2021 Updates
Academic Hiring Has Imploded Due to COVID-19
We are offering help with your job search and post-ac transition, and reducing rates across the board to be accessible to as many as possible.
#BlackLivesMatter
Since 2017, our publicly posted company policy has been to support Black and Indigenous women in the academy. Contact us for reduced rates.
Are You Tired of the Academic Run-Around?
…an Advisor Who’s Never In, a Grad Program That Doesn’t Care, Funding That’s Never Enough, a Job Market That’s in The Tank, and a Tenure System That’s a Total Mystery—And No One to Give You an Honest Answer
I am here to help. I am Karen L. Kelsky, Ph.D.. I spent 15 years as an R1 tenured professor, department head, and university advisor, and almost ten years as an academic career coach. I tell you the truth: the truth about grad school, the job market, and tenure. To the best of my ability.
On the ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ Blog (see the categories to the right), I offer the hands-on information you need now to get through the hoops of academia.
I also work with you, one-on-one, with complete confidentiality, on the writing, speaking, and interview skills you need to move closer to your professional goals. I focus on your particular strengths and challenges, and outline the steps you need to take to be successful in each of your specific applications and projects. Together we chart a path to make you competitive. I can’t guarantee a particular outcome, but I can guarantee that I will deliver to you, to the best of my ability, bullshit-free advising on your grants, writing, the job market, and tenure, as well as coaching on professional and career dilemmas.
I am the available and career-savvy adviser you need, that you should already have, but probably don’t.
Interested? Learn more about why to trust me and get in touch.
Testimonials
Recent Posts
#Dispatches: COVID Impact Statements
#Dispatches From the Frontlines series crowdsources questions to get a broad survey of how the academic community is coping with various challenges. This week’s question
The Lone Medievalist – BIPOC Scholar Guest Post
[We continue to welcome #BLM and BIPOC guest posts. We pay $150 for accepted posts. 1000 words ballpark; profanity welcome. Art/poetry also welcome. Please send
Business as Usual: Shady Practices in the Recruitment of Black Women in Higher Education – #BLM Guest Post
Karen Flynn is an Associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and the Department of African American Studies Program at the University
If you’ve been wondering how to bring some semblance of productivity back to your life, this episode is for you. Karen and Kel introduce Kel’s Unstuck: The Art of Productivity, a 12-module program that combines daily emails, coaching videos, awareness exercises like time-maps, and writing techniques, as well as a community support page, to help you discover what is blocking you from getting your writing (and submitting) done, and learn how to overcome it. And at the end, we give you a way to get a major (and shareable!) discount to join the new May cohort. We talk through the three pillars of the program – telling the truth, realistic expectations, and small measurable goals — and why and how they work to interrupt self-defeating habits, and help you recover a writing life, all with evenings and weekends free. Unstuck is about getting your writing done, and it’s about reclaiming your confidence and trust in yourself and your work.
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