Navigating through graduate school? Don’t wait to find your dream job

Are you a “roller coaster”? According to Andy Spencer, at Science careers.org, coasters are graduate students who don’t think much about what they want to do with their career. They focus instead on simply getting a degree, thinking they’ll be able to figure out what to do with it once they graduate. Roller coasters have blind faith that there will be plenty of opportunities for anyone with a Ph.D. and postdoc.

This is a very dangerous assumption. Mapping out what you want to do and where you want to go in your career spurs a lot of burning questions about what it will take to get there. As you search for the answers to these questions, you will begin to build a solid base of knowledge and contacts. Before you know it, your search for answers will have launched a professional network…and networking is what will open up career opportunities! Blindly completing your coursework with no idea where you’re headed, on the other hand, won’t get you any closer to a dream job, a dream postdoc, or the person who can help you get there.

If you’re currently a Coaster, start thinking NOW about what you want to do in your “life after grad school.” Focus on doing what YOU want! Find out what kind of research you like and would be interested in doing for the rest of your life. Not only will that help you enjoy grad school that much more, but it will likely play a key role in landing a permanent position that you’ll love.

As you progress through graduate school, the culmination of years of study may force you to consider two paths diverging in seemingly opposite directions. Should I pursue an “academic” or “non-academic” career?

Just because you’re pursuing a master’s or doctorate doesn’t automatically mean you should become a teacher or ultimately pursue a career in higher education. To help you make a more informed decision or to help you negotiate a better starting salary, take a look at median teacher salaries for 2006-07.

A weak academic job market could encourage you to look beyond the ivory tower. After years of working on his thesis or dissertation, he may come to believe that he is “trained for nothing.” However, you have acquired some marketing skills:

However, finding an academic job is not as simple as sending the perfect cover letter along with the perfect resume. Most academic jobs require a resume (rather than a resume), letters of recommendation, writing samples, copies of teaching evaluations, transcripts, and sometimes a copy of the syllabus for a course you’ve taught .

Academic papers are published in cycles throughout the year, reflecting the resources and schedules of each department. As a result, some of the hottest jobs could be posted before the end of the year. So if you wait until you finish your thesis or dissertation to start your job search, you may very well have your Ph.D. in hand only to find that your dream job has already been handed over to someone else. You will be devastated to learn that the position was posted early and you missed the deadline.

Be sure to read the December 2005 issue of FinishLine for information on how to better prepare for the academic job market. A “must” is to explore whether academic and professional associations in your discipline maintain job listings; Depending on your current finances, it may be worth paying the Association membership fee if doing so can lead to good job opportunities.

Also, be a frequent visitor to the following regular links, which include job listings of interest to scholars in all fields. (You can search by state and academic discipline.) Some of these links send daily or weekly updates directly to your email if you sign up with them. Registration is FREE and you can unsubscribe whenever you want.

The Chronicle of Higher Education/Career Network

Higher Education Jobs.Com

academic360.com

Miscellaneous Issues in Higher Education

Within higher education

Science Careers.org

Nonprofit career counseling groups

If you’re interested in taking the road less traveled by doctors, consider reading Gaberiela Montell’s article on finding a non-academic job, in Chronicle Careers. She provides a list of web resources where she can find helpful information and job listings in a variety of alternative careers.