Here is a truth that many of you will resist: you cannot build a career in isolation. You may feel productive tucked away with your research, your writing, your carefully curated CV, but if no one knows who you are, what you do, or why it matters, your work has no traction in the world that ultimately evaluates it.

This is actually one of the first hard truths of the academic career – grad students have to confront the fact that no matter how “brilliant” their dissertation is, if it’s not published and presented at conferences, it doesn’t “do” anything in the world or in their careers.

But this truth matters much much more when you are seeking to leave academia. Because as we’ve said frequently in these posts, you have a deficit of knowledge about the world “out there,” and just as important, the world has a deficit of knowledge about you!

So, this week’s task is (deceptively) simple: join one professional group online.

If you are transitioning out of academia, this may be:

• A LinkedIn group for UX researchers, policy analysts, or nonprofit program managers
• A Slack community for data science, tech writing, or consulting
• A discipline-adjacent professional association that includes non-academic careers

Choose the group strategically. You are not joining a group because it feels vaguely relevant, you are joining a group that aligns with your actual career trajectory—not your aspirational identity or not your past training, but where you are going next.

Also–here is what this is not: scrolling endlessly through LinkedIn, clicking “like” on posts, or lurking silently in a Slack channel. That is not networking, it’s avoidance dressed up as engagement. This week is about entering a professional space with intention.

Your criterion is simple: Are these people doing jobs I want to understand or access? If the answer is no, move on.

Once you’ve decided which group to join, look at your profile. If your LinkedIn headline still reads like a dissertation abstract, fix it. If your bio is a list of publications with no clear narrative related to goals and impacts in the wider world, then it needs attention. It doesn’t need to be perfect! You’ll redo this regularly as you get your footing in this new context. Just do your best for now. Just make sure you have answered the following questions:  Who are you? What do you do? What are you moving toward? What problems (in the world! Not in an obscure scholarly community) do you work on solving?

People cannot engage with you if they cannot place you.

Then, write a confident introduction; do not be timid or, apologetic, or “I’m just a PhD student hoping to learn.” No hedging. Instead state your expertise, your current focus, what you’re interested in contributing or learning.

For example:

“I’m a historian with a focus on migration and policy, currently transitioning into public sector analysis. I’m particularly interested in data-informed policy design and would love to connect with others working at that intersection.”

This signals seriousness and it tells people how to respond to you.

Your assignment is not complete when you just join, however. It is complete when you participate.

So, although we said the task this week is just to join, it’s actually “join and start participating.” So, please commit to contributing once a week, minimum. That means commenting thoughtfully on a discussion, sharing a relevant resource (with context) or asking a specific, informed question.

What this demonstrates is that you can think in public in a professional space.

The next step is to reach out to someone personally in or from this professional group. Identify one individual in the group whose work resonates with your goals and write to them briefly. The purpose of this is not to look for a job or a favor. Right now, it is to just establish a  connection. Something like:

“I appreciated your comments on X topic in the group. I’m exploring similar questions as I transition into Y field and would value staying in touch.”

The reason I include this career action is that I’ve noticed many of you seem to be waiting for permission to enter non-academic professional communities. You are waiting to feel “ready,” “qualified,”  but that moment does not arrive on its own. Remember that for PhDs “qualified” means completing XX years of graduate school, passing comprehensive exams, completing a PhD, and publishing and present extensively! This is NOT a normal or accurate benchmark for “qualified,” however, in ANY other professional sphere. Your internal standards are skewed! In the rest of the world, you become legible as a professional by participating as one.

This week is about crossing that threshold.

Join one group, show up once,  reach out to one person, and then repeat the behavior next week. Careers are not built on solitary excellence,  they are built on visible, credible presence over time. And, I’d be thrilled if you shared your experiences in comments below!