I just gathered up a new Spring 2022 Career Outcomes Digest, with updates from both clients and readers. Lots of great updates on interviews, job offers, negotiations, and grants, plus one successful client tenure case! The negotiators make me … [Read more...] about Spring 2022 Career Outcomes Digest
How to Get Grants and Fellowships
Update on My Book: Blurbs, Reviews, and a Promotion
The book inches closer to actually existing in the material world (August 4)! It has gotten some lovely blurbs by amazing people, like this one by the inimitable Rebecca Schuman: “If you would like your academic career to begin in delusion and end … [Read more...] about Update on My Book: Blurbs, Reviews, and a Promotion
Buy My Book!
Love the blog? Now get it in handy book form--only $11.40! Available for pre-order now--comes out August 4! Buy it at all these places! It also makes a great gift for all those struggling grad students in your life! For bulk orders for use … [Read more...] about Buy My Book!
Grad Student Grandiosity
Grad students tend to veer between two extremes: I know nothing and I know everything. The latter position is an over-compensatory response to fear of the former. As you gain experience you find a middle ground of calm confidence. However, at the … [Read more...] about Grad Student Grandiosity
The European Project-Based Postdoc
I've worked with a handful of clients applying to project-based postdocs in Europe. We've had some bumps in the road, as I had to learn the expectations of these postdocs. A successful reader recently gave me a few pointers, which are below. The … [Read more...] about The European Project-Based Postdoc
Two Pet Peeves From the World of Grants
Two pet peeves from the world of grants: A grant proposal must not contain the phrase “I need to,” as in “for my revisions of the manuscript I need to pay closer attention to feminist critiques and read more deeply in the women’s studies … [Read more...] about Two Pet Peeves From the World of Grants
The Big Issue In Your Grant Proposal
In the Foolproof Grant Template I ask for an opening sentence or two that quickly engages the reader on the "big topic" of the research. My clients have a terrible time grasping what that opening should look like. They've been so disciplined through … [Read more...] about The Big Issue In Your Grant Proposal
Why Are There No Elephants? A Common Grant-Writing Error
In recent work on grant applications this year, I’ve finally identified a problem that has bothered me for a long time. People who use the Foolproof Grant Template construct an argument for the urgency of their research by deploying what I call the … [Read more...] about Why Are There No Elephants? A Common Grant-Writing Error
List Addiction, Cont’d: The Dyad
List addiction is an epidemic among academic writers. I have a blog post about the subject (which I knew nothing about prior to my work in TPII), and I refer at least 50% of clients to that blog post at one point or another. What is it with … [Read more...] about List Addiction, Cont’d: The Dyad
Banish These Words
Do not use the words “unique” or “burgeoning” in any of your job documents. They are painfully overused. The first is just trite. The second is over-dramatic. That is all. … [Read more...] about Banish These Words