Essays for building a post-PhD career on your terms.
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Job searches as research projects. Plus a random thought on retirement.
In a recent interview with Dr. Danielle Taschereau Mamers, we walked through how she literally approached her job search like a research project. I've been saying this - gotten some heat for it too - for years. This ain't the world our...
Hiring is broken. Here’s what YOU can do about it.
The other day, I was reading an author's newsletter. She was sharing how 1000 people had applied for ONE full-time position she had posted for her business. According to her, out of those 1000 people, only 10 people reached out to her after...
You’re not stuck. Not with a PhD, you’re not.
Let's talk about entrepreneurship, creating your own opportunities, why you are never stuck as someone with a graduate degree, and what to do if you ever feel like you are stuck. First, a question: What comes to your mind when...
PowerPoint and why you don’t need another certificate to get a job.
I've joked before that PowerPoint helped me land my current medical communications job. People laugh. But I'm only half-joking. When I saw the job description for my role, two things stood out: PhD in Immunology Ability to create and edit...
PhD Skills Translator makes interviewing for new jobs easier
My biggest challenge when I started applying to non-academic jobs was how to translate my PhD skills. All the career coaches were saying to do this, but how to do it remained a frustration of mine for a long time! Thanks to the School of Hard...
Best Hack for Professional Brand Building is Conference Crashing
In the last newsletter, I wrote about my adventures on Academic Reddit and it resonated with a lot of people. Most of the replies I got back to that email included these lines: “How do I market my skills?” “How do I build a professional...
I didn’t do all this school to end up broke and disappointed
The other day, I went down a rabbit hole on Reddit that left me feeling disheartened. Here's why: There were hundreds of threads of people who have completed PhDs (in various parts of the world) who now feel useless and helpless. I came across...
Finding opportunities in the most unlikely places
I'm a fan of looking in unlikely places for job opportunities. Which is why when I heard this on a podcast this week, I had to share it. Every company is a now tech company. Here's why that matters to you…even if you don't care about tech...
The dirty little secret about impostor syndrome nobody discusses
When I was a post-doc, there was an assistant professor who had just won a grant and her career seemed to be going in the right direction. Around this time, I was seriously questioning if academia was the place for me, and I honestly felt a lot of...
Stand out from 99% of job applicants
Don’t be afraid to stand out. The job market feels crowded right now BUT your unique skills and experiences can and will set you apart…if you highlight them. When I was applying for science and medical writing roles, I had no idea my YouTube...