Career Coaching

Career Coaching is a free, confidential support service for full-time and part-time staff who have been employed in their current position at Penn for at least one year. It provides consultations about career planning, skills, and mobility. Participate in individual coaching sessions, learn to assess your skills and values as they relate to your professional life, see how you can grow in your current job, polish your résumé-writing skills, and establish a career plan.

Make an Appointment

To make an appointment with the Career Coach, complete and submit an online appointment request. (PennKey login required)

Self-Assessments

Self-assessment is the first step in career-development planning. Understanding your abilities, values, and interests helps identify areas where you can contribute and be challenged so you can develop career-growth strategies. As part of your career exploration process you can take two powerful assessments: The Strong Interest Inventory® (Strong) assessment and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment. Both of these tools provide information relating to your career interests, personality, and work environments. Although each assessment is helpful in itself, examining your combined results will expand your understanding of both yourself and your career options. These assessments heighten your self-awareness and provides deeper understanding of your individual strengths and blind spots, including work style and risk-taking orientation and can also help you align your interests with areas of responsibility in your job that reflect those interests.

Individual Coaching Sessions

Make an appointment with a Career Coach to get personal career development assistance in an environment of confidentiality, candor, and encouragement. Topics include: self-assessments and values clarification; goal-setting and action-plan development; professional growth in your current job; managing your internal job search; résumé writing and interviewing skills; and learning opportunities at Penn. The goal is to help you begin building a career plan.

Managing Your Career - Penn Career Navigator

Penn Career Navigator is a strategic new addition to the Learning and Education suite of career planning resources. It provides Penn staff the structure, time and resources to engage in a reflective career focus, so they can plan, goal-set, participate in learning activities, and build relationships.

Through this program, participants will be able to emphasize the employee value proposition as they learn how to:

  • Create a career development plan aligned to specific career goals and organizational opportunities.
  • Build peer and mentor relationships to help sustain personal growth.
  • Gain practical experience through activities applicable to present and future roles at Penn.
  • Increase self-confidence to practically and realistically navigate their own careers.
  • Validate personal value and potential to one’s team and Penn.

The cohorted program includes six half-day sessions, four one-on-one coaching sessions with a dedicated executive career coach, several assessments, and completion of a career portfolio.

Enrollment requires manager or HR Business Partner nomination. Cost: $1,300. For more information contact Learning and Education at 215-898-3400. 

Other Resources

Career development and education/training resources


General career sites