PerL Program - Fall 2026

Feedback from Pitt trainees in a pilot study:

About the program:

• "I would recommend this program to others. For the small amount of commitment required, the experience I gained is really invaluable."
• [The most important thing was] seeing what my values, skills, and interests are and being able to explore careers with similar interests, skills and values as me."
• "This program is a good incentive to push you towards doing things for your career. The structure makes it easier to accomplish things in a reasonable timeline." 

About the mini-internship, which is optional:

• "The real experience you gain from a short internship is invaluable and can help you decide whether that career path is something you will find enjoyable day-to-day. Further, the internship can provide extremely useful exposure to terminology, corporate or independent company structure, assignment types, and task flow that advance you as a potential candidate in that field."
• "The most important thing I learned from this experience is what a medical writing career (or perhaps many non-academic careers) look like in the real world. I got to evaluate in real time whether this type of position was something I could find interesting, satisfying, and enjoyable. I got to weigh the positive and negatives of the position and experience what my daily work life would be like."

Feeling uncertain about your career path? Join us in this step-by-step process designed to empower Pitt trainees like you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your career options. In just two months, discover clarity and confidence in your goals, and launch yourself on the path to achieving career success.

By participating in this cohort-based experience, you'll not only find valuable structure but also connect with peers who share your journey. Engage in insightful discussions, explore next steps, and enhance your learning-all within a supportive community. Don't miss this opportunity to unlock your potential and shape your future.

Detailed instructions on this reflective journey await you in Canvas, equipped with defined outputs designed to elevate your results and maximize their impact. 

Step 1: Self-Reflection

As a trainee, you have embarked on a remarkable journey, honing your expertise and pushing the boundaries of knowledge in your field. Now is the time to pause and reflect on the myriad of skills you possess, the values that drive you, and the interests that ignite your curiosity. Embrace this step of self-discovery!

• The first step is to delve deeper into your professional identity. Through thoughtful assessments of your skills, values, and interests, you will unlock the foundational self-knowledge that will guide your future career decisions. Picture yourself exploring a wide landscape of potential paths and then discovering where your unique professional profile aligns with the opportunities available to you. You will identify job families that resonate with your aspirations, and craft a list of insightful questions that will empower you to evaluate potential careers, ensuring they align with your findings and support your personal and professional growth.

Step 2: Career Exploration

Building on your initial insights, you are now on an exciting journey of exploration! Dive into job families and career paths that align with your strengths, values, and interests. Now is the time to explore and research, and even test out simulations of, the job families and/or career paths you'd previously identified.

• The output of this step is a narrowed list of jobs and careers that most significantly match your skills, values, and interests. You can also learn ways of connecting with professionals working in these jobs, what skills are necessary, and find tailored resumes and tip sheets for applying.

Step 3: Career Evaluation

This step will help you dive deeper into the jobs that intrigue you! 

• You will conduct Informational Interviews using step-by-step instructions that are listed in Canvas to learn how well the jobs you were most interested in aligning with your skills, values, and interests. Questions you ask your interviewees include those identified in earlier steps that reflect what's most important to you in a job and career.
• Going through these steps in sequence helps you narrow your focus, as you are guided by personal insights and discoveries from your research. Answers from your interviewees fill in the gaps to provide you with a complete picture of the positions, and will provide you with answers you need to decide what is the ideal next step for you.

Optional Step 4: Mini-Internship

The optional fourth step is to immerse yourself in a one week mini-internship at the organization of your choice. You will provide value to the company with your highly-trained background while gaining experience that will help you transition successfully to the next step in your career.

What is a Mini-Internship?

Whether you call it a mini-internship, an experiential learning opportunity, or any other name, this is intended to be a one-week immersion, with pre-identified activities or responsibilities and outcomes. Gain real-world experience, develop a knowledge of career-specific terminology, learn about the job-specific working environment, and gain translatable skills by stepping into the shoes of your future self! In Canvas, there are manageable steps to help you find this opportunity and outline objectives and outcomes so that the experience is worthwhile. In cohort meetings, we will discuss the process, brainstorm, and help with roadblocks. OACD is also here to assist you in identifying and supporting you through the process.

Examples from the pilot study

• Contract Research Organization: "I really enjoyed this experience. I felt that my communication with the company's CSO and CEO expanded my soft skills for navigating things like interviews. I was able to develop a workflow that benefited the company. I learned more about how contract research organizations function and the type of clients they work with.... Furthermore, I felt that I made really great networking connections that hopefully I will be able to keep in touch with over the coming years as I continue to navigate the early stages of my career."
• Academia: "..this experience was extremely beneficial in helping me decide future career plans and I wish I would have gained more internship experiences earlier in my education... Gaining real world experiences is always better than reading a job description. Therefore, I am thankful for completing this program. Through this program I gained the knowledge for the necessary steps to initiate informational interviews and engage in mini-internships which will help me to continue to explore other career options until I find the perfect fit for me."
• Medical Writing: "I found this experience to be much more than what I initially expected. Completing a mock medical writing assignment was truly helpful in providing experience with something that was more complex than I expected. I feel more prepared for entering a medical writing (or scientific writing) career, having gained a level of familiarity with the language used to describe documents, the flow of the submission and review process and the expectations associated with different types of writing assignments. The immersive task of completing a medical writing assignment has given me much more confidence in how to translate my skills as a researcher to an appropriate medical writing skillset. This mini-internship experience will be highly beneficial for my resume and undoubtedly make me a better candidate for writing positions in the future."

Complete each step on your own and then meet as a cohort for 30 minutes a week to share insights and discuss next steps. The investment of time is minimal and the outcomes are impactful!