From PhD to Life

Dear Reader, The Faculty Uplift summit starts tomorrow—have you registered yet? It’s a free online event for academics, with short pre-recorded sessions you can watch on your own schedule. The summit runs July 13 to 16, and my session goes live on Thursday, July 16. (Yay!) My talk asks a question that sounds simple, but can be surprisingly clarifying:What would it mean if postdocs and professors treated academia like a job? Not a stand-in for your identity. Not the only way to lead an...

Dear Reader, How are you doing this month so far? I'd love to know. (And, who are you rooting for in the World Cup? Or is your team already out?) I'm writing today because there's a free event that will be of interest to many folks on this list, called the Faculty Uplift. It happens next week, and I’m one of the speakers. The summit brings together more than 20 people who work with academics, and the topics cover a pretty wide range: wellbeing, mindset, writing, funding, mentoring, team...

Dear Reader, A PhD who already works outside academia asked me an interesting question last week: How many of the folks in my program are still grappling with whether to leave? The answer? Almost none. In my experience, people who are genuinely undecided about whether they want to leave academia don’t usually invest money in a career coaching program. They are doing things, but on their own: reading advice columns, scrolling job boards, coming up with plans B, C, D. And they might have the...

Dear Reader, Somehow it’s already the middle of June. Rude, I know. (Classic summer behaviour.) A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a question I think is worth asking at this time of year: What do you want figured out by September? It can be easy to think (in April or May) that you'll have so much more free time soon, more light in the day (unless you're in Australia or thereabouts), more energy for Doing Things to Help Yourself. And I think that's often at least somewhat true. But external...

Dear Reader, There’s nothing like the start of a new season—it now feels like summer where I live—to inspire action. One thing that’s meant for me is making sure all the resources available to my program members are easy to find and use. Not because I think more resources are automatically better. Goodness, no. If anything, too many resources can become its own problem. Another folder of templates. Another replay to watch. Another worksheet to fill out. Another “helpful” thing that somehow...

Dear Reader, When folks first learn about the PhD Career Clarity Program, I think some imagine it's a course they’ll log into, work through alone, and it will be boring and maybe useful. That's hardly a ringing endorsement, eh! Well, good thing that's not reality. Yes, there is a structured core course to work through step by step (or jump around, depending on where you're at). Yes, there are video lessons, worksheets, a library of recorded workshops, and other templates and resources. But...

Dear Reader, Earlier this week, I wrote about people who don’t hate academia but still want something else. That distinction matters. Because if you’re not in crisis, it can be easy to tell yourself you should wait. Wait until you feel more certain. Wait until the semester is fully wrapped up. Wait until you have a clearer idea of what’s possible. Wait until your job feels unbearable enough to justify doing something about it. But—and I've witnessed this a lot in my 13 years in business—you...

Dear Reader, “I turned 40 last year and I feel very satisfied with my academic career. I just really have nothing else I want to do.” One of my program members said this during a group discussion. She’s tenured. She likes her colleagues. She genuinely has no major complaints about her institution or her work. And I know other professors who feel similarly. Things are pretty decent, really. But decent is starting to feel boring. Can you related? Or maybe a different kind of work is taking up...

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,...