Options for Success is a career discovery course and mentorship program to help you advance or pivot your career and secure your next professional opportunity.
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Developed by Beyond the Tenure Track Founder and 2x author, Dr. Fatimah Williams.
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Open for Enrollment
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Where you've seen Beyond the Tenure Track
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Are you ready to improve your career outlook, but aren’t sure how to get started?
Do you feel maxed out in your current role -- things are fine, but deep down you know it's time for a change?
Are you done with piecing together scattered job search information from Google, your best friends, and quick workshops and networking events?
Would you job search benefit from accountability in a supportive community and advice from an experienced executive coach?
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Join Options for Success to jumpstart your
job search or career change.
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What to expect from Options for Success:
Key Outcomes
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Assess Strengths and Skills
Identify and Explore New Career Opportunities
Market Talents and Skills
Establish and Strengthen Professional Networks
Manage the Job Search Process
Maximize Existing Network and Resources
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Career Transition Support in 6 Modules & Twice Monthly Office Hours for a Full Year!
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Dynamic Video & Audio Lessons, Implementation Worksheets, and Community Accountability to Help You Take Consistent Action
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1
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Welcome: Make Time & Space to Start
Set personal goals for taking this program. Create a schedule completing modules and assignments.
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2
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Envision:
Reimagine career and life possibilities anew.
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3
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Discover:
Learn about top career fields for job candidates with advanced degrees.
Determine the industries and organizational cultures that best match your skills and interests.
Identify 2-3 viable professional careers for deeper exploration.
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4
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Assess:
Identify transferable skills and experiences.
Develop an asset-based career narrative to market your academic skills to employers. Identify areas of professional skills development.
Create a professional resumé that highlights your top skills and unique contributions.
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5
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Connect:
Sharpen networking and interviewing skills. Use scripts provided to conduct effective informational interviews. Learn to establish and cultivate professional relationships online and in person.
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6
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Explore:
Gain exposure to new organizations and career fields. Learn to evaluate potential career paths to find the right fit for you.
Develop a plan to gain relevant professional experience to enhance your professional network and job skills.
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New Features Coming Soon
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We’re in this together
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I participate regularly in virtual professional development and mentoring programs. In my experience, the best programs are those that connect me with other members and places to share my progress and ask questions.
I’ve designed Options for Success Program to do the same for you. The program offers the following bonus features:
Mentor Office Hours
When your career discovery and job search ramps up, you will have questions. Get your questions answered in monthly Office Hours with executive coach and O4S creator Dr. Fatimah Williams.
Group Forum
Meet other program members, likeminded high achieving professionals like you. Discuss your progress, share strategies, and provide accountability for each other.
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A Few Options for Success
Alumni Success Stories
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Arika Easley-Houser, Ph.D.
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Ph.D. History, Rutgers University
AFTER O4S:
Faculty and Administrator
Rutgers Preparatory School
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“O4S helped me streamline my process for applying to particular positions”
Options for Success is a wonderful program which helped me streamline my process for applying to particular positions that fit my interests. I was able to secure a teaching position at an independent school by expanding my network and receiving encouragement from other participants.
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Hilary Pritchard
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Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
AFTER O4S:
Data Scientist
Comcast Corporate Headquarters
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“No idea how to start looking or what my value might be”
I came to Fatimah disillusioned with academia after five years in a Ph.D. program, with no idea how to start looking for other career paths. I wondered what my value might be, and was stuck not knowing how to approach an industry job search. In the first session, we covered networking - from there we worked on everything from identifying my values and strengths to how to approach an interview and how to negotiate a job offer. Fatimah’s negotiation advice netted me a $3k salary gain on top of an already comfy offer.
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Aisha Rousseau, Ph.D.
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Tenure-track faculty, Disability and Psychoeducational Studies
AFTER O4S:
AFTER O4S:
Director
City & County Government
Colorado
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“I knew I could find a better path, but I didn’t know how.”
I had made a decision to leave my current academic institution as a tenure-track assistant professor and had been applying to several jobs. When I reached out to Fatimah, I found myself at a crossroads about the best opportunity I should pursue that would allow me to utilize my skills and have job satisfaction. What I most appreciated about the work with Fatimah was that she understood the internal challenges of choosing to leave academia. These were things that I really had no outlet to work through as others thought it was incredulous to leave academia or they were dealing with the same apprehensions themselves. I knew I could find a better path for my life outside of academia but I wasn't sure how to navigate that.
While it was a hard decision, Fatimah helped me make an informed decision and it was one of the best decisions I could have made for my family and me. Working with the program, I felt more confident in identifying and contacting my personal and professional network. I left a toxic environment to a very satisfying and fulfilling one. I received a job offer with a pay raise.
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Administrator’s Praise for Options for Success
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Mary Hawkesworth, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies
Rutgers University
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In spring 2015, I began planning an experimental online graduate course, Feminist Futures: Diverse Intellectual Careers and Entrepreneurial Leadership for doctoral students in the field of women’s and gender studies. To explore individual alternatives to traditional academic careers, I turned to Dr. Fatimah Williams. From our very first meeting, she offered outstanding advice about how to enable graduate students to think constructively about their career options and develop their capacities as well as requisite materials for successful job searches.
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Working with advanced Ph.D. students at six universities in two nations, Dr. Williams did a superb job familiarizing students with diverse employment opportunities within and beyond academia; assisting them to identify professional fields of particular interest; cultivating their ability to analyze and market their talents and skills; helping them prepare materials for a particular job search; and perfecting their interview and negotiating skills. Her knowledge and generosity of time and expertise equipped the students to undertake the challenges of professional placement. Indeed, two of the class participants secured job interviews for coveted positions while the course was still underway. All those involved with the online course have only the highest praise for Dr. Williams’s talents. We would recommend her professional guidance to all who are thinking seriously about their professional careers.
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Fatimah Williams, Ph.D.
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is the Founder of Beyond the Tenure Track and two-time author of Be Bold: Launch Your Job Search or Career Change with Confidence and the Professional Pathways Planner.
Her professional development guidance has been featured in Essence magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Scientific American, University Affairs, and numerous podcasts.
She has been an invited speaker at leading national conferences such as the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools and the AAU’s Association of Graduation Schools. Dr. Williams is a member of the University of Virginia Alumni Association Board of Managers.
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FAQs: Options for Success
1. Do you think Options for Success is appropriate for me. I am unsure as to whether or not I should leave academia. I have a secure position and I like a lot of what my job entails. That being said, I get very frustrated at the way my job has so much power over my career/life and I don’t see that system as changing.
I am a big fan of making informed decisions, especially about ones as important as your livelihood! Before making a decision about leaving or staying in academia, it is best to first gather information about how your interests, goals and work environment needs have changed. Options for Success is a safe space and guided program to help you consider what your professional needs are at this stage of your life and career; to assess what you want in your work; and to create a strategy to pursue the role you want.
It may be just the program to provide expert mentorship and help you create time and space to consider what you need next -- whether that's in your current organization, current role or a new one.
The modules in Options for Success help you get career clarity and strategy without forcing you to make a decision about whether to stay or go.
2. I am enrolled in a PhD program but my defense date isn't for several months. Is it too early to take Options for Success?
A number of Options for Success Alumni took the program and received career coaching within 1-2 years of graduation. I believe their job placement was so successful and timely because they tapped into the program to help them determine their career direction, build their professional network, and cultivate their job skills well before they needed employment.
Starting before they were absolutely desperate for a job gave them time for exploring their options without pressure to decide right away. They were able to conduct a thorough job research, reintroduce themselves to their existing professional networks, take advantage of campus and external career resources, gain rapport with new professional contacts, participate in internships, practice-based fellowships and bootcamps, and even take breaks along the way.
Such career-boosting opportunities will surely pass you by --and the pressure really heats up-- if you wait until graduation to explore your options.
3. I'm wondering if you have any former participants like me, __________ (insert your discipline) PhDs who have gone on to non-professoriate jobs.
Program alumni have come from various disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, life sciences, engineering, education and public health. The program provides the foundations, strategies, accountability and mentorship for career exploration for masters and PhDs.
It takes a holistic approach to career discovery. Your discipline is just one component among many more that job seekers tend to overlook and undervalue. Ironically, it's the total package -- not just your disciplinary background -- that will open the doors to your next opportunity.
Options for Success invites you have a more productive search by helping you consider your skills, experience and interest alongside an awareness of careers that people with your educational background tend to experience success.
4. I wanted to know a bit more about the pace or flow of things during the course. I understand the framework. However, I wonder if we will work individually, have deadlines for assignments, or times where we meet online as a group.
Options for Success provides a hybrid learning environment for greatest flexibility without compromising accountability. Participants can access modules on demand at your own pace and take join twice monthly live Office Hours.
Each module includes audio and video lessons and implementation worksheets. Each audio/video lesson is about 20-40 minutes.
Office Hours with Dr. Fatimah Williams and/or a Guest Mentor are held monthly. Join any or all Office Hours to get your questions answered in real time. Office Hours dates will be provided to you upon registration so you can add them to your calendar right away. Sessions recordings are available in case you've submitted a question but could not attend in person.
5. I selected the payment plan. When will I receive access to the modules?
Modules 1 & 2 will be released with your first payment. One module will be released with each of the three remaining payments.
6. What do I do if I want to meet one-on-one with Dr. Fatimah Williams?
Come to Office Hours! One-on-one coaching sessions are not included in this program but may be purchased at a special rate for program members.
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JOIN NOW
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All sales are nonrefundable and nontransferable.
What you get when signing up: 1 year access to 6 modules compromising audio lessons, video lessons, and worksheets; and monthly live or recorded Office Hours.