Obtaining Employment

On-line articles

Some of the on-line articles below offer Specific Advice about preparing for academic and nonacademic job markets, negotiating salaries and perks, networking, and more.  Other articles give more General Advice in the form of speculations about the intellectual roles of Ph.D.'s working outside academia and news coverage of Ph.D. employment. Finally, Career Paths includes first- and third-hand accounts of Ph.D.'s who have taken somewhat unexpected paths towards their current careers.  Refer to the Publications page for printed materials dealing with Ph.D. employment.  See the "Selected Bibliography on Doctoral Education" for information about re-envisioning doctoral education from the perspectives of many stakeholders.

This list is not exhaustive, and we welcome additional suggestions at envision@u.washington.edu.

When the Job Doesn't Work Out
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/04/2002041201c.htm  How to deal with a nonacademic job that hasn't worked out as expected or hoped.

Why You'll Want a Mentor Outside the Ivory Tower, Too
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2001/12/2001120702c.htm  How and why to find mentors outside the ivory tower.

General Advice

Humanities at Work
http://chronicle.com/jobs/archive/advice/humanities.htm  A series of advice columns sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation about careers for humanities Ph.D.'s.

Journeyman: Getting Into and Out of Academia
http://pweb.jps.net/~aspang/journeyman/  Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a history-of-science Ph.D., explains how to make the transition from academic to other work and still be a productive scholar.

Pimping a Ph.D.
http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/12/13/intellectual_entrepreneurs/  A narrative account by a participant in the University of Texas at Austin's "Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program."

Postdoc Life at Liberal Colleges, Parts I and II
Part I explains how postdocs benefit from teaching at small liberal-arts colleges, and Part II explores some of the difficulties postdocs frequently encounter on small college campuses.

Postdoc Trails: Long and Filled With Pitfalls
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/21/science/physical/21POST.html?searchpv=day07  Details some of the problems common to postdoctoral positions.

Sellout Studies and Scholarship  
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2001/05/2001052503c.htm  In the same vein as Alex Pang (see "Journeyman" above), Kevin Walzer writes about how to maintain one's identity and work as a scholar after academia.  A year later, in The Pleasure of Publishing, he writes about continuing his love of poetry through Word Press, a publishing company he and his wife founded.

Three Differences Between an Academic and an Intellectual: What Happens to the Liberal Arts When They Are Kicked Off Campus?  
http://www.crosscurrents.org/miles.htm  Jack Miles, 1996 Pulitzer Prize winner, speculates about whether intellectuals outside of academia will become the main carriers of the humanist tradition, and how that might in turn affect the humanities themselves.

The Value of "Learning Backward"
http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2002/05/30/1  Two doctoral students in the University of Texas at Austin's "Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program" argue that more graduate students in the sciences should be driven by Tom Magliozzi's concept of "learning backward" and that this might help more Ph.D.'s put their skills to use in society at large.

You're the Dr. (What's as Easy as ABC, Only a Little Farther Up the Alphabet? A Ph.D.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42186-2002Mar17.html  A general meditation on what the proliferation of Ph.D.'s means for Ph.D.'s, academia, and society at large.

Career Paths

Bad Brakes Send Scientist to Biotechnology
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2002/jan/prof1_020121.html  Biographical account of one scientist's transition from being a researcher in academia to being CEO of a biotechnology company.  Read another former academic's response to this article in "Letter: Academia to Industry," http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2002/feb/let_020204.html.

Consultant For a Day
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/05/2002050701c.htm  A doctoral student in biomedical engineering describes a recruiting weekend with a management-consulting firm and what he learned about the world of consulting.

A Humanities Ph.D. Finds Her Niche in Administration
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/05/2002050101c.htm  A doctoral student in English describes the factors that influenced her decision to move into administration and the skills and experiences that allowed her to do so.

Not What I Had in Mind
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/04/2002041902c.htm An English professor's account of the preconceptions she had about teaching at a community college, how those changed for the better after teaching there, and a summing up of the benefits and drawbacks her position offers.

An Odyssey in Biotech
http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2002/06/13/6  This biographical account follows a geneticist from academia to industry, back to academia, to head of her own company, and finally to becoming director of science at a venture capital company.

Putting Research Skills to Work for the Public Good
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/05/2002050602c.htm  Four doctoral students taking time away from their graduate studies for internships at civil-liberties and human-rights groups explain how the internships have influenced their research and career aspirations.

The Reluctant Geneticist
http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2002/06/13/10  An assistant professor of genetics explains how he tumbled into the field and how his unconventional background (as a tuba player) may have influenced his approach to science.

Selling Scholarship on Tour
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/06/2002060401c.htm  Professors and graduate students in the humanities have begun to work in cultural tourism by offering tours such as Egghead Tours (New Orleans)), Big Onion tours (New York City), and Poor Richard's Walking Tours (Philadelphia).

Where Ph.D.'s Morph Into M.B.A.'s
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/jun/prof_010625.html   At management consulting firms, scientists apply their analytical expertise to tough business questions.