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...
Dear Reader, Something interesting happened in the small-group discussion with my program members this week. About seven people attended the small group discussion I hosted for program members, and the first question was about skills-based resumes: W...
Dear Reader, I've got three quick things for you: Heated Rivalry, JenBot, and a program update. Scroll down for more info on what's relevant to you, or you can stop reading right now 😀 — First: Heated Rivalry (the TV show). Last week, I posted on Li...
Dear Reader, One of the frameworks I really like for PhDs and other academics going through a professional transition, including a potential career change, is the VIA ("values in action") character strengths. A bit different from workplace strengths...
Dear Reader, Happy New Year! (Who else is still at the cottage? iykyk) Let's talk about 2026 and what we need now. Me? I need fun. There's not enough fun in my life. I spent too many years on Twitter not to immediately want to caveat that with I KNOW...
Dear Reader, I’ve been working on something new (fun!) and I’m not sure how I feel about it (hmm!). The new thing is a chatbot based on my approach to career transition coaching for PhDs. It’s a guided reflection tool designed to help users better un...
Dear Reader, The interviewer smiled politely. You could almost hear the quiet click of a mental file cabinet: PhD. Postdoc. Researcher. Each time Divya (not her real name), a PhD scientist with years of lab and data experience, described the projects...
