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"How do I get started finding a job outside academia?"
Learn my answer, including how to avoid common missteps, in this free video resource, available to watch anytime.
Jennifer Polk, PhD (she, her)
153.6K posts
Jennifer Polk, PhD (she, her)
@FromPhDtoLife
I help professors, postdocs, and other overworked, underappreciated PhDs change careers without sacrificing what's important. Start for free withaPhD.com
- Here is a lab lab! Our lab here needs to wear PPE just like the people doing the science. He is the service dog of a student in a chemistry professor's lab. (Shared with permission.)
- "You can't quit your postdoc. You're on a visa. I control you." So said a professor (PI) to a recent arrival from India who worked for him. A new friend from a neighbouring lab provided an office to use for phone & Zoom interviews. The postdoc got an industry job in 45 days.
- PhD students who aren't able to finish their degrees because they protested their university's complicity in genocide and war crimes and want my help to figure out their next steps, career-wise -- let me know.Replying to @wawog_now and @PrincetonHassan Sayed, a fifth year PhD candidate in economics, and Achinthya Sivalingan, a SPIA MPA second year, have been arrested, evicted, and permanently banned from the @Princeton campus, thereby preventing them from finishing their degrees.
- I hate being lied to, manipulated, deliberately deceived. I'm sure you feel the same way. And that's partly why what happened this week -- the fabrication of an antisemitic protest at a Jewish hospital in downtown Toronto -- has so infuriated me. It's one thing to get something
- Research shows that PhD students initially aspire to be professors, but this desire wanes over time. Some think this is because of disillusionment with academia, while others attribute it to the challenging (impossible!) job market. What do you think?
- You hate online conferences because 1. You hate conferences. The actual conference parts are boring. And academics get away with boring conferences because people like the other stuff. 2. There's no travel, no having dinner with friends. Those are the parts of conferences you
- Replying to @JustinTrudeau*deep breath* No! You are dangerously misinformed. Deliberately so, perhaps. Nobody protests hospitals! (It is Israel that bombs them in Gaza, with your support.) Hospitals are on University Ave. Marchers walk by these hospitals regularly. All the hospitals, including Sinai.
- University reimbursement culture means you're regularly lending money to your employer, yet they never pay you back with interest. It's frustrating that this is the norm in academia. What's the situation where you work or study?
- Your PhD is not just a degree. It's a testament to your critical thinking, problem-solving, and knowledge contribution. These skills are in high demand across industries. 🎯
- Who else did a Zoom Christmas meeting with family or friends? ✋
- Replying to @FromPhDtoLifeShe left her postdoc position after three months. The professor threatened she'd get nowhere without publications from his lab. (She reported the PI to HR. "He has a $1million grant.") Industry employers didn't care. At all. - A story I heard at the networking event yesterday.
- When you see your work as a calling instead of just a job, you are at higher risk of overwork, of burnout, of essentially subsidizing your employer by drawing on your own personal resources. Show up, do your best, and then live your life in your off hours.
- Replying to @FromPhDtoLife(I sort of feel sorry for the beleaguered HR person, who clearly knew this dude was a habitual abuser and had that response ready to go. Apparently it was the first thing they said to the postdoc.)
