Life After Graduate School: What happens next?

The topic of finding a job after the PhD, and life outside of the ivory tower has stirred reactions in a good number of people. Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Gemma Gaten, who gives her warnings and outlook for life after graduate school. Gemma is a literature major and works as a paper writer atuk.bestessays.com. She is a blogger, photographer, and traveler. She writes more about education, student lifestyle, writing, and careers. To know more about her please visit herblog and add her in google+.

People believe that obtaining a master's or a PhD degree is a good investment for a bright future. If you are a diploma-holder of a higher degree of education, there are more doors of opportunities that await you once you step off the portals of grad school. Having an advanced degree is a big advantage in almost all industries especially in the fields of education, social services, medical health, business management, etc. If you have a desired position in a professional field, you need to take an advanced degree. In our education and employment system, it is like you are required to get a higher degree of education to become qualified to the position that you want to attain.

Why you should go to graduate school and be a PhD candidate? Well, to put it simply here are the things that graduate school can give you. Graduate education will provide you the intellectual ability, work ethics, improved and advanced skills, in-depth knowledge, and well-related work experience to the field that you want to belong to in the future. As you know and learn these benefits, you became more driven to increase your career security, professional and personal development, right?

If you know and understand the positive aspects of getting into graduate school, you get excited to start a graduate education right away. But before you indulge yourself to the challenging and stressful life in grad school, there are things that you must know first. Life in graduate school is different from the life after grad school. What do I mean by that? Many students didn't know that the things that matter during their graduate education years don't matter anymore once they got their Master's or PhD diploma.

Let's say you have completed the years of your master's or PhD degree, you got your diploma, and you're done with all those academic paper works. As you bid goodbye to your alma mater, do you already know what awaits you in the real world? How are you going to face your new life? How are you going to address the transition after graduate school into the workforce? To give you a clearer perspective of what I am saying, here's a simple illustration.

THE EXPECTATION

Some graduate students thought that they don't need to work harder and exert much effort in searching for job opportunities since they already got a ticket, their PhD diploma, to get the job that they wanted. This can be possible for PhD graduates who already have a career while taking their master's or PhD education. But for those beginners or those students who do not have a job in their prospective field, they have to start looking for a job immediately that would best fit their skills and educational attainment. Because even though they are Master's or PhD degree-holders if there are no available positions for them in the market place or in non-academic careers, it would take a while before they land a full-time position. But for those in line with research and academic work, there are plenty of job opportunities that they can apply for.

THE HARSH REALITY

Even if you are a graduate student or a PhD candidate, you need to keep your options open. Whether it's a non-academic or academic work, you have to understand that the real world doesn't only look at the diploma that you are holding or the years that you've spent in the academy. There are already many students who pursued their graduate education and not all of them were given good academic jobs. Becoming a graduate from a prestigious graduate school is a good credential, actually being a certified Master's or PhD graduate is already a big accomplishment. But the sad part here is that the school you graduated from and the degree that you have don't matter anymore once you go to the workforce. Companies need your advanced knowledge and abilities so you have to show them what are the things that you can do for them because if they don't see you as a good contributor to the success of their business they will not going to hire you.

THE ACCEPTANCE

You have to accept the truth, real world is far different from the life that you had in graduate school. Whether you like it or not, you have to understand how the real world works. You will obtain the career that you want with the help of your good credentials, advanced education, and the professional network you have built. But the promotions, recognition, high salary, and good benefits that you will receive will depend on the contribution that you will make to the company.

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Leveraging your Job Seeking Position by Highlighting your Academic Skills

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

After 3 or 4 years of hard work and study, you have received your PhD degree, and you wonder: "What is next in life?".

Very few PhD graduates remain in academia after obtaining their doctoral degree. Most of us will go to the industry.
And every so often, especially in the Netherlands, the following remark comes up during the hiring process:

"Why did you spend your time on doing research, while you now want to come and work in the industry? Shouldn't you have gone to work straight after your Master's degree and used these years to get real-life experience?."

When this question, or a similar remark comes up, don't feel offended or misunderstood. Instead, highlight your academic skills as a function of your job search. Needless to say, think thoroughly about this subject before you walk into the interview room...

While a number of years of experience in practice are certainly very valuable, these years in academia, especially while working towards a PhD degree, provide you with skills that might make you a more attractive candidate for the open position.

Let me restate that clearly: your doctoral training has made you an independent researcher, with an array of unique skills that are highly valuable in industry.

Depending on your field, you can think of the following skills that put you ahead of other applicants:

1. Analytical skills
Whether your PhD research relies on qualitative or quantitative data analysis, there is almost always a large chunk of analytical work involved in PhD research. Being able to handle large amounts of data is a skill needed by consultancy offices, private labs as well as many large technical companies.

2. Autonomy
Getting a PhD is all about becoming an independent researcher. No third or fourth year doctoral candidate has his/her adviser watching over his/her shoulder while working. You might be working weeks on end on something, trying out different paths, iterating, and making your own decisions. This large level of autonomy gives you the ability to work on larger projects, all by yourself, while being able to communicate your decisions and the reasons for these decisions to your superiors later on.

3. Ability to learn new topics and skills
A very typical situation during your PhD studies is one in which you run into a subject that you don't know much about, or one in which you seem to be needing a different computer program or programming language to continue your research work. Instead of lifting up your shoulders and thinking: "Well, too bad, I don't know that...", you head out to the library to pick up a book on the subject, read a couple of papers on the subject, follow an online tutorial or start getting involved in a programmer's forum. This ability to learn by yourself new topics and skills, combined with your autonomy, gives you the ability to advance quickly in your career in almost any given field.

4. Deep understanding of your field
Since a doctoral degree is the highest level of education you can achieve, you can pride yourself in the fact that you know more about a certain topic than most other people. In fact, when it comes down to your sub-topic of research, you can claim that you are the expert in your field on that topic - you simply are the only person who knows all the ins and outs of the topic you chose for your PhD studies.

5. Teamwork skills
A PhD degree is always the result of cooperation: with your supervisors, with funding institutions, with other researchers, and with laboratory technicians. Nobody ever graduated by brooding in his/her room in complete isolation for a couple of years and then spitting out 1000 pages of innovative research material. Being able to work in teams is one of the great skills you learn during your doctoral studies.

6. Writing skills
Those papers and that thesis didn't write themselves, and they certainly did not get written without developing sound academic writing skills. With all the writing practice you get during your doctoral years, you will be able to whisk together reports and briefings faster and in a clearer style than your peers who did not go into a PhD program.

7. Presentation skills
Just like you got a good training in (academic) writing during your PhD, you also got a good training at giving presentations. Remember your very first presentation in graduate school? Remember how nervous you were, and how afterwards you learned how to better structure your talks until it almost became second nature? You need to realize that this communication skill is again very valuable to prospective employers.

8. Extra skills you learned during your PhD
During your PhD years, you certainly picked up a few extra, general skills besides your analytical and communication skills. You might have taught yourself a programming language, you might have learned how to speed-read, or you might have taken a number of courses to sharpen your soft skills. Think about all these extra skills, and use them to your advantage to show the benefit of your years of doctoral study.

As I said earlier, make sure that you go well-prepared to your interview, by thinking about the additional benefit you can bring to a company through the skills and topics you mastered during your PhD research. Highlight the value of yourself and your skills as a function of the company where you are applying for a position: show them clearly what unique characteristics you are bringing into the company, and how the company will benefit from this.

An Expat Scholar’s View from the Gulf

Since I wrote a post about the topic of finding a job after the PhD, I've been receiving a lot of feedback from you guys (thanks so much!). One of the people who approached me to discuss the employment debate a little further is John Laprise, a Visiting Professor in Residence at Northwestern University in Qatar. He's about as interdisciplinary as you can get with degrees in Media, Technology and Society; War Studies; History; Religion; and Interdisciplinary Studies. He has also worked as a consultant in the private sector for a decade in the logistics, telecommunications and higher education sectors. John contacted me and told me about his story. Since I'm now a professor at a young university in a country that might be considered as "off the beaten path" as well, my curiosity was triggered, and I asked John to share his story on PhD Talk.

I recently re-entered the job market for the first time in ten years from Doha, Qatar. In 2003, I began my PhD at Northwestern. Five years later, they approached me and asked me to join the faculty of their new campus following my graduation. I was fortunate. I was the right person at the right place at the right time. I could teach needed courses, my research was portable, I had lived previously in the Middle East, I did not have a family to complicate relocation, and I had a solid reputation as a graduate student. I was also an older graduate student having spent ten years in the private sector consulting before returning to university.

In 2009 I arrived in Doha and for the past four years, I have been part of an amazing project. There have been many challenges. Starting a university campus is no small feat but the faculty, staff, and students have produced a truly remarkable program over the intervening years. Along the way, my faculty position has afforded me amazing opportunities. Northwestern supports active global scholarship at international conferences which has enabled me to stay connected with disciplinary colleagues and build new international networks of contacts and collaborators. Moreover, I have had truly unique opportunities for interaction ranging from a serendipitous coffee with Vint Cerf to chatting with cast members from Kevin Spacey’s touring production of Richard III. I have had the incredible good fortune to work with ictQatar, the government council that regulates and sets policy for information and communication technology. Many if not most of the amazing interactions I have had here are unthinkably improbable if I were a junior faculty member in the United States.

It is thus with some regret that I confront the end of my time in Doha and look forward to new challenges and opportunities. Unlike many colleagues who have written about the dismal state of the academic job market, I have a decidedly rosier if broader point of view.

I will never be unemployed unless I choose to be.

As an international academic, I quickly realized that as a holder of a US PhD, I would always be able to find a job if I did not limit myself to US academia. Start-up universities are eager to fill newly created faculty positions while existing universities are always interested in improving the prestige of their departments. While US universities receive significant criticism within the US, they have a strong global brand and a US PhD is prestige. PhD holders from US universities are globally rare and sought after, regardless of discipline. A PhD can be a credential for non-academic employment. International organizations and governments are eager to hire PhDs.

PhD holders are trained to be creators of new knowledge and in an information society that skill set is highly valuable.

Our information society thrives on the creation of new knowledge and PhD holders are an important part of that ecology. A PhD announces expertise at creating and sharing new knowledge in a critical and intellectually rigorous way. Disciplinarity is in some ways less important than the skill set that comes with the discipline. These skills are also very valuable outside of academia. I am a historian of computers and the same skills I use to sift through archives and construct narratives is equally useful when I consult on trends in technology policy.

I want to be paid for doing intellectually challenging work with people I like.

My happiness is important to me and I value it highly. Crucially, I do not define who or what or where my employer might be. I think of myself as a renaissance artisan or condottiere whose work is supported by a patron. When the funding runs out, the contract ends, or the interests of patron and scholar diverge, I must find a new patron. This does not diminish the quality of my work or my professionalism. This is the situation I find myself in currently. Northwestern has established itself in Qatar and is now developing a strong regional research program while I study White House computerization. “It’s nothing personal. It’s just business.”

Non-tenure track faculty are underpaid academic consultants.

Post-docs, visiting and adjunct faculty tread academic water hoping for a tenure track line, but most will drown without ever landing that position. If these academic consultants decided to ply their trade in the private sector, they would almost certainly command equal if not better compensation and work-life balance but this is not an easy choice because:

Academics tend to identify with their knowledge rather than their skills.

Academic position are frequently advertised by looking for scholars with knowledge in particular areas. The private sector is interested in what skills you have. For many academics, setting aside their knowledge in a subject and identifying with the skills of an archival researcher for instance can be difficult. One big exception are scholars who are methods pioneers. They tend to make the jump without a problem. This is compounded by the fact that:

Academia does not encourage taking risks.

Graduate students spend five or more years at the mercy of their committees. In some cases, this is a benevolent tyranny but in others it’s more like the Terror. Tenure-track faculty are no less ruled by tenure review committees. So for ten or more years, academics are encouraged to take some risks but only within circumscribed bounds. It’s no wonder that many academics fear a private sector job search.

It has never been easier to search for a job.

Internet ubiquity and the global hunger to fill challenging positions means that employment and networking opportunities abound. Spread your wings and move a little outside your comfort zone. Odds are your comfort zone is actually bigger than you thought it was.

Four Tips That Will Get You Noticed During a Job Interview

Today we are expanding on the topic of finding a job after the PhD. This guest post by Ross Jilling gives you some ideas on how to stand out when you go for a job in the industry.

The economy has made finding a job increasingly difficult, but when you reach the interview stage there are a few steps you can take to increase your chances of landing the position. Being polite, forthcoming, honest, prepared, well-dressed and having extra resumes are all excellent preparation to be made, but if you focus on a few key areas, you’ll stand apart from the pack and increase your chances tremendously. Companies want employees who can communicate well, are personable, and know how to behave in professional settings, and the following will help prove that you are capable of such tasks.

Speak With Authority
The most common mistake people make during interviews is to speak elaborately and meekly. Filler words such as “um” and “like” should be avoided while talking to the interviewer. If necessary, pause while speaking to collect your ideas instead of using filler words. The company wants to see that you can communicate effectively, and as a professional. Verb tense should never be passive, either. A passive tense is typically dull, and many people find it boring. Instead, use active tenses to increase your own energy and raise the interviewer’s interest.

Remaining confident and upbeat can also help, but don’t be disingenuous. An interviewer may think that you come off as fake if you behave with too high-levels of energy. Instead, try to maintain a natural and healthy level of positive energy.

Practice Your Posture
Aside from speech, your posture is the second most important outward trait that others will use to judge you. It’s important not to slouch, recline, or sit awkwardly. It’s also best not to lean against objects while standing and to retain an upright posture. While seated, sit upright, back straight, with your feet planted firmly on the floor, or crossed. Hands should remain at your sides while standing, or in your lap while sitting; never fiddle with objects, play with garments, or fidget since unnecessary distractions may interrupt your thoughts and make conversation awkward.

Eye contact is another important and often-neglected aspect of posture. It may be difficult, but don’t let your eyes wander while speaking to the interviewer. Eye contact creates a human connection, and it also affirms an assertive presence.

Personal Speech
There are common questions asked during nearly every interview. One is surely a variation of “tell me about yourself.” Always prepare for this question by creating a story about your past that has shaped your values, accomplishments, and goals. Make it informative but brief, so the interviewer may ask you questions afterward. Beforehand, do some research about the company and tie the organization’s values into your story as well.

Dress to Succeed
Most interviews will require business dress. For men, that means a button-down shirt and tie, slacks, and dress shoes. For women, it means a business suit, a blouse and skirt, or a dress paired with nice shoes. Appearing at an interview with a slovenly or casual appearance is unacceptable, and most interviewers will discard the interview, no matter how impressive you may be. Choose clothing that fits well and you’ll stand out on your own. Friends or family can help you choose clothing that works best, but remember to dress conservatively and in a way that doesn’t distract from the interview.

It’s important to stand out in a positive way during job interviews. Many interviewers will interview dozens of people, and your chances of getting the job drop dramatically if the interviewer cannot recall much about your time together. Speak clearly, maintain a strong presence, prepare a story that identifies you, dress well, and you’ll stand apart from the crowd.

Ross Jilling writes es all about employment and education. His recent work is a piece titled "Smart Choice 25 Best Online Colleges"

Finding employment outside of academia

Recently, I interviewed Samuel Oduneye, after his comment on "Getting a Job, after the PhD".

Samuel was awarded his PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto, and just starting working in management consulting (as a healthcare consultant). You can follow him on Twitter @Samuel_ITL .

As I got curious about the many opportunities freshly graduated doctors have in industry, that rely on the generic skills you learned during your PhD, I invited Samuel for an interview.



I've summarized some of the main points that Samuel taught me during the interview.

First of all, there are 3 things to consider for your post-PhD career:
1. Your title is important. It shows your credentials and it can count as a guarantee for a certain level that can be expected from you.
2. Your degree and your title can help you to get a foot in the door and build an audience, but they won't make your career. You'll need to show that you have something to bring to the table.
3. You need a plan!

Regardless of the career you choose after getting your PhD, there are 3 important skills that you learned in graduate school and that you can use as a selling point when you are applying for positions:
1. Communication: all this writing and presenting we did in the past years make us quite experienced communicators.
2. Teamwork: no PhD is a completely solitary experience. You might be working with lab technicians, other scientists, students or senior faculty, and this all teaches you how to perform in a team.
3. Analytical and problem-solving skills: besides solving riddles that were part of our PhD, we are suited for cracking tough nuts regardless of their field of application.

Finally, there is a number of common professions and career paths that are suitable for young doctors. CaleD wrote a series of posts on the blog of Medical Biophysics at University of Toronto, titled "The Inevitable Career Search". These blog posts help us think out of the box and off the well trodden path of academia. The following are careers that might appeal to you:
1. Management Consultancy: This is the career path Samuel chose, and you can hear his description in the interview.
2. Patent Lawyer or Patent Agent: Intellectual property is a buzzword these days, and your technical understanding can be required in a patent office.
3. Financial Services: The banks need people with strong analytical skills for data analysis.
4. Technical Writer: This career path lies relatively close to all the writing you did during the 4 to 5 years of your PhD.
5. Policy Analyst: Both in the public and private sector, your analytical skills will come in handy to weigh qualitative and/or quantitative data to help make informed decisions.
6. Technology Transfer and Business Development: Working at the intersection of industry, academia and law, you can use your communication skills and analytical skills to find a market for a research proposal.

If you have more questions on the possible career paths after your PhD, or management consultancy in particular, you can contact Samuel on Twitter.

Post-defense reality check: What should you do after defending your PhD

Celebrating in style, after the defense

Last June, I've successfully defended my PhD, received my diploma and enjoyed the honor of being called "Dr. Lantsoght" (or better, trying to convince people of doing so, and having the joy of selecting "Dr." from a drop-down menu while booking a flight).

The first month after my PhD was mostly spent on moving things, preparing for shipping a container to our new base and then trying to tie up all loose ends in Europe.

Now that the dust has settled, it is time to look back on those weeks that came after finishing the PhD (hint: they are equally messy as the final months of the PhD itself, and maybe a fore-bearer of what I should expect from academia from now on).

Yes, after you defend your PhD, you find some time to actually breathe.

No, that doesn't mean I've spent the entire summer on a tropical beach, reading books and sipping cocktails.

I've been busy as always, and I'm here to share with you what I felt were the best decisions I made upon finishing my PhD.

What could you do right after finishing, and before the regular humdrum of life takes over again?
Here's a list of what I felt was necessary, useful and productive to do:

1. Cleaning
Take some time to clean out your clutter and free some space in your office. Even though you might stay at the institution where you were awarded your PhD, this might be the right time to decide what you can discard. If you want to make the switch to a paperless office, the time is now. Scan paper from folders you gathered. Clear out everything you won't need anymore. All those prints of the drafts of your dissertation? Paper recycling!
Homeworks of courses that you were assisting? If the students have graduated, you can get rid of that!
And, now that we're at it - get a wipe with some disinfecting product and clean your desk - and try to keep it a little more empty.

2. Send copies of your dissertation
I ordered 250 copies of my dissertation from the printer, and I've distributed more than half of all these copies by now. Either in between printing and defending, or after defending, take some time to mail copies of your dissertation. I took the stack of business cards that I collected at conferences, and sent a copy to everyone who might be interested, and I also sent it to professors in my field.
Don't wait too long after finishing to send out your copies - in the months after finishing, you'll become increasingly critical of the work you produced.

3. Rekindle your network
You might have been engrossed in writing while you were preparing your dissertation. Right after finishing is the right time to schedule appointments to catch up with friends (for the love of the flying spaghetti monster, do go and celebrate) and former colleagues. Write some emails to people in your network to catch up with them.

4. Go on a tour
Look for events where you can speak about your work. These events might be conferences, but try to take it a step further. How about bringing your message to an audience from the industry, speaking in a local school about the value of your science, or giving a TEDx talk? Come out of your musty dusty lab and take your work into the broad lights of the world. The baby is born and it's ready to be shown to the world!

5. Celebrate in style
Is there something you always wanted to do? How about learning to surf, go on a long trip, visit a place you always wanted to see? In my case, I always wanted to go to Wacken Open Air, but never got tickets, time nor transport to get there. I planned this trip about a year in advance (or better: my best friend made it happen!), and it felt like a great celebration of finishing, and 4 days away from it all.

6. Update your CV
You got the degree, so make sure you update your CV. Don't forget to change your profiles all over the web, on the social media platforms you use, and certainly on LinkedIn, Academia.edu and ResearchGate.

7. Update your list of publications
Along the same lines as updating your CV goes updating your list of publications. Keep track of your publications, and add them online as well. From now on, you publications will be more important than ever.

8. Take some time off
Even if you can't get your dream holiday, take some time off. I tried getting back to writing about 1,5 weeks after my defense, and it was just too early. I couldn't get motivated to do anything, and I didn't get more done than a paragraph a day. Allow yourself enough time to fully relax.

9. Make a planning for publishing
If your thesis is a big book-style thesis and not a set of papers, then start to identify which papers you could write from your dissertation. Who would you invite as coauthors? Where would you submit? Make a table with this information, and plan when you want to write your first draft, by when you need to revisions of your coauthors and when you plan to submit. Do this earlier rather than later, and make writing these papers your priority for the next year. Don't let this sink to the bottom - writing is what counts.

10. Start something new
To get away from the research you've been working on for 3 or 4 years, bring the bubbles back into your brain by starting something new. If possible, work on a new project to keep things interesting. Otherwise, take on a small side project for your own interest, and start playing around with something new. Learn a new subject. Code in another language. Teach a course.

What were your priorities after finishing your PhD, or how are you planning to spend the months after finishing?

Getting a job, after the PhD

At the risk of landing in a bed of nettles, I've decided to write a post about getting a job after getting your degree. If you have an internet connection, and you read things online every now and then, you might have realized that your degree is not a guarantee for a job.

When both you and your partner are academic, the chance of the two of you being hired at the institution of your dreams, and being able to build up a life together, is fairly small.

You might interview with the industry, only to learn they find you either overqualified or want you to start from scratch, so that your longed for increase in salary after years of living as a student turns out to be really modest.

You might be looking into an uncertain future of jobs as a post-doc for a year here, and a year there and then not being able to set your roots into an institution at all.

Those are the risks of the kind of life that comes with getting a PhD.

But, on the other side, a lot is up to you: try some creative thinking and a dash of pride in your accomplishments, and you'll go a long way.

Very few students start their studies with the goal of Becoming a Professor. Getting a PhD is much more than simply getting ready to become a professor. My own path is not set in stone - I wouldn't be surprised if five years from now, I'd be doing something completely different. If you want to know what other options you have on your sleeve, try the following exercise:

• Take some time to asses again why you started your PhD in the first place.
• Then, try some good creative thinking out of the box, and determine which other career paths would satisfy your motivation.
• For every career path, list the skills you gathered during your PhD that could be to your advantage.
• For every career path, list the skills/knowledge that you lack.
• Do some preliminary searches on these career paths, and keep your options open.
• Go out, reach out and show your interest in trying something new. Use conferences and industry events to explore your possibilities.

And keep in mind that, whatever job you take after getting your degree, there's no such thing as being a "failure".
Your PhD was not a waste of your time if you turn out to end up in a completely different field.
If you leave your first job after a rather short time, then you certainly learned something about what precisely does not work for you.
But keep iterating until you find something that really clicks with you, so that you can fully lean into your career, wherever that might be.

Graduates from PhD programs end up in a wide variety of different jobs. You can read testimonies on What Are All the PhDs?, as well as on From PhD To Life. Jobs on Toast gives great advice for navigating the job market.

Have you thought of life after the PhD? Where do graduates from your program typically end up?

PhD Talk, post PhD

Dear lovely readers,

Some of you have wondered what my plans are for PhD Talk now that I have graduated and am not a PhD student anymore, so I thought a small glimpse into the future is in place.

My most honest answer to this question is: I'll keep working on this blog for as long as I enjoy doing so.
At the moment, I'm still very much enjoying writing here, and sharing my thoughts, adventures and lessons-learned with all of you.

In the Fall semester, I'll be moving to Ecuador to start as an Assistant Professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. As a result of that, there are a few new topics that most likely will appear here, such as:

• Life as an early career researcher
• Teaching (I'll start with 3 courses of my own)
• Expat life in Ecuador
• Moving abroad

By the same token, I still have a number of topics on my sleeve related to the PhD process that I will frequently share with you all.

I keep on aiming at three posts per week, as long as that remains feasible.
If possible, I'd like to incorporate more guest posts from aspiring, current and former PhD candidates. If you're interested, don't hesitate and get in touch with me!

Also, I -not so- secretly aspire writing an e-book that assembles all that I learned while writing my dissertation: stay tuned!

Over the past years, I've seen (too) many fellow PhD students getting stuck in the swamps. In my research group, I pretty much graduated before all the folks that started their programs earlier than me (and I don't want to sound snobbish about that, just matter-of-factish). I finished and defended 2,5 months before the end of my funding, while the norm at my institution seemed to be extensions, and sometimes even unemployment checks.
For full-time PhD students, I think it is perfectly possible to finish on time, within the originally devised time schedule. Unfortunately, a lot happens along the way, many things don't go as they should, and I would love to improve the system - one PhD student at a time. So tell me, how can I help you?

Let me know what support you are looking for, what you would like to learn about and what you'd like to see on this blog. I'd be more than happy to give you a little boost when needed.