Interview with Jen Harrison, dissertation coach and owner of Read.Write.Perfect.
I met Jen Harrison a few weeks ago and we had a great conversation about the challenges dissertators face.
One of the topics that came up was how folks can better leverage their dissertations (specifically) as career preparation. I asked Jen if she’d be willing to write up a few of her thoughts on this. This post is the result.
Jen Polk: Let me come right out and ask the question: Is doing a doctoral dissertation good career preparation?
Jen Harrison: The quick answer is yes, but not necessarily in the way you think.
Jen Polk: Yes! Exactly. Tell us more.
Jen Harrison: If you ask your supervisor or institution, chances are you’ll get one of two responses. The most common is, “just focus on getting your degree and the rest will work itself out.”
Well… yes, you do need to focus on your degree. BUT, it is by no means guaranteed that the rest will work itself out. Careers rarely just turn up: you have to work hard to build a successful one.
The other typical academic narrative is that your dissertation is itself proof of all the awesome things you can do, and will be enough to set you on a great career path.
Jen Polk: Yeah, these are really common and drive me up the wall!
Jen Harrison: Theoretically, you do need a wide range of skills—from time management to research, writing, and organizational skills—to successfully complete a graduate degree. However, the dissertation alone is not great proof of this, and employers know it. What if you had a lot of help? What if you were a mental wreck during your degree?
Let’s be realistic: no employer or potential client is going to look up and read your dissertation to find out if you have project management skills.
Jen Polk: Totally, Jen. This is just not a thing! So how can a dissertation help someone launch their career?
Jen Harrison: It’s all about networking. During your dissertation, you will meet a wide variety of people—from the study subjects who participate in your research, to the industry experts you consult and the professors and peers who work in your field and critique your work.
The connections you make and maintain during your dissertation are invaluable for launching your next career. These are the people who will be or will know your first client, employer, or colleague. Through them, you can find out where opportunities exist, what is happening in your chosen field, and what career paths work (or don’t work).
Use your dissertation experience as a springboard: be curious, be connected, and be active about getting involved. Do these things, and one thing will inevitably lead to another.
Jen Polk: What about the common objection that focusing on career cheapens what you’re doing, or that it gets in the way of doing “pure” scholarship? (Barf.)
Jen Harrison: Pure scholarship is often touted as the ideal in academia, but the reality is that it is neither practical nor valuable. The pursuit of knowledge, at its best, is about engagement with the world. In other words, your research is valuable because of what it (and you) brings to the real world—the world of industry, communities, and individuals.
You chose to do a graduate degree because you felt passionate about some aspect of your topic. Hone in on that passion. What is its root in the world? What good can you do with it? The answer to these questions gives you your first inkling of what your career wants to be.
Jen Polk: I love the roots metaphor for doing this work. I have my clients reflect on their values, strengths, and all that good stuff. These are the roots (metaphorically speaking) of who you are, what you’re great at, and what you want to do.
Who can a graduate student approach for help and what does that help look like?
Jen Harrison: If you want to think about your degree and dissertation as a career springboard, look to the people in your field you look up to.
Ideally, you want people who can mentor you and provide guidance about moving from where you are to where you want to be. These might be professors, but they may equally be industry experts, study participants who love your work, or community leaders who see value in your research.
Equally, it can be immensely valuable to put your trust in someone like a career coach, someone with a professional perspective on identifying and exploiting career opportunities.
Jen Polk: Yes! So obviously, I agree! It’s great when students can identify the career paths they most want to pursue—and update their plans as time goes by so they remain relevant to their changing needs, priorities, and goals. They can then adjust the focus of their work or the kinds of activities they put energy into. This ensures everything’s aligned, more or less.
Jen Harrison: Right. So let’s imagine a hypothetical student named Beth. Beth has worked for several years as a classroom teacher and is now completing a doctoral degree in education. She knows she does not want to stay in teaching. She’s researching the challenges that female teachers face in securing promotion.
How can she use her degree to find her new career?
First, she can think about what she’d like to do next. Does she want to work for herself, for example, or does she want to pivot to new employment in a different sector or at a higher tier? Let’s imagine she wants to work for herself.
Jen Polk: I love it already! Self-employment is a strong option for PhDs.
Jen Harrison: In choosing her dissertation topic, Bath has already identified a real world problem that causes hardship to real people every day. As she completes her literature review, she is slowly becoming an expert on the whys and hows of that problem. As she collects her data, she is also meeting a range of people who are impacted by this problem. This includes teachers, administrators, local government officials, and so on.
Beth’s expert knowledge gives her credibility with these people. Her research also gives her insight into what they think, feel, need, and want. It also gives her a viable platform from which to talk with these people about how she would solve their problem.
With her PhD in hand, Beth is in a prime position to launch her own consulting business. For example, she can offer her services directly to school administrations tasked with increasing their diversity and representativeness. Her first clients could be schools she’s already worked with in her research. These are the ones who know her, trust her, and already like her ideas (since they helped her develop them).
Jen Polk: What’s different about this strategy vs. doing a dissertation as simply part of PhD completion?
Jen Harrison: The main thing to bear in mind is that to successfully use your dissertation in this way, you need to plan ahead. Ideally, you want to choose a topic, study design, and maybe even institution that will support your future goals.
Do some research. If you plan to work for yourself, what is hot in the market? What sells well, and where is the market already saturated? What are clients/customers looking for, and how can your topic and approach convince them that you can help? If you plan to be an employee, find out what employers are interested in. What sort of research do they already pay for? Where are they seeking to change or grow?
As you design your study, you can then use this research strategically. Make yourself an expert in high-demand areas of knowledge. Choose data collection methods that connect you with the right people and provide you with relevant problem-solving opportunities.
In other words, plan waaaaaaaaay ahead.
Jen Polk: Thank you, Jen!
Dr. Jen Harrison is a highly experienced dissertation coach. A PhD herself, she has coached and supervised first-generation, ESL, and non-traditional students in the UK and USA for more than 10 years. Many of them have achieved first-class degrees.
Dr. Harrison offers support in writing, research design, motivation, and research methods. She specializes in helping you achieve your dissertation and career goals quickly and easily, so you can feel confident and supported moving forward. Learn more about her services on her website, reach out via email, and follow her on Twitter @perfect_write.