For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to write a book. In fact, some of my most vivid memories are attached to writing experiences, including: If you’re curious, to rectify the latter I managed to rejig, cut a chapter, and submit it elsewhere as a journal article… all fiiiiiiine in the end. Anyway… The post Getting a Book Contract: Lessons and Takeaways appeared first on PostGradual: The PhD Careers Blog ..read more

Ah, summer 2024… the summer of the UEFA Euros in Germany, the Paris Olympics, and, most momentously, the end of a pilot project that I’ve been working on for the past year. The goal of our project was to see what we could do, in 12 months, to create more opportunities for our PhD researchers The post Understanding employers beyond academia: tips for PhDs appeared first on PostGradual: The PhD Careers Blog ..read more

Portfolio Career (n.): ‘working style where you combine multiple streams of income—often creating a mix of full or part-time employment, freelancing or working as a consultant.‘ – Caroline Castrillon writing for Forbes. Twice a year for the past seven years I’ve had the treat of spending time with our distance learning PhD researchers from arts & humanities subjects. They come from across the world with rich professional, academic, and personal experiences, often looking to use their PhDs to turn their passions into professional pursuits. Always high on the agenda when I meet this lovely ..read more

“LinkedIn is ‘where the magic is happening,’ because you can start to become known more widely and also get in contact with a lot of people you might never meet in real life.” – Elena Hoffer: Co-Founder and CEO of Alma.Me **This post is a follow up to the June 2023 post focusing specifically on using LinkedIn to explore career options beyond academia** My first chat with Elena Hoffer was late on a Friday afternoon. It had been a long week, I was tired, and I could almost smell the espresso martini* that was going to welcome me into the weekend (*other drinks are available). Five minutes into ..read more

‘Your research skills are by no means limited to a particular subject area. You can – and should – apply research skills to the job search itself.’ – Katina Rogers, Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (p.106) Picture the scene. It’s a Monday afternoon and you’re having lunch/coffee/PhD moral support chats with a pal. You’re preoccupied because you think you’ve found a connection between a couple of texts that could help you to form a pivotal thesis argument, but you can’t work out if this connection has been identified already. Your friend looks up from their coffee/tuna sandwich/Instagram scr ..read more

‘Your research skills are by no means limited to a particular subject area. You can – and should – apply research skills to the job search itself.’ – Katina Rogers, Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (p.106) Picture the scene. It’s a Monday afternoon and you’re having lunch/coffee/PhD moral support chats with a pal. You’re preoccupied because you think you’ve found a connection between a couple of texts that could help you to form a pivotal thesis argument, but you can’t work out if this connection has been identified already. Your friend looks up from their coffee/tuna sandwich/Instagram scr ..read more

In my experience, I’ve only been able to reflect that I’ve got a certain skill once I’ve used it in a different environment.’ – Katrina Roberts SPERM BIOLOGY! Did that distract you?! Well, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about distractions… more specifically, about the things we might feel guilty about giving time to during our PhD because people (supervisors, peers, even ourselves) consider them a ‘distraction.’ One of my big PhD ‘distractions’ – that I loved, but sometimes gave myself a hard time for because I felt like I should’ve been writing/ publishing/ doing other things instead – wa ..read more

‘You don’t realise the value of (and the extent to which you have) these skills as a humanities PhD, until you’re in an environment when not everyone has them.‘ – Cat Quine: career changer from academia to tech You know how career guidance appointments rarely go? ‘So, you’re looking to leave your lectureship in Biblical Studies? In that case, you should definitely move to working for a software company that supports highly regulated industries…! But that’s exactly the route that Cat Quine took when, three and a half years into a permanent lectureship, she took the leap to leave academia for ..read more

‘The most compelling common denominator among people who have adopted the “alt-academic” moniker is that they tend to […] incorporate scholarly methods into the way that work is done. They engage in work with the same intellectual curiosity that fuelled the desire to go to graduate school in the first place.” – Katina L. Rogers, Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (2020: 13) If we’re going to have a competition for a winner in the ‘most-commonly-asked-PhD-careers-question-in-Holly’s-guidance-practice’ category… this question about the possibility of ‘coming back’ after ‘leaving’ academia would ..read more

“CVs are not just passive records of things that you happen to do. […] The [academic] CV is a document that you grow with intention and deliberate effort” – Karen Kelsky: The Professor Is In (2016), p.94 This post originally appeared on ‘The PhD Place’ (17th June 2023). Over the past 6 years in my role as Careers Adviser for Postgraduate Researchers, it’s safe to say that I’ve checked my fair share of CVs. That’s why The PhD Place invited me to put together 5 key tips to help avoid the most common academic CV mistakes that I come across day-to ..read more