Careers Café
We talk a lot about having alternatives and sometimes that can feel like it’s pointless to even consider an academic career. In fact, I think an academic career can be immensely satisfying for some people. As I’ve said before, it isn’t one or the other and having options makes you less at the mercy of […]
By now, it’s pretty clear that I’m a big fan of information interviews and The Versatile PhD. Your university’s career centre likely offers additional resources, such as books that link content knowledge and a few key skills to different career options (e.g. Careers for History Majors). With career research, though, it doesn’t hurt to have […]
I will be speaking as part of the Career Corner series at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences on May 31 at 9:30 a.m. Bring your coffee. “Yes, There is Life After Graduate School” starts from the premise that you don’t need a Plan B and helps you begin to imagine the myriad […]
Lest it seem as though informational interviews are the only means of exploring careers, please rest assured that there are other resources out there. My next few blog posts will describe some of my favourites. If you happen to be a humanities or social sciences PhD, one of the best is The Versatile PhD. If this […]
[Undergraduates] seem to think becoming a humanities professor is a reliable prospect — a more responsible and secure choice than, say, attempting to make it as a freelance writer, or an actor, or a professional athlete. (William Pannapacker, writing as Thomas H Benton, January 2009) I wouldn’t discourage someone from pursuing a career as a freelance […]
When you have devoted years to specializing within an academic field, it can be mind-boggling to you and the people in your life if you consider a change. You might be worried that employers, too, will be confused by your desire for something different. A good career story will go a long way to reassuring […]
If an academic career is in your plan, you will need to get published. A PhD may be a necessary qualification, but it isn’t enough. The reality is that even in small universities, research matters. A lot of university teaching has been casualized – sessional positions proliferate, many of them occupied by people with PhDs. […]
Liz Koblyk tells you exactly what to say to get your foot in the door.
What do hiring committees look for in candidates? What is the minimum requirement? What makes people really stand out? What is the actual state of the competition right now? What do the CVs of people getting appointed look like? What can you expect in particular institutions? Or at particular stages of career? What kinds of […]
Academia is good at preparing people to be academics. There are clear (if not necessarily readily available) opportunities to teach, design courses, network with professors, hone research skills, and seek advice from mentors. If you’re considering non-academic careers, however, you may find a shortage of resources and mentors within your department. This is where information […]
A reader e-mailed to ask: I would be interested in seeing issues related to negotiating two academic household careers covered (i.e. negotiating spousal hires, career strategies, how to find a meaningful career where your spouse has gotten a position, etc.) What this situation really highlights is the fact that whenever you are job hunting there […]
In my last blog post, I suggested that passion can be a misleading guide when you’re starting to explore career options. However, if you’re willing to set aside passion in favour of curiosity, you have more freedom to investigate a variety of career options. The next issue, of course, is how to go about doing that. […]
There is a lot of talk about PhDs, the academic job market, and how to prepare students for possible alternatives to an academic career. Almost all of it rests on an assumption that an academic job is “Plan A”. It is fair to say that an academic career is the default assumption. A plan should […]
Some of you may already know exactly what kind of work you want to pursue. Maybe you’re already pursuing it. My guess is that a lot of readers of this blog are also wondering what career might interest them more than their current work. If that’s your situation, this post is for you. Many career […]
To get to where you are now, you had to be very good at figuring out what was expected of you and delivering it. As you moved into a graduate program, especially at the doctoral level, this particular skill started to become less and less useful. It probably wasn’t obvious at first. The coursework and […]
Hi, I am Liz! When I asked my supervisor if she’d mind me accepting an offer to contribute to University Affairs’ new Careers Café blog, she said, “I love University Affairs! Just make sure you mention where you work!” So, I work at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Career Action. I’m the staff career […]
Hi! Nice to meet you. I’m Jo VanEvery. I’m looking forward to chatting with you over coffee about your career. There is a lot of doom and gloom about academic careers out there. I’m not going to pretend that the academic job market (or any job market) is easy to navigate right now. You […]
After Carolyn Steele bid farewell to her Career Sense blog, we received a bit of an outcry from you, the readers. Many of you declared that despite the fact that a lot of Canadian academics do not post comments to blogs (too shy? Too busy? Not used to posting comments?), a blog offering up career […]