Category: Uncategorized
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Emotional labour and graduate advising
Effective PhD advising necessarily involves emotional and affective labour. The former is when you act to modify your own emotional response; the latter, when the work you do intends to impact emotional responses in others. I’m thinking about all this because my recent post struck a chord with many PhDs. They expressed frustration at the
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Stay tuned…
I started my career as a PhD job search coach back in 2013. Over the years, I’ve worked 1-on-1 with individual clients, including graduate students, tenured professors, and everyone around and in between; organized multiple virtual career conferences, mainly about the non-academic job search; and delivered dozens of presentations and facilitated many in-person and online
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How to know what jobs are really like
Here’s some common advice for folks considering going to graduate school, especially PhD programs: “Talk to the professor’s current and former students.” I suspect you know the rationale behind this advice. It’s so you know what it’s really like to work with an advisor before you enroll. After all, there’s only so much you can
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Don’t limit yourself to jobs for PhDs or your discipline
Yesterday I posted a Twitter poll, and the results are in, with 832 votes. I asked folks who have PhDs or other doctoral degrees whether the jobs they have now specifically require a doctorate. I asked this question because I know that when PhDs are job searching, it’s not uncommon for them to look for
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Should you leave your PhD program?
You can always justify completing a PhD program and earning a doctorate. There are always reasons why that’s a good choice. That doesn’t make it always a good choice for you. You might be better off not finishing your program. Like, sure, we can make a big list of folks who did PhDs and went
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Co-working for community and accountability
I’ve always worked from home — at the desk in my bedroom, at the dining room table, or now in the corner of my apartment that serves as my home office. From a day-to-day labour perspective, the pandemic hit me less hard than it did others. But familiarity with working from home is only part
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PhDTalk podcast interview
Earlier this month I joined Eva Lantsoght and Rico Massa on their podcast. I shared my story and we talked about what graduate students can do to prepare for their careers after graduation, ideas for advisors and universities, and more. Listen to the full episode and read the show notes here.
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Departments can help students by building community
Imagine this: Your academic department hosts weekly or biweekly Zoom meetings. Each time, one former student is celebrated, their career highlighted. A current student or faculty member asks interview questions such as “What’s the most fun part of your work?” “What’s most meaningful about it?” “What would surprise grad student you?” Everyone in the department,
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Your PhD won’t get you a good job (sorry)
One of the key texts for PhDs seeking careers outside academia is called “So What Are You Going to Do With That?” (Amazon affiliate link). I’ve got the third edition on my shelf, and I was re-reading the chapter on resumes and cover letters the other day. The chapter tells the stories of three people
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My grad school application advice
‘tis the season for graduate school application advice. (Fun fact: The advice is often contradictory. “Reach out for prospective advisors because your relationship with your PI is the most important predictor of your success.” “Don’t email professors before applying; we don’t have time to talk to you.” Ugh.) I don’t work with folks on application