Tag: alt-ac

  • Transition Q & As from around the web

    Here are a couple interesting Q & As from Life After the PhD and Inside Higher Ed. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Jessa Chupik, who transitioned from history PhD student to executive recruiter: Many students might be loath to leave the academy because they enjoy certain aspects of the job. How have you…

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  • Transition Q & A: Heather Steel

    Heather Steel earned her MA in history from the University of New Brunswick and spent six years in the PhD program in history at York University. She is now a researcher in the non-profit sector. You left your history PhD program before finishing. Why? In the end, my dissertation and I were not a good…

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  • Transition Q & A: Brad King

    Brad King earned his PhD in history from the University of Toronto. He is a vice president at Lord Cultural Resources, an international museum and cultural planning firm. A tenure-track job at a research institution is often seen as the supposed goal of a post-PhD job search. What was your experience? What did you hope for…

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  • Transition Q & A: Jamie Pratt

    Jamie Pratt received his PhD in philosophy from York University, specializing in ethics. He is now the research officer in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts. A tenure-track job at a research institution is often seen as the goal of a post-PhD job search. What was your experience? What did you hope for in terms of…

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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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  • Transition Q & A: Alexandra Guerson

    Alexandra Guerson earned her PhD in history from the University of Toronto. She’s currently a part-time faculty member at New College, University of Toronto, and occasionally takes up sessional work at U of T’s history department and at York University. Find her online and follow her @aeguerson. A tenure-track job at a research institution is often…

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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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  • Scholarship and life

    Scholars are almost always academics. We assign the designation to professors and researchers with university posts who get paid to research and publish. The term “independent scholar” only proves this: The qualifier is necessary because “scholar” by itself implies an academic position. I think this is why I’ve been uneasy about my desire to continue…

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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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