Author: Jennifer Polk
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Congratulations to us!
I attended the Canadian Online Publishing Awards ceremony last evening in Toronto, with my University Affairs editor Ashleigh VanHouten. The magazine took home 5 gold wins in the blue division (business-to-business), including best blog or column for From PhD to Life! I don’t know exactly what content the magazine shared when it entered my blog…
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How much I make
Or, as my University Affairs editor put it, “Let’s talk money”! Talking about money can make for an awkward conversation. But money is also a basic fact of life. So, I decided to tell the world how much I make and how I make it. I think it’s helpful for us self-employed folk to talk…
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Kenna Barrett, Director of Development, Transition Q & A
At a talk I once gave a woman in the audience was feeling awkward that she’d have a better shot at going backward in her career than forward. She meant that she could go back to the job she had before doing her doctorate, but wasn’t thrilled about doing that. I totally get that. Here’s…
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Do PhDs really want tenure-track jobs?
Last week the US National Endowment for the Humanities announced a major new funding initiative for career preparation programming for graduate students. In response, professor and higher ed commentator Marc Bousquet argued that there was little need for these programs: “While no one is going to argue against supporting degree holders who search for nonprofessorial employment, there’s little evidence…
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Grad school is part of your career
Last week I participated in an event for engineering graduate students at McMaster University. I was interviewed over Google Hangout by three students. They asked me excellent questions about my career. It was a fun experience, and one that got me thinking. I went “straight through”: high school, BA, MA, PhD. By the time I…
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Paul Hartley, Senior Resident Anthropologist, Transition Q&A
Paul Hartley trained as an ethnomusicologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he is currently a PhD candidate. He worked on music production practices in the Turkish film industry with the help of an IIE Fulbright grant, but now works as Sr. Resident Anthropologist and Head of Human Futures at Idea Couture, a strategic…
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Christine Buske, Head of Outreach, Transition Q&A
What’s an extroverted biology PhD to do? Well, for Christine, the current answer is to work as head of outreach for a software company! About Christine Buske Christine Buske earned her PhD in cell and systems biology from the University of Toronto. She is a recovering academic who spent about ten years in research, studying the effects…
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My new mission: From PhD to Life, the book!
Oh, this is a bit scary! Yup, I’m working on a book. It’s about the emotional transition part of going “from PhD to life,” whatever that means for each person. More about what I’m planning over at University Affairs.
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Pablo Dominguez Andersen, Content Manager, Transition Q&A
I love this story! Pablo did a history PhD and originally aimed at working as a professor. But as he finished his degree he realized he wanted to stay in Berlin, so his options were limited, academic job-wise. He’s ended up in a marvelous, exciting position, pretty unrelated to his dissertation research. About Pablo Dominguez…
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Sara Langworthy, Organizational Consultant, Transition Q&A
About Sara Langworthy Sara Langworthy earned her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Minnesota. She’s currently an educator at University of Minnesota Extension’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium and an organizational consultant and co-founder of The Exchange Loop organizational consulting firm. Sara is the author of Bridging the Relationship Gap: Connecting with Children Facing…