FAQ: How do I get a job doing what I love?

2018-10-02T02:29:29+00:00January 6th, 2014|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

I've been compiling a list of FAQs that I receive from graduate students and PhDs so that I can share insights with you. I'll occasionally post these FAQs and my responses in an effort to show that you're not the only one asking real, practical questions about nonacademic careers and to help you think through your career journey. This FAQ is from a client consultation I did via email with a prospective graduate student in filmmaking, who has a background in Anthropology and Digital Media.  CLIENT FAQ: "I'm mostly looking for mentorship and guidance with some issues I'm struggling with in terms of my future professional pursuits. I know that I am not satisfied with the reality of pursuing filmmaking in isolation of my passion for community outreach and organizing, academia, writing and minority advocacy. However, I am stuck in discovering a way to integrate [...]

Job security outside of academia?

2018-10-02T02:29:29+00:00December 30th, 2013|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

As I present to PhDs on college campuses and conferences, graduate students express their concern about the lack of job security in nonacademic careers.  The academic career path comes with a sense of job security because job options are clearly set. You either get a postdoc fellowship, visiting professorship, lecturer position, research position, tenure track job, or the dreaded adjunct or contingent position (but that's another topic for another day). Take note of the ratio of temporary to long-term positions among these options.  Perhaps what PhDs are really saying is that academic careers come with a high level of job predictability, rather than job security. Nonacademic careers are the vast unknown for many graduate students who may not have spent much time in career planning, career exploration or out-of-classroom/department/university experiences.  When beginning to look at careers outside the academy, PhD career changers tend [...]

What’s the Role of Faculty in PhDs Nonacademic Career Search?

2018-10-02T02:29:29+00:00July 31st, 2013|Tags: , , , , |

It's no secret that graduate students are increasingly considering nonacademic careers or at least dual career search paths. The trouble enters when students are unsure about how to launch this search and how to identify their allies and resources that can support them through this transition. We can talk about the role of the graduate school and career services in assisting graduate students in charting this unknown space, but I'll focus on faculty for this post. Faculty members may be supportive of a student's desire to transition to nonacademic careers, yet lack the information or resources to assist the student in charting this new path. Faculty my be ill-equipped to be of much help to their students, but perhaps we're asking too much of faculty members in this regard. By "we" here I mean graduate student mentees, graduate schools, and the countless [...]

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