It’s scorching hot in Southern California this week. I hope this newsletter finds you cool. Anyway, onto business…
Recently, I ran a poll on LinkedIn asking a simple question: Did your PhD training adequately prepare you to navigate the job market?
Out of 472 respondents, 93% said no.
This is by no means an exhaustive study. But even this slice of data represents anything that is truly happening, it means that people who completed one of the most rigorous educational experiences in the world often leave without feeling prepared to do something essential: navigate their careers.
That’s does not make me happy.
This isn’t about criticizing academia. Many faculty and programs are doing their best. But the reality is that the system was designed for a different world of work.
So what can we do both as PhDs AND career services professionals to help fix this? Here are some thoughts I shared on the most recent episode of The Bold PhD Podcast.
In Navigating the PIVOT, I talk about why seeing yourself as a problem-solver rather than a job-seeker is a mindset and practice that increases your chances of winning in the job market. Especially right now. I recently had a chance to be on Nature Careers’ Working Scientist Podcast where I explained the concept more. Watch the podcast here. (Or find it on your favorite podcast app.)
Roughly two years ago, Northwestern University invited me out to Chicago to give a talk on science communications as a career path.
One of the topics I touched on was AI and why using outputs directly from AI as a science communicator should be avoided at all costs; for more than a few reasons but especially because of intellectual property and copyright infringements.
This week, I came across a story of a journalist suing Grammarly for using her face, and writing (as well as those of different journalists and academics) to train its AI systems so that now, a user could “select” said journalist or academic as their “writing coach” within Grammarly so that the user’s writing would sound as polished as the selected “coach.”
Well, Grammarly never sought permission from any of the journalists or academics. So now, there is a class action suit against Grammarly.
This is exactly why I smile when people ask me why I am not panicked about AI.
I know tech companies are claiming it is all the rage behind the mass layoffs we are seeing. As AI useful can be (I use AI tools like Elicit when I am researching papers in my work), however, I predict a huge reckoning and backtracking for a lot of these companies who have stolen – yes, I will use that word – people’s intellectual property to train their systems.
That’s all I have today.
Have a great weekend.
Gertrude Nonterah, Ph.D.
Creator of The BoldPhD.com | Author of Navigating the P.I.V.O.T.
Have you read Navigating the P.I.V.O.T? If you have, it would mean the world to me if you could leave me a rating and review on Amazon. This helps people who are making a decision to get the book make an informed one. Thank you.