Information, Gaining Insight, and Helping Others Help You
“It was such a pleasure working with you over the past few weeks. You are truly a phenomenal instructor, and it was wonderful to see how engaged, enthusiastic, and invested the cohort remained throughout the program. Your ability to create such an engaging and supportive learning environment made a real impact, and we heard so many positive reflections from participants along the way…and the positive outpouring on the chat last night said it all!
—Nyasha Gondora, PhD | Director of Policy and Research, Society for Canadian Women in Science & Technology (SCWIST)
We really appreciated how collaborative and easy you were to work with, especially your flexibility each week with our announcements… We will absolutely reach out the next time we run this program, we would love the opportunity to work together again.”
Planning professional-development programming for graduate students, postdocs, staff, or members?
Tell Jen about your audience and what you hope participants will gain. She’ll work with you to develop a workshop, presentation, or series suited to your particular context.
