For those PhDs who are energized by the excitement of a university campus but decide that a traditional academic role is not a good fit, David McDonald, assistant director of career services at Duke who works with doctoral students, suggests that they consider a wide range of teaching and administrative possibilities within the wider university…
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A Humanities Careers Timeline for the PhD Student
By Matthew Woodbury, Research Assistant, The Humanities PhD Project Among her opening remarks at the University of Michigan’s Career Connections Conference, Dr. Fatimah Williams Castro (Founder and CEO of Beyond the Tenure Track) emphasized the importance of preparation and planning to a successful job search. Instead of waiting for the last semester to consider post-graduation…
Job Tips for International Students
Twenty-five percent of Rackham doctoral students in the humanities are international students. Non-resident status adds an additional challenge to the work of identifying, applying to, and securing employment. In this article from InsideHigherEd, Gaeun Seo provides a perspective on seeking for a job as an international student. Processes of identifying what you are good at…
Recap: A Tool Kit for Doctoral Student Career Planning
In May 2017, the MLA’s Connected Academics Initiative published a guide for PhD programs and faculty about doctoral student career planning. This past January, at the MLA conference in New York, Kalle Westerling attended a Connected Academics Initiative event on “Doctoral Student Career Planning.” Designed for faculty and advisors in academic institutions—especially those who wanted to advise their students…
Humanities, Communications, and Philanthropy: What I Learned Sharing the Barbour Scholars Story
By Elizabeth Harlow, Doctoral Candidate, English Language & Literature As the University of Michigan commemorated its bicentennial in 2017, one of its most storied programs also marked the major milestone of its 100th anniversary. I spent last summer learning and telling the history of the Barbour Scholarship as a Mellon Public Humanities Fellow on the…
Advice for PhDs Seeking Non-Faculty Jobs
This article by Jennifer Polk is based on responses from panelists at the 5th annual Beyond the Professoriate conference. Her piece suggests patience, exploring options, the confident application of knowledge and skills, and considering how professional identity can derive from or be a reconceptualization of one’s academic identity.
2019 HWW National Predoctoral Career Diversity Residential Summer Workshop
2019 HWW National Predoctoral Career Diversity Residential Summer Workshop Due September 30 2018 The Humanities Without Walls consortium based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications from doctoral students pursuing degree in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to participate in this three-week, in-residence summer workshop in 2019. This is a limited-submission application.…
UM Career Center Resume and Cover Letter Tips for PhD Students
A new resource for PhDs from UM’s Career Center includes worksheets that can help identify transferable skills and construct narratives that make the skills developed during a doctorate legible to employers. The packet also provides “brief introductions that explain various application materials, reflection tools that can help … articulate your experience, examples of application materials, and, core…
Resumes and Cover Letters for PhD Students
This resource for creating cover letters and resumes developed by Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences Office of Career Services includes answers to FAQs about preparing resumes and cover letters, a useful word bank for describing various career experiences, nine examples of resumes tailored to particular interests or career trajectories, and sample cover letters.
Preparing for Humanities Careers: Suggestions for Doctoral Students and Departments
By Matthew Woodbury, Doctoral Candidate, Department of History As a historian, when asked to explain what I do, one reply is to say I study change and continuity over time. This month that methodological approach takes a personal turn; there are a few changes on my horizon as I reach the final weeks of my…