Spring looms in my part of the world and that means summer will be upon us before you know it. And then fall, and winter, and hopefully the pandemic will actually be over by then.
But I digress.
The reason I’m writing this post is to check in with you about your summer plans.
If you’re currently in academia as a student or professor, you might have some down time… or at least different time coming up.
Many PhDs want to be job searching this summer, so they can be working in a new position by early fall.
Is your career on your mind these days, or do you need it to be soon?
What prompts me to ask you this question is a post I read recently. A current faculty member wondered how they should best use their time this summer, and provided a couple options:
Option 1. Invest in pedagogical training and improving their courses for the upcoming year, to continue to build their non-tenure-track faculty career.
Option 2. Apply for jobs outside academia, which is where they think they want to be anyways.
Both options left them feeling uninspired (and worse).
But I see a third option. And it’s one I think makes the most sense, both in terms of practical utility AND emotional resonance.
Option 3. Focus on what they want in and from their career. Lean into self-reflection and -assessment activities to build clarity about what they actually want, so that they can then figure out which of 1. or 2. makes sense.
Does that make sense?
Think of it this way: You can’t go after what you want unless you know what it is that you want! So start there.
Check out my free online video training to learn more about some of the common missteps PhDs make, and my 4-step PhD career clarity system.
And then, if you’d like to hit the ground running on your job search this summer, I’d love to welcome you into my PhD Career Clarity Program.