These students are hungry for impact, in pursuit of knowledge seven days a week.
Cabinet vision for dummies full#
These are the top minds in our society, remarkable intellects, and they’re full of leadership abilities. The answer isn’t resumes–at least, not at first. I’ve come up with a theory after observing my own life and talking to PhDs. We’re still struggling to brand non-academic life as anything other than a consolation prize for people who didn’t get tenure-track jobs. We’re now talking about career supports like Work Integrated Learning (that’s a placement for those paying attention), turning a CV into a resume, and working on your transferable skills.Īll noble tasks and important pieces of the career puzzle.īut we’re still not getting PhDs excited about life beyond the walls of academia. Obviously, they’ve seen the writing on the wall. Institutions are rightly rushing to support PhD career transitions. You can read my story about leaving academia in Doctoring: Building a Life With a PhD–Available on Amazon.īuilding the boat while it’s in the water
We only promote products we’ve used and love. This post may contain links to affiliate products, which–if you choose to purchase–pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Likewise, I think it’s hard to make the academy realize how high its PhD graduates might soar, especially given a bit of encouragement and preparation. And I don’t think it’s fully possible to make them understand how good it can be out here.
I look back at the academy, and I talk to PhD graduates every day. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that I could do cool stuff with my PhD? The fear gave way to excitement about the possibilities as I built my network and eventually landed that first job.Īnd that excitement gave way to frustration. I then went and worked for the government on diplomatic files creating new refugee programs.Īs I stepped out of academia, I was terrified I’d never be able to use my religious studies PhD. I jumped into a world of running huge projects, generating funding, writing reports, and connecting with interesting people. I was fresh out of my PhD and desperately hoping they’d take a chance on me and hire me. A little over two years ago, I sat in the lobby of a think tank in a badly-fitting suit.