Jessica Langer

Jessica Langer holds a PhD in English and is CEO of ideas in flight, a social media and digital marketing agency that specializes in strategy, training and implementation for SMEs. A veteran marketer with a decade’s experience in the field and a seasoned lecturer who’s been teaching since 2006, Jessica currently runs her business full-time and teaches in the Department of Marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University and in the McMaster-Syracuse Master of Communications Management program. She is also devoted to helping her PhD-holding peers find paths out of academia and into fulfilling, sustaining work in the ‘outside world’.  Check out some excellent post-ac content on the ideas in flight site above, and find Jessica on Twitter at @DrJessicaLanger

Jessica’s planned posts are:

1. From English Ph.D. to Digital Marketing Entrepreneur
2. The Personal Psychology of Leaving Academia
3. Setting Up Your Own Post-Ac Business: The Nuts and Bolts
4. How To Make Adjunct Teaching Work For You, Post-Ac
5. What Is The Post in Post-Ac?

Sarita Jackson

Sarita D. Jackson, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of the Global Research Institute of International Trade, which she founded in July 2013. GRIIT is a think-tank/consulting firm whose purpose is to analyze the opportunities and costs of free trade agreements and simplify the rules within these agreements so that businesses can take advantage of global market opportunities to increase their profits.  Previously, Dr. Jackson was a tenured associate professor of political science at North Carolina A&T State University from 2007 to 2013.  She was awarded the Fulbright Scholar/Lecture Award to the Dominican Republic. In addition, Dr. Jackson worked as a trade policy consultant for the Arlington-based firm The Services Group, Inc. from 2005-2006.  Dr. Jackson earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Brown University. You can find her at her LinkedIn page and on Twitter at @IntlTradExaminr.

1. Make Yourself Marketable Now!

What you can do as a graduate student to make yourself marketable beyond academia so that you will already have the skills, which translate into options, when you need them.

2. Notes from a Recovering Academic: Expanding beyond the academic mindset

What “research” means to consultants and the business community. This post emphasizes  being able to also think beyond just the academic mindset.

3. How Academia Translates Into Entrepreneurship

Translating the skills that academics have from teaching, research and securing grant money into an entrepreneurial role. Explains how these skills apply to running a business.

4. Identifying a Need: Finding the practical value in your work

Explains how one can turn theoretical work into practical use and the right types of people to work with to help you sell your message.

5. You Are the Search Committee

How you can take control of your career and where to look to connect with the right people (mentors and sponsors) for the requirements for both consulting and entrepreneurship.

6. Finally, It is Not About You!

Focus on crafting a message that resonates with the business community and highlights your value.  Touches on the big mistake that many academics make when marketing themselves— giving a laundry list of degrees, publications, and research topics.