PhD in Progress Podcast

feedback@phdinprogress.com

Posts by author Jason_PhDinProgress

PhD 007: “The Dr. Abigail Show”- From Continuing Education to Finishing a PhD Program

May 28th, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:36 — 30.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Click here to subscribe and rate us in iTunes | Or find us on Stitcher
Ep007_card
This week we talk to our co-host Dr. Abigail Sporer about what it’s like to continue education after a few years out of academia and how she felt while finishing her PhD dissertation defense.

Thank you to Nick @diacritic for an important topic for our show. He reached out on Twitter, saying “Hey, I’m a listener starting grad school after about fifteen years of industry work. Know any resources for people like me?” If you have any more wisdom for him, please leave a comment below or send us mail feedback@phdinprogress.com

How do you deal with more immature classmates? What helped Dr. Abigail through the dissertation writing process? What does she wish she did differently?
And please, do not get drunk at work.

We’d love to hear from you. Leave us comments in the show notes at phdinprogress.com/7 or email feedback@phdinprogress.com. We’re also on Twitter @PhDPodcast.

You can really help our visibility in the iTunes store by leaving an honest rating and review. Thank you all so much!
As always, all this information can be found at phdinprogress.com

PhD 006: Volunteer Work, Public Outreach, and a Targeted Career Search with Kelly LaRue

May 20th, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:29 — 34.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Click here to subscribe and rate us in iTunes | Or find us on Stitcher

EP006_card

This week we have Kelly LaRue in studio to discuss public outreach, a targeted career search, and the importance of finding value outside of your main research.

Kelly is the recipient of the Princeton Graduate Student Recognition Award for her work with Princeton University’s Graduate MolBio Outreach Program.
While performing an amazing level of volunteer work, she has leveraged her experiences into taking action on her professional goals. She has taken an approach to her career search that may help others narrow down their own searches.

The 2 resources mentioned by Kelly:
Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research
http://saber-biologyeducationresearch.wikispaces.com/

EvolDir (i.e. “EVIL DEER”)
http://life.mcmaster.ca/evoldir.html

Why is Nikhil fidgety?
What is a good name for a courtship song?
What happened to the coffee?
Answers within. Thanks for listening!

PhD 005: 3 Important Points of Advice to New Graduate Students

May 13th, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:42 — 24.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Click here to subscribe and rate us in iTunes

Or find us on Stitcher

EP005_card_a

This week Jason, Nikhil, and Abigail hope to help newer graduate students by discussing what they WISH they knew earlier in their studies.

Self-management, the production mindset, and failure are the 3 broad topics we dive into for this discussion.

We mention a couple of neuroscience studies-
Chronic partial sleep deprivation:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19961/

Sleep and memory – way too much literature, but the wiki is pretty comprehensive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_and_memory

Where does Nikhil find his best ideas?
How can you earn your secret Ph.D.?
And correct, unurgent is not a word. Thank you in advance.

 

PhD 004: “A Case Study” – Leave of Absence and Self-Education

May 5th, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:21 — 34.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Click here to subscribe and rate us in iTunes | Or find us on Stitcher

EP004_card
This week we talk to Zach about taking a leave of absence, self-education, and preparation for consulting job interviews.

Abigail gets ready to defend, Nikhil finishes up experiments, and Jason is a subpar caterer.

Nikhil interviews Zach. They discuss the reasons Zach took a leave of absence, what he did during that time, and how it prepared him for his next career.

During the interview, Zach mentions two books (“the classics”) he has read during his preparation for a consulting job search:

Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
Competitve Advantage by Michael Porter

 

We’re active on Twitter @PhDPodcast.
If you’d like to help boost our visibility, please consider sharing the show with your friends or rating us on iTunes.

We’d appreciate all the honest feedback, questions, and comments you’re willing to send our way.

As always, you can find this week’s show notes and all the information I just mentioned at PhDinProgress.com

 

“Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia” by David Searls

May 5th, 2014

From http://www.ascb.org/ascbpost/index.php/compass-points/item/285-where-will-a-biology-phd-take-you

Throughout your grad school experience, you should constantly evaluate your path and goals. Although this article is a few years old it seems to hold up as it addresses fundamental issues when considering beginning a scientific career in either academia or industry.

In the linked article appearing in PLOS Computational Biology, David Searls outlines the 10 points of assessment vital to a strong career search.

Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia

 

PhD 003: Using Grad School Experience In Your Career Search

April 28th, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:04 — 26.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Click here to subscribe and rate us in iTunes | Or find us in Stitcher

Ep003_card

This week Jason, Nikhil, and Abigail continue the discussion initiated in Episode 2 by Fatimah Williams Castro, PhD on how we should approach our career searches.

We then make public some “anecdata” while briefly summarizing the steps we are taking to 1) obtain skills inside/outside the lab and 2) initiate our career exploration. How can you “manage up”? Where do you find contacts to pursue job leads? Why would you want a treadmill desk? All this and more in Episode 3!

Thanks to everyone who has sent us feedback already, it’s been great and helpful so far. Extra thanks to our friends at Reddit.com/r/gradschool for constantly contributing to a dynamic community.

You can learn more about American Journal Experts (the editing group Abigail works with) at AJE.com, or the technology consulting group Jason works with at PreScouter.com

Send any comments or questions, to feedback@PhDinProgress.com or @PhDPodcast on Twitter.

Let us know what else we could do to improve your podcast experience!

 

A Response to the “Fear of Becoming ‘Nonacademic'” post

April 17th, 2014

Our friend Fatimah PhD (see: Podcast Episode 2 and BeyondTheTenureTrack.com) sent in a great response to my Fear of Becoming “Nonacademic” post. She says:

The fear of losing your academic identity is one of the biggest challenges of considering a nonacademic career. Who will I become? How will people know how awesome and accomplished I am if I don’t tell them about my degree and research? What else can I lead with when introducing myself?Even for an avid networker like myself [more…] this question tripped me up for some time and still catches me off guard in some situations.

No one is really defined by one thing. I work as a management consultant but I also coach PhDs on professional development and career planning.

One of my colleagues is a tenure track professor and runs a nonprofit organization that promotes the health of girls in urban communities. One of my mentors, a PhD in Engineering, is a CEO of a billion dollar national consulting firm, a published author, and a public speaker. No one is doing just one thing anymore. It’s liberating!

Find the top 2-3 ways you want to be positioned in the world. For example, mine are project manager, practicing academic, and PhD Career Coach. I choose which of these to lead with depending on the environment I am in and who I want to attract to me in my networking. As conversation deepens I talk more about other areas of my profile, as pertinent.

In Episode 3, we will discuss some of our personal “2-3 ways [we] want to be positioned in the world” and what we are doing to get there. What are some of your goals for your next job. Let us know by sending a message to feedback@PhDinProgress.com

 

Would you like to receive semi-regular, non-spammy (yes, that’s a word now) updates via e-mail? Subscribe to our new e-mail list and we’ll make sure you don’t regret it. In fact, you’ll do the opposite of regret it.

PhD 002: Beyond the Tenure Track with Fatimah Williams Castro, Ph.D.

April 13th, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:18 — 27.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Click here to subscribe in iTunes | Or find us in Stitcher

Ep002_card

Thank you for supporting our brand new podcast! We’re constantly trying to improve the quality and content. In this week’s episode, Jason, Nikhil, and Abigail briefly discuss the 61% of PhDs who pursue nonacademic careers as they review the American Institutes for Research article titled “The Nonacademic Careers of STEM PhD Holders” released in April 2014.

Then they interview Dr. Fatimah Williams Castro, the PhD career coach behind BeyondTheTenureTrack.com about starting your career search outside of the academy. She will be participating in the “Beyond the Professoriate” virtual conference taking place on May 3rd and May 10th 2014. For more information go to [more…]FromPhDtoLife.com/conference 

You can find the article here: http://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/STEM%20nonacademic%20careers%20April14.pdf

Next week, we will discuss a few strategies we’re using in our own career searches.

If you want to participate, write down 3 qualities you want in your next job or career move. Send them, along with any other comments or questions, to feedback@PhDinProgress.com or @PhDPodcast on Twitter.

Let us know what else we could do to improve your podcast experience!

Fear of Becoming “Nonacademic”

April 11th, 2014

Nikhil brought up a good point while we were producing our first episode and has reflected it in his biography. When we are asked who we are, we tend to say “I’m a graduate student that studies _______ and hopes to pursue a career in _______. Currently, I’m working on _________ and have found that ________.” See the problem? [more…] We instantly limit ourselves to our education and professional goals.

This is not only a problem for early career academics but it seems to come more natural to them, especially if they have been in school from age 5 through 30. Their whole lives have been spent being a student.

Were you ever asked “Who are you?” when you were in middle school? I’m sure I did not spend much time trying to explain that I was “an eighth-grader who excelled in math and science”. Of course I’d mention school at some level, but at that stage I would have talked about how much I enjoyed my hobbies, why my family was awesome, which books I loved, and what my favorite strategy in Starcraft was.

The big change with us professional students is just that: we have chosen to be professional students. No longer have we only followed the path that we were legally obligated to. Instead we have so much invested in our current situation and often it greatly influences our personal lives. Graduate school, much like any job or field, controls our schedules, duties, and schedules, in the way we socialize and present ourselves.

That said, going into a “nonacademic” after we leave our graduate programs can be a very scary thought exactly because “academic” described a large portion of our lives before that point. Suddenly (if you do not end up in Research and Development) you will feel the need to justify your PhD. Some may think you failed being an academic when in reality you made a choice to go for an alternative. You took charge of your needs and interests and aspirations, so do not feel that you failed yourself.

At the same time, if you DO remain in academia, that’s great! At risk of this podcast and blog appearing anti-academic, we want to help others to identify and pursue the types of careers that utilize their strengths and talents. Do not let others dictate what you do with your life.

Is there merit to this? Are you worried about potentially losing this part of your identity?