Dear Reader, I spoke with a PhD researcher this week who's applying for roles in and out of academia. You might think I'm going to say that's too scattered, but I didn't get that impression about her job search. She seemed quite focused on her area o...

Dear Reader, You're doing things. Reading job ads. Tweaking your materials. Applying. But it’s not really working. What would it be like if you were applying and interviewing for roles you were excited about, in places you wanted to live, with employ...

Dear Reader, Can writing on LinkedIn actually help your job search? It’s a question that's on the minds of many of the PhDs I work with. Recently, I attended a workshop led by Julia Gray, PhD, who teaches academics how to write like humans. And I was...

Dear Reader, Here’s a misconception PhDs often have about career coaches: That you’re paying for advice. I get why people think this. And I also get why you wouldn't want to do that, especially if money is tight. I mean, advice is everywhere, and it'...

Dear [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], Quick reminder that IMPACT 2026 is tomorrow, and I’ll be leading a short session called Leave Toward Something. In that session, we’ll begin creating what I call a "leaving inventory." When people leave academia, the focu...

Dear [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], I was recently a guest on Paulina's Cossette's YouTube channel/podcast. (She teaches academics how to turn themselves into editors and she's awesome.) We talked about how lot of job searching PhDs assume their problem is...

Dear Reader, In a small-group coaching session, we talked about something that makes a lot of academics uncomfortable, namely, selling ourselves. Someone joked that maybe we need to borrow a bit of "gym-bro energy" from corporate spaces. We laughed....

Dear Reader, tl;dr: Check out IMPACT 2026 (5 Mar, $49). More below. One of my clients is a long-time tenured professor sorting out her next steps. Recently, she’s been documenting her experiences. She’s reflecting on what she’s done, and in particula...

Dear Reader, If you’re questioning your professional future, you might be spending a lot of time on LinkedIn and job boards. You click the Jobs tab and start scrolling. You search for relevant roles using keywords. In between, you tweak your resume f...

Dear Reader, “Can’t you just tell me what job would make sense for me?” It's rare that someone asks me that directly, but it's often implied in emails and messages I get from PhDs. And I totally get why someone would think I can do that, and why they...