Month: December 2012
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Self-employment
I’ve been thinking about my post-academic career for many months now. What exactly lies ahead isn’t yet clear, but I’m pretty sure of one thing: I want to be self-employed. I am already, really—taking a break right now—but I haven’t been making it work for me. For most of this year I was giving freelancing…
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“What are you up to?”
Now that I’m done my PhD, friends and acquaintances often ask me what I’m up to. “What are you doing these days?” It’s a standard question, akin to “What do you do?” But for a long time I didn’t have a good answer. Unemployed wasn’t right and doesn’t seem appropriate now, even though I don’t have…
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Starting fresh
On Monday I quit my main freelance client, an independent consultant who does interesting work and from whom I’ve learned a great deal. Although I wasn’t doing much work for him just then, I knew things were going to get busy and I wanted to make my move before they did. I don’t necessarily consider…
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Welcome
I defended and finished my dissertation in February 2012, graduated in June, and now we’re in December. It’s been six month since I received my PhD, and I’m still not sure what I want to do with my life. And that’s ok. I wish the transition process was faster, but you can’t hurry progress. And…