How to Make Your PhD Work
Published by Wiley • 2023 • Available in eBook & Softcover
A comprehensive guide designed specifically for STEM PhD students and early-career researchers who are facing the realities of the job market. With less than 10% of PhDs finding jobs in academics, this book gives you the framework to explore, prepare for, and land careers that align with your skills and values.
What You'll Learn
- ✓How to assess your PhD environment and advisor relationship
- ✓Strategies for exploring non-academic career paths
- ✓Building a career-ready skillset during your PhD
- ✓Navigating the job market with a doctoral degree
- ✓Matching your personality and values to the right career
What Readers Are Saying
The guidebook PhDs need whether you're starting out, in the midst of, or figuring out what's next.
Nobody is ever really taught how to navigate a PhD career other than in academia and even then pathways differ so much due to training, your advisor and your institutional culture. No matter what career stage you are at, this book is extremely helpful in discovering what is out there, tips and tricks, career plans and exercises as you navigate the job market either in academia or industry. What I loved most about this honest and encouraging guidebook is the first-person transition stories from several PhDs sharing what their experience was like, the path they took and advice and insights looking back on it all. Despite differences we all can relate and it was comforting knowing we are not alone in the challenges earning a PhD comes with. I highly recommend this book for any STEM grad student/graduate. It's not a one time read, but a career companion you can always refer to.
rbmina— Verified Purchase
Just buy it!
Very organized, insightful, & inspiring tool for those looking for employment after obtaining their PhD! Coughlin is a brilliant and talented writer. Listen to this guy!!
Candise P— Verified Purchase
Great book with easy-to-read language
This book is fantastic. As someone who's unsure what exactly to do career-wise, I found the book to be illuminating. The early sections resonate with myself (as well as many PhDs I'm sure) and has useful tools for folks that span early graduate school through to looking for their first job.
Billie Richardson— Verified Purchase
Would highly recommend!
I would recommend this book to every PhD in science and engineering. It doesn't just give job advice but had stuff I had never seen before. It has ways to assess your competitiveness for academics, make a decision for pursuing a postdoc, and advice on being proactive during your PhD. I was super excited about the 12 PhD transition stories. These were cool. Reading about the PhDs who navigated from their unsteady PhDs to academic prof jobs or industry was super inspiring. The author really breaks things down and makes it really easy to understand and it's like the PhD one complete essential book. Pumped for you to find this as well! Would highly recommend!
Jacqueline Lavigne— Verified Purchase
Amazing resource - must read
This book is a must read for anybody coming out of a PhD program. Aside from being incredibly informative, it is also very thoughtfully laid out and includes graphs charts, and illustrations to help keep the read interesting. I wish this tool had been available when I was graduating my program - it would've been a game changer.
Patrick Tucker— Verified Purchase
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