For decades, top scientists in colleges and universities pursued a clear path to success: enroll in a prestigious graduate program, conduct research, publish papers, complete the PhD, pursue postdoctoral work. With perseverance and a bit of luck, a tenure-track professorship awaited at the end. In today’s academic job market, this scenario represents the exception. As the number of newly conferred science PhDs keeps rising, the number of tenured professorships remains stubbornly stagnant. “Next Gen PhD: A Guide to Career Paths in Science is a practical and thorough manual for the entire career transition process, from defining personal interests and deciding on a career path all the way to day one of a new job. Written by experienced career counselor Melanie Sinche, it is geared toward postdocs and graduate students who may not have access to effective career counseling or mentorship or are not satisfied with what they have received thus far.” —Teegan A. Dellibovi-Ragheb, Science “With its focus on PhD level scientists, this book fills a gap in job search and career information literature. It’s a must-read for those contemplating or actively pursuing studies in the subject area, as well as those who provide guidance to undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars.” —Alan Farber, Library Journal (starred review)
Everything you ever need to know about making it as a scientist. Despite your graduate education, brainpower, and technical prowess, your career in scientific research is far from assured. Permanent positions are scarce, science survival is rarely part of formal graduate training, and a good mentor is hard to find. In A Ph.D. Is Not Enough!, physicist Peter J. Feibelman lays out a rational path to a fulfilling long-term research career. He offers sound advice on selecting a thesis or postdoctoral adviser; choosing among research jobs in academia, government laboratories, and industry; preparing for an employment interview; and defining a research program. The guidance offered in A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! will help you make your oral presentations more effective, your journal articles more compelling, and your grant proposals more successful. A classic guide for recent and soon-to-be graduates, A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! remains required reading for anyone on the threshold of a career in science. This new edition includes two new chapters and is revised and updated throughout to reflect how the revolution in electronic communication has transformed the field.
A unique take on how to survive and thrive in the process your PhD, this is a book that stands out from the crowd of traditional PhD guides. Compiled by a leading UK researcher, and written in a highly personal one-to-one manner, How to Get Your PhD showcases the thoughts of diverse and distinguished minds hailing from the UK, EU, and beyond, spanning both academia and industry. With over 150 bitesize nuggets of actionable advice, it offers more detailed contributions covering topics such as career planning, professional development, diversity and inclusion in science, and the nature of risk in research. How to Get Your PhD: A Handbook for the Journey is as readable for people considering a PhD as it is for those in the middle of one: aiming to clarify the highs and lows that come when training in the profession of research, while providing tips & tricks for the journey. This concise yet complete guide allows students to "dip in" and read just what they need, rather than adding to the mountain of reading material they already have.
This engaging and highly regarded book takes readers through the key stages of their PhD research journey, from the initial ideas through to successful completion and publication. It gives helpful guidance on forming research questions, organising ideas, pulling together a final draft, handling the viva and getting published. Each chapter contains a wealth of practical suggestions and tips for readers to try out and adapt to their own research needs and disciplinary style. This text will be essential reading for PhD students and their supervisors in humanities, arts, social sciences, business, law, health and related disciplines.
Long seen as proving grounds for professors, PhD programs have begun to shed this singular sense of mission. Prompted by poor placement numbers and guided by the efforts of academic organizations, administrators and faculty are beginning to feel called to equip students for a range of careers. Yet, graduate students, faculty, and administrators often feel ill-prepared for this pivot. The Reimagined PhD assembles an array of professionals to address this difficult issue. The contributors show that students, faculty, and administrators must collaborate in order to prepare the 21st century PhD for a wide range of careers. The volume also undercuts the insidious notion that career preparation is a zero sum game in which time spent preparing for alternate careers detracts from professorial training. In doing so, The Reimagined PhD normalizes the multiple career paths open to PhD students, while providing practical advice geared to help students, faculty, and administrators incorporate professional skills into graduate training, build career networks, and prepare PhDs for a variety of careers.
This book, the second in the projected three-volume Forces and Forms in Doctoral Education Worldwide series sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Graduate Education (CIRGE) at the University of Washington, invites readers to listen in as nearly thirty distinguished scholars and thought leaders confront urgent questions about doctoral education in a globalizing world: • How are research doctoral education and the research PhD degree evolving in different national contexts? • How do researchers in the early stage of their careers assess the value of doctoral education? • What are the challenges of using international demographic data from existing PhD programs to analyze trends in doctoral education? • What can happen when regional issues intersect with the need to evaluate doctoral education and ensure its quality? • Which quality-assurance model has been gaining favor in PhD education, and what challenges does it pose? • What accounts for conflict between national interests and international collaboration in doctoral education? • Is there empirical evidence of globalization’s impact on doctoral education and the labor market for PhD graduates? This follow-up to Toward a Global PhD? (University of Washington Press, 2008), the first volume in the series, includes case studies illustrating global trends in the structure, function, and quality frameworks of doctoral education, and it develops a conceptual framework linking globalization to trends in doctoral education while showing the particular history that has led to the convergence of a number of practices in one or more countries.
How to Survive Your PhD is your insider's guide to avoiding mistakes, choosing the right program, working with professors, and just how a person actually writes a 200-page paper When you're getting your PhD, you never know what surprises to expect. But now, you can be prepared! How to Survive Your PhD is your step-by-step guide to the right way to tackle every part of the doctoral process. Getting your PhD is not an easy process, and the decisions you make before and during your doctoral work can mean the different between having a PhD in four years or eight, Jason Karp has been there – and made the mistakes – and he shows you just what to avoid, what you should be doing, and how to make the best use of your time and resources. Plus insider tips on: Choosing Your School Dealing with Finances Picking the Right Academic Advisor Researching the Dissertation Managing Your Time The Exams Tricks of the Trade The Defense And so much more
Accessible, insightful and a must-have toolkit for all final year doctoral students, the founders of the ‘Thesis Boot Camp’ intensive writing programme show how to survive and thrive through the challenging final year of writing and submitting a thesis. Drawing on an understanding of the intellectual, professional, practical and personal elements of the doctorate to help readers gain insight into what it means to finish a PhD and how to get there, this book covers the common challenges and ways to resolve them. It includes advice on: Project management skills to plan, track, iterate and report on the complex task of bringing a multi-year research project to a successful close Personal effectiveness and self-care to support students to thrive in body, mind and relationships, including challenging supervisor relationships. The successful ‘generative’ writing processes which get writers into the zone and producing thousands of words; and then provides the skills to structure and polish those words to publishable quality. What it means to survive a PhD and consider multiple possible futures. Written for students in all disciplines, and relevant to university systems around the world, this unique book expertly guides students through the final 6–12 months of the thesis. The 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' offers support and practical advice to doctoral students and early-career researchers. Covering the topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked, this indispensable series provides practical and realistic guidance to address many of the needs and challenges of trying to operate, and remain, in academia. These neat pocket guides fill specific and significant gaps in current literature. Each book offers insider perspectives on the often implicit rules of the game -- the things you need to know but usually aren't told by institutional postgraduate support, researcher development units, or supervisors -- and will address a practical topic that is key to career progression. They are essential reading for doctoral students, early-career researchers, supervisors, mentors, or anyone looking to launch or maintain their career in academia.