The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

Academic Job Search

52 Career Actions: Week 20: Practice Telling Your Research Story for Non Academic Audiences

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Whether you stay in academia or you leave, you will need to master the art of explaining your research in accessible ways. In academia, you will need it for students mostly, and also folks from far outside your discipline. Outside academia, you need … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 20: Practice Telling Your Research Story for Non Academic Audiences

52 Career Actions: Week 18: Prepare a Writing Sample Portfolio

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to the 52 Career Actions series. I hope you had a good summer! I took time off to write the bulk of my new book, The Professor Is Out: The Essential Guide to Leaving Academia. I did get a few chapters done! But I did not … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 18: Prepare a Writing Sample Portfolio

52 Career Actions: Week 15: Write a tailored cover letter for a dream position.

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I'm doing a new thing from this week! I'm adding in a regular post about ACADEMIC career actions. I'm doing this because it's June and folks are looking ahead to their Fall academic job search, which starts in August. Of course academia is in an … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 15: Write a tailored cover letter for a dream position.

52 Week Career Actions: Week 10: Ask 3 Mentors for Feedback on Your Career Direction

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Week 10: Ask 3 Mentors for Feedback on Your Career Direction Some fun pics of our new Outliers Books in Eugene!  We've been open 3 weeks and it's going really well, although hugely steep learning curve for Kel (the main person). But our community … [Read more...] about 52 Week Career Actions: Week 10: Ask 3 Mentors for Feedback on Your Career Direction

Interview with Margaret Price Part 1 – No Illusions

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One of my primary goals in the revised edition of The Professor Is In was to make its advice responsive to diverse identities around race, sexuality, class, and above all, disability. To that end, I read deeply in disability studies literature, and … [Read more...] about Interview with Margaret Price Part 1 – No Illusions

52 Career Actions: Week 7: Create a Weekly Habits Sheet

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Congratulations on getting this far! At this point in the series you have already done several things that most PhDs skip when they are thinking about career transitions. You named the career you are trying to build. You audited where your … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 7: Create a Weekly Habits Sheet

52 Career Actions: Week 4: Define Your Lane (with Criteria, Not Fantasy)

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Define Your Lane (with Criteria, Not Fantasy) We continue with 52 weeks of focusing on what you can control! By now you have done three things: You clarified your career values. You audited where your time actually goes. You wrote a professional … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 4: Define Your Lane (with Criteria, Not Fantasy)

52 Career Actions: Week 3: Write a Short Professional Bio That Is Not Academic Jargon

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Week 3: Write a Short Professional Bio That Is Not Academic Jargon Let’s get something out of the way immediately: If you cannot explain who you are and what you do in plain language, you do not control your professional narrative. Someone else … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 3: Write a Short Professional Bio That Is Not Academic Jargon

52 Career Actions: Week 1: First Step: Clarify Your Career Values

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First Step: Clarify Your Career Values  (Yes, Before You Do Anything Else) Before CV and resumes. Before applications. Before networking. Before “should I leave academia?” You clarify your career values. Not your passions. Not your … [Read more...] about 52 Career Actions: Week 1: First Step: Clarify Your Career Values