PhD career playbook

A step by step plan to build your career

$25.00

DESCRIPTION

This is a playbook for PhDs who want to transition to a non-academic job. 

It includes 3 phases of activities to prepare PhDs for industry roles, even if they have never had a job outside of a university. Most job preparation resources focus heavily on the tactical aspects: writing documents, interviewing, negotiating. 

This playbook focuses on making sure those activities aren't being wasted on the wrong jobs.

It offers practical steps and strategies for clarifying your core values, identifying your ideal work environment, communicating your marketable skills, resume building, networking, and finding the right opportunities.

  1. Why a book? Do you offer coaching? 
    Let me be clear: I think coaching offers more value than a book in most cases. The problem is, not all PhDs can afford to pay for a coach, nor does everyone want one-on-one guidance. Plus, I don't have the time to be a coach because I have a full-time job and a kid. This playbook is my attempt at creating the experience of having me as a coach, in book form. The good part is that you'll get essentially the same guidance I'd give in person, but be able to consume it at your own pace. The downside, to be fair, is that a book is a book. It's not going to be able to respond to your specific situation. However, I believe that the guidance in this book applies to the majority of PhDs aiming to build a career outside of their academic expertise. At least, it applies to nearly all the ones I've talked to in the past decade.



  1.  My PhD is XYZ, does it give specific advice for my field?
    This book is for PhDs across all fields of study who are trying to transition to a different career that is NOT specific to their field of study. So if you are trying to get a research position in your specialty, or any job where you're doing the exact same thing you did to get your PhD, this book is not for you.

  2. Does it cover interviewing and negotiation?
    The book covers the preparation needed to make sure you know how to talk about your experience and skills as you apply for jobs,  which also apply to interviews. However, it does not include interviewing and negotiation steps. There are a lot of great existing, free materials on these particular skills publicly available so I didn't include them in here.

  3.  Why is this book not free?
    Two reasons. 1, Most of my content is public and free, this is in a different class in terms of quality, value, and effort. 2,  To really get the benefit of this playbook, you need to take it seriously. I want to make sure you have skin in the game.

  1. Phase 1: Looking In (page 8-21)

    1. Clarifying your values

    2. Two-dimensional prioritization

    3. Reflection

  2. Phase 2: Looking Forward (page 22-30)

    1. Future vision

    2. Balancing your domains

    3. Declaring your ultimatums

  3. Phase 3: Triangulation (page 31-60)

    1. Finding direction

    2. Information gathering

    3. Breaking into a new world

If you read the book and do the exercises, and you don't think it was worth the money, email me and I will immediately refund you, no hoops to jump through.

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