From PhD to Life

Dear Reader, Here for co-working info? Sign up for the new session starting tomorrow on this page: Co-Working Sessions. I have two reflections for you this morning, both about what gets misunderstood in career change. First, who actually needs support leaving academia. Second, why a stalled job search often looks like a resume problem, even when it isn’t. One of my clients will be a full professor soon; another has been granted tenure. Both are leaving academia in the next few months. This...

Dear Reader, Did you watch any of the NASA livestream on Monday, when the Artemis II astronauts were on their lunar flyby? I had it on for a lot of the day. So exciting. (And, yes, I'll be checking on things as they splashdown today at 8:07pm EDT!) There were a bunch of great moments, including this comment from pilot Victor Glover. Here's what he said to the folks in Houston about his time observing the Moon: I want to emphasize how important the discussion time was. When we start to talk,...

Dear Reader, I spoke with a PhD researcher this week who's applying for roles in and out of academia. You might think I'm going to say that's too scattered, but I didn't get that impression about her job search. She seemed quite focused on her area of expertise, and has been finding open roles and applying for them. She's getting interviews, too. Enough of them that it makes me think her materials are working. At least for academic roles. Because here's the thing (you already know):Jobs in...

Dear Reader, You're doing things. Reading job ads. Tweaking your materials. Applying. But it’s not really working. What would it be like if you were applying and interviewing for roles you were excited about, in places you wanted to live, with employers you felt shared your values (for the most part, anyway)? What if you were getting feedback you could immediately use to improve your targeting, your materials, and the stories you tell in high-stakes conversations? What if you knew you were...

Dear Reader, Can writing on LinkedIn actually help your job search? It’s a question that's on the minds of many of the PhDs I work with. Recently, I attended a workshop led by Julia Gray, PhD, who teaches academics how to write like humans. And I was struck by her approach. Not because I don’t know how to write online. (I started blogging literally twenty years ago, and haven't stopped writing on the internet since then, for better or worse!) But because this is exactly where many of my...

Dear Reader, Here’s a misconception PhDs often have about career coaches: That you’re paying for advice. I get why people think this. And I also get why you wouldn't want to do that, especially if money is tight. I mean, advice is everywhere, and it's not hard to find it. ChatGPT will give you all the advice you could ever want, for free. Your favourite secret Facebook group for academics will also provide you with more advice than you could ever act on. Let’s pause right there, on “act on.”...

Dear Reader, Quick reminder that IMPACT 2026 is tomorrow, and I’ll be leading a short session called Leave Toward Something. In that session, we’ll begin creating what I call a "leaving inventory." When people leave academia, the focus is usually on what isn’t working anymore. Burnout. Mismanagement. Toxic departments. Totally valid. And then they jump straight into job ads, resumes, and applications. Eek. That’s where things go awry. Because you skipped this step: taking stock of what you...

Dear Reader, I was recently a guest on Paulina's Cossette's YouTube channel/podcast. (She teaches academics how to turn themselves into editors and she's awesome.) We talked about how lot of job searching PhDs assume their problem is their resume. Hot take: Your resume might need work, but working on it might be premature. Because if you’re not clear on what you actually want, what you consistently do well, and what kinds of problems you want to solve next, then every document will feel off,...

Dear Reader, In a small-group coaching session, we talked about something that makes a lot of academics uncomfortable, namely, selling ourselves. Someone joked that maybe we need to borrow a bit of "gym-bro energy" from corporate spaces. We laughed. But the discomfort underneath it was real. Academia does teach you to advocate for your work, of course. Just mostly for insiders. You learn how to make a case for your research, and why you should be supported in doing it. You learn how to argue...

Dear Reader, tl;dr: Check out IMPACT 2026 (5 Mar, $49). More below. One of my clients is a long-time tenured professor sorting out her next steps. Recently, she’s been documenting her experiences. She’s reflecting on what she’s done, and in particular on what it's all meant for the people, processes, and products—to put it in more non-academic terms—around her. Recognizing patterns in her career where she felt energized. Where she made a difference. Now, this isn’t a rearranging of her...