Category: Comment
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Parker Palmer: “I can’t not do it”
Here’s what Parker Palmer, a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, recently said about his post-PhD journey: I did a PhD at Berkeley and then immediately decided that academic life was not for me. So I started working my way towards something else, first as a community organizer and then living for…
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Coach training
I started coach training last week. I’m doing the Foundations course from Mentor Coach, a training program aimed at “helping professionals” and rooted in positive psychology. I first heard of Mentor Coach from Karen Shue, whom I met with for coffee one morning a few months back. She only had good things to say about…
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Tina Seelig’s post-PhD transition
I came across this recently: Soon after earning my PhD in neuroscience, my sights were set on working in a startup biotechnology company. The only problem? I wanted a job in marketing and strategy, not in the lab. This seemed nearly impossible without any relevant experience. The startup companies with whom I interviewed were looking…
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Staying in touch
One of the topics that came up on today’s #femlead Twitter chat was what to do after an informational interview. Amanda Page wondered what comes next. Well, after a thank you email, there isn’t necessarily a next, at least not in my experience. Sometimes, an informational interview serves its purpose and both parties know nothing…
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Marketing the PhD
We know the prevailing attitude within academia tends toward the “tenure-track or bust” end of the acceptable jobs spectrum, but the problem exists on the outside, too. Most of the time, people I’m talking to assume something very similar: that I will become a professor. A while back I was talking with an acquaintance about…
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PhDs and entrepreneurialism
During my doctorate I worked occasionally as a freelance researcher and administrative assistant for a few small consultancies. After I defended, my plan was to continue doing this but on a more consistent basis, in the hopes of growing my client base or workload, and thus make more money. Well, that didn’t work out and…
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Patience in the neutral zone
Early this month was the one-year anniversary of my dissertation defence: 3 February 2012. Thinking about how much time has passed since then can get me down. I’m still not settled into a job or even on a career! Although I’m generally feeling optimistic and am fairly certain good things will come my way, it…
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Manifesto
There’s a big, and growing, problem with academic labour and the job market. What makes it worse is that there hasn’t been an attendant shift in attitudes within the academy about the purpose of a PhD. Although I’m most familiar with the situation in history and the troubles faced by the humanities in general, a…
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CV to resume
It’s a standard exercise advice columns and career centres assign post-PhDs seeking non-academic employment: turn your CV into a resume. Unfortunately, doing so isn’t straightforward. And completing the exercise isn’t necessarily the best way of going about things. Trouble is, one’s academic path is only that. What it leaves out may well be the aspects…
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Wasted talent?
When my time came to be “on the market,” I wasn’t. I never applied for an academic job. This wasn’t so much because I decided not to; rather, the thought of doing so made me cringe. Big time. Luckily, I’d gotten some decent scholarships, lived cheaply, and at the end of my PhD could afford…