Category: Uncategorized
-
Help for Academics Thinking Beyond the Professoriate
I recently had the chance to talk with Daniel Fincke on his Patheos.com blog, “Camels with Hammers,” about the general struggle of finding a postacademic career, and the upcoming Beyond the Professoriate online conference: Working as a professor is most often referred to as being a professor. Your identity becomes wrapped up in what you do. When you…
-
Are you attending my career conference for PhDs?
Registration is now open! Click here. Or learn more about the conference at BeyondProf.com. And here’s who you’ll see on Day 1, Career Day:
-
“What can I do now to get ready for my career after graduate school?”
This is a question I get a lot from people who want to be as prepared as possible for seeking a job inside or outside of academia after the PhD. Remember that you aren’t your degree or your discipline. You are “with a PhD,” not “a PhD.” […] What tasks are you doing when you feel energized,…
-
3 Questions for Job Seekers with a PhD
Job seeking is an easy time to lose touch with yourself and your priorities, especially if you’re just coming off a PhD degree. In a recent essay published on Medium.com, I discuss three questions job seekers can ask themselves to keep a clear, focused vision of the type of job they want. Your own priorities, values,…
-
Beyond the Professoriate – the online career conference for PhDs!
Learn about PhD jobs . . . and how to get them! The 3rd Annual Beyond the Professoriate is a career conference for PhDs. It is hosted entirely online, and welcomes participants from around the globe on two days, Saturday, 7 May, and Saturday, 14 May. New this year is a 21-day replay so attendees…
-
Organizing an Academic Conference? Don’t Forget Twitter
Twitter adds a new dimension to the community and ideas academic conferences generate: If you’ve encouraged tweeting and spread the word about your hashtag, you can expect attendees will be using it. In-person discussions may make their way online, and take on lives of their own. For more insight on incorporating twitter into your next…
-
Taking risks is key to a successful career change
One of the pieces of advice I give people considering their options after a PhD is to take risks. Not big ones, but small ones. One at a time. These risks can take the form of drafting a resumé, just for yourself. Or conducting an informational interview, even with someone you already know. Or perhaps simply…
-
Stalled career search? Don’t give up
I recently spoke with a humanities PhD who’s having difficulty securing meaningful employment. After a one-year stint as a professor soon after he graduated, he’s worked for a private company for the past 18 months. “General office work,” he told me. “This used to be a summer job, and they hired me full-time in part…
-
It’s OK to quit your PhD
My latest post for University Affairs says it’s OK to “quit” — and I put that in parentheses for a good reason. The narrative surrounding not completing a PhD is a negative one: quitting, leaving, failing. But for a great many people, the reality is that they’re moving on because it’s right for them. It’s…
-
It’s OK to quit your PhD
Occasionally I’m asked about quitting, particularly “quitting” a PhD program. This happened several times last week, when I was in Vancouver. Contrary to what you may hear or what your own internal critics tell you, there’s no shame in moving on. I remember a long post on a Versatile PhD forum from “PJ,” an ABD thinking about…