A few weeks ago I discontinued (temporarily, I hope) my skype career consultations, particularly those related to the fraught question of whether or not to leave academia. I discontinued these because I’ve been dealing with a health issue that, while thankfully not serious, has been a wake-up call to me to seek a better and more sustainable work-life balance. Don’t be alarmed! This will have no impact on any of the document related work I am doing or will do for current and future clients, or webinars, or blog posting. It’s just the skype consultations that are being reduced at present.
In any case, after I made that announcement on the TPII Facebook page, Chris Humphrey of the website Jobs On Toast, got in touch to inquire about the clients who had been seeking consulting on the decision to leave academia. That prompted the dialogue that I have reproduced below. I like the Jobs on Toast website and blog, which is dedicated to providing, in Chris’ words, “Positive and practical support for PhD careers outside academia.” Chris gives good advice for Ph.D.s contemplating non-academic careers, and also provides a resource list of other websites to visit. One thing Chris and I have in common is the goal to make the non-academic career less a sign of ‘failure’ than a sign of entrepeneurial spirit. He did it, I did it, and we’re both vastly happier that we did.
Chris Humphrey <chris@jobsontoast.com> | Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 12:26 AM | |
To: Karen Kelskey <gettenure@gmail.com>
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Karen Kelsky <gettenure@gmail.com> | Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 10:14 AM | |
To: Chris Humphrey <chris@jobsontoast.com>
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Chris Humphrey <chris@jobsontoast.com> | Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 12:28 AM | |
To: Karen Kelsky <gettenure@gmail.com>
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Karen Kelsky <gettenure@gmail.com> | Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:55 AM | |
To: Chris Humphrey <chris@jobsontoast.com>
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Chris Humphrey <chris@jobsontoast.com> | Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 12:28 AM | |
To: Karen Kelsky <gettenure@gmail.com>
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The University of Cambridge has an excellent publication for helping new academics understand and tailor their skills, CVs, cover letters, etc for non-academic and academic audiences.
See: http://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/library/cvbook/index.asp
It includes great plain language, blunt advice and a variety real-world examples of documents from Cambridge PhDs successful in getting good academic and non-academic jobs, including a handy table that translates academic terms for skills to “real world” equivalents. Excellent for both understanding how all that time and effort actually taught you an excellent set of transferable skills. However, the book is very difficult to come by as it only directly available to Cambridge students and staff – I only happened across a copy by chance. If there’s any way to can get your hands on a copy, do so!