INDIVIDUAL COACHING IS AVAILABLE WITH COACHES ADRIENNE POSNER AND DR. KAREN KELSKY
WE WANT TO HELP.
WE ARE OFFERING DISCOUNTS ON SERVICES WHERE NEEDED.
Dr. Karen Kelsky
Dr. Karen Kelsky is the Founder and CEO of The Professor Is In and more recently, The Professor Is Out. A former tenured professor and department head, she left academia in 2010 and has been running small businesses ever since. She viscerally understands the emotional and psychological trauma associated with leaving academia at any stage (especially for those who were tenure track or tenured), and has been speaking nationally and internationally, as well as writing and coaching on leaving academia for over ten years. As she writes: “My own post-academic transition was one of the most brutal, but ultimately most gratifying things I’ve ever accomplished. I want to support others as they set out on this path. It really is OK to Quit.”
Karen’s Coaching Philosophy
I occupy an odd location, outside of academia after a long, successful and relatively happy career inside of it, and continuing through my Professor Is In/Out business to think, talk, and write about academia – and engage with academics at every level – every day. My coaching focuses first on the emotional and psychological struggles of the transition: the feelings of failure, fear, anxiety, depression, inadequacy, guilt, and anger experienced by every academic, it seems, as they contemplate leaving the academia career, to move through them to confidence, autonomy, and joy. And secondly on the translation work necessary to convert the multitude of skills gained in academic career -however long or short- to speak to non-academic jobs. I offer hour long consultations about big picture concerns and anxieties, as well as targeted discussions of your resume and cover letter in the context of specific job goals and applications. Note: I do not edit non-academic resumes and cover letters. What I do is help you identify the skills needed for your new job search, recognize where you already have them in your background, and then assist with the translation work of making them comprehensible to industry, non-profit, or government hiring managers.
Adrienne Posner
Adrienne Posner is a Senior Program Manager at Google, where she has held a variety of roles, from tech writer to strategy and operations to communications manager to DEI programs manager. Adrienne received her BA in Art History from UC Santa Cruz, completed a fellowship in Critical Theory at the Whitney Museum, and then took a detour into the non-profit sector, working for a time for a political action committee. Returning to school, she received an MA in Art History from UCLA and then applied to the Comparative Literature program at UCLA where she received a second MA, advanced to candidacy, and got halfway through a dissertation before deciding to leave the academy altogether.
Adrienne has been a post-ac coach for many years now, and has helped over 300 people at all stages of their careers (from grad students to NTT faculty to full TT professors) find meaningful and sustainable work in a wide variety of roles across multiple sectors outside the academy.