Online career development resources for Harvard T.H. Chan students
By Emma Anderson, Graduate Career Coordinator in the Office of Career and Professional Development and an MPH student in Nutrition.
Now more than ever, the Office of Career and Professional Development (OCPD) at Harvard Chan is committed to empowering students to build careers that fulfill the greater mission of advancing public health. The career development resources provided by OCPD include individualized career coaching, professional skills development, network building opportunities, and education on various career paths, industries, and employment options. To facilitate access to career development resources in a remote learning environment, the OCPD is leveraging various online platforms, including Canvas, CareerConnect, and Engage.
Through Canvas, all students have access to the ‘Career Toolkit’ – a comprehensive guide developed to help students navigate their career search. To assist students with their individual career search journeys, the Career Toolkit offers resources tailored to four different phases of career development: Reflect, Explore, Develop, and Connect. The ‘Targeted Toolkit Exercises,’ which consist of activities specific to each phase, are meant to aid students in clarifying their desired career path, exploring career options, and developing a strategy for achieving their goals through connecting with employers and building their network.
For a structured and self-guided approach to career development, students can navigate on their own through the Toolkit activities, which consist of short questions set up as quizzes on the Canvas site. Responses to these questions are saved to enable students to reflect on them in the future. These activities can be used exclusively for individual reflection, however, students are always welcome to set up a meeting with a career coach for further discussion during any phase of their career search process.
In addition, the Canvas site provides students with Zoom links for all upcoming OCPD events, as well as recordings and slide decks of past events/workshops for students to review if they were unable to attend at the scheduled time. Students can access these resources online through Canvas and even download their own copy of the Career Toolkit.
The CareerConnect platform enables students to search and apply for a wide range of opportunities including jobs, internships, fellowships, volunteer roles, and potential field practice projects for students in the MPH and DrPH programs. Students are encouraged to upload their resume and set up a profile that details their education, background, and career interests, which is viewable by employers. Through the CareerConnect site, students can seek career advice by scheduling an appointment to meet one-on-one virtually with a career coach, or by chatting live online with a career advisor during drop-in hours through the ‘Chat with an Advisor’ link on the CareerConnect homepage.
Through the Engage platform, students can search and register for OCPD career development events. All Harvard Chan students, alumni, and postdocs are welcome to attend OCPD events, which provide information about employment opportunities in public health fields, helpful perspectives on the job search process, optimal timelines for applying for positions within different industries, and other topics relevant to career development. Additionally, these events facilitate connections between students and a broad range of alumni, employers, faculty, and staff, helping students to expand their networks.
For more information on accessing OCPD resources through these online platforms, please contact careers@hsph.harvard.edu.