Includes overview of workshop activities, sponsor services, and answers to common questions (first created 10/16/19, updated 4/15/22)
One of the first things we advise people to do when they're looking for work beyond the tenure track is to use LinkedIn. Outside of academia, LinkedIn is a common way to stay connected to people you've met or worked with throughout your career, and it is often the first place someone will look to learn about your background, skills, and interests. It can be a great way to build and use your network.
If you're not sure how to get started, check out this great presentation by Ben Erwin. He offers a lot of concrete advice on setting up your profile and getting the most out of using the site. Note that this presentation is geared toward educators transitioning to new careers, so some of the advice will be specific to education-related careers, but the general tips on setting up your profile and increasing your impact are generalizable to other types of career paths.
Many people who are considering leaving academia are stuck thinking about what their degrees are in/what their research is about, rather than focusing what skills they have and how those skills could be used in other contexts. The first step toward finding a job that's right for you is to take stock of what skills you've developed and which ones you'd most like to use going forward. This Twitter thread by Dr. Susan Wardell shows the variety of skills developed and used by professors. She created a visualization of the activities that fall under teaching, research, and service, but notes that these are based on her experience as a full-time senior lecturer in anthropology at a New Zealand university (analogous to a full professor in the United States). The full range of responsibilities, as well as how much time is spent on each, will vary by field, institution, and rank, but this graphic gives a nice starting point for considering what skills you may have developed (or want to develop more) during your training.
Academic CVs are a list of outcomes that are valued for faculty positions: grant funding, publications, presentations, courses taught, service, etc. One of the biggest questions most people have when leaving academia is how to turn their CV into a resume. Industry resumes are typically much shorter (one page for entry/junior level positions, two for mid-career, maybe longer for senior leadership positions) and focus on specific skills that are relevant to the targeted roles.
This google doc shows a table of examples "translating" academic accomplishments into business-focused language (shared across social media, originally in a Facebook post, more easily accessible through this LinkedIn post) This is also a handy resource for interview prep when thinking about what experiences you can describe to illustrate the skills that are sought for a particular role.
This online resume-builder may also be helpful, though it is far from perfect. When I (Vanessa) used it in the summer of 2020, it had an option to select the types of experience you've had (e.g., teaching a college course) and it would suggest bullet points to include on your resume as the related skills. Some were too vague to be useful, but were easy to edit and helped me think of more verbs/synonyms to describe my experiences and skills without sounding repetitive. At that time, some of the features were available free and others required payment. If you don't find a template design you like there, or want to use it just for ideas to implement elsewhere, I also recommend Canva for a wide variety of designs.
There are multiple consulting services available to review your resume and cover letter(s) to give specific feedback and guidance.
Started by Nicole Betz, PhD, while she was a post doc searching for a non-academic job, this Slack workspace is a place to discuss finding opportunities, resources, and interview prep. It looks like many of the participants have training in psychology or adjacent fields.
See this Twitter thread to read about Nicole's experience and find a link to join the workspace .
*NEW IN MAY 2022!* Nicole, along with Ashley Ruba, Kyle Ireton, and Adam Ostrowski have created a Twitter account @AltAcChats and hashtag #AltAcChats to create a space for people to chat about moving from academia to other career paths. If you include the hashtag in your tweets with questions or comments, the account will retweet for you to reach a broader audience.
by Beth M. Duckles and OPA Contributors
Booklet associated with the Open Post Academics program
You can also join the associated Slack group here
Beth M. Duckles heads the Open Post Academic Mentorship Program, which is incubated through the Mozilla Open Leaders program. The first cohort of the program launched in January 2020, applications were accepted in November 2019. Watch for further cohorts in the future!
To empower people with a PhD to share their knowledge and skills more openly.
To expand the network of participants to more people outside of academia
For participants to understand their skill set and how to apply those abilities to projects outside of academia.
To create a project that shares those skills openly.
If you are interested in becoming a mentor, a part of the expert pool or a participant in a future cohort, please sign up to receive updates.
Additional resources for career development can be found on her workshop site.
If you are currently a university student or employee, be sure to check out your institution's career counseling services. Many offer resources specific to translating doctoral training to non-academic careers. Some publicly-available examples that have been shared with me:
https://grad.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Resumes-and-Cover-Letters-IME-Jan-2017_0.pdf
Please feel free to send me others that you think I should post through the Contact page