Contents
1 Get What You Want from Your PhD
What should my career goal be?
What does “work your career” mean?
What career competencies am I building over the course of my doctoral program?
Do I really need this book? Won’t my supervisor and program train me to work my career?
Why are most PhD programs so focused on academic careers?
Why should I listen to you two?
Why are you writing this book?
2 Select Your Program Carefully
Should I bother reading this chapter if I am already in a PhD program?
How do I decide if a PhD is right for me?
How do I decide which programs to apply to?
What should I put in my application?
Should I apply for external funding on my own prior to entering a program?
How do I decide which program acceptance to take?
Is there a chance that additional funding opportunities will emerge during the course of my program?
What do I do if I have already started my program and see things I could have done differently?
How do I select the best courses to advance my future career?
What skills will help me excel in my classes?
How do I select assignment topics within my classes to advance my future career?
Should I pick my dissertation topic and supervisor before I am done my coursework?
How do I select a dissertation topic?
How do I know if I should continue my program after finishing the coursework?
How much should I fear my comps?
How do I prepare for my comps?
How do I know if I should continue my program after my comps?
How do I write a dissertation proposal?
How do I work effectively with my supervisor?
How can I progress through my dissertation? (Or, “how will I ever get this done?”)
How do I know if I should continue my program during the dissertation stage?
Can I use a copy editor or a statistical consultant for my work?
How do I know when my dissertation is done?
What should I expect for the dissertation defence?
I am well into my program and didn’t do any of this. What can I do now?
So, how can I work my program?
Shouldn’t I focus solely on my program and dissertation?
What am I looking to gain from non-program activities?
How do I determine what is a sound investment of time?
My side gig led to a real career opportunity. Should I finish my program?
What do I do if I am at the end of my program and didn’t do any of this?
How can I make the most of a postdoc position?
How do I balance my program and non-program activities?
5 Establish Your Funding Track Record
What is a funding track record, and why do I want one?
When should I start building my funding track record?
How do I learn about grant and award opportunities?
How do I make my grant application competitive?
How do I ask someone else to nominate me for an award?
How can I learn grantsmanship from a faculty grant application?
What do I do if I am at the end of my program and didn’t do any of this?
How do I get comfortable with all of this?
6 Build a Strategic Publishing Portfolio
Do I really need to publish during my PhD?
Should I publish from my dissertation before I defend it?
Should I publish on topics unrelated to my dissertation topic?
Should I pursue scholarly publications if I have no interest in an academic job?
Are book chapters or journal articles better?
How can I get a journal article published?
Should I write a book chapter for an edited book?
Should I edit or co-edit a book?
If I do coauthor, how do I make it work?
I am at the end of my program and didn’t do any of this. What do I do?
So, bottom line, what should I do about writing and publishing?
7 Cultivate a Professional Reputation
How can I cultivate a professional reputation?
How do I communicate professionally?
How can I network effectively?
How can I use social media effectively?
I am at the end of my program and didn’t do any of this. Where do I start?
These ideas are interesting, but how do I actually make them work?
Do I need to choose between pursuing a “regular” career or an academic career?
What are my career options as a PhD?
How do I figure out what I want to do?
Once I have an idea of what I want to do, how do I get started?
How can I make my application materials more competitive?
Who should I list as references?
How do I prepare for an interview?
What do I do after the interview?
I found a great non-academic career. Should I try to keep one foot in the academic door?
So, how do I launch my career?
9 Approach Academic Jobs Strategically
How do I figure out the problem that a particular academic job is seeking to solve?
How do I decide if I fit the position enough to apply?
How can I make my application materials more competitive?
What do I need to consider if I am an “inside candidate”?
What do I do after I have applied for a job?
I received an invitation for an interview. How do I prepare?
I haven’t heard back after my interview. Why is it taking so long?
Overall, how should I approach the academic job market?