University Career Advising for PhDs

The standard outcome of a career counseling session is helping the client to set goals to achieve both during the session and afterwards, as the individual takes next steps in their career exploration or job search process.

Read through the scenario above in “The Exercise”. Imagine that the information provided about Alex’s situation has emerged from the start of your conversation.

Task 1

Build on what you know and identify 1-2 achievable goals for the session; then, list 5 questions you might ask over the course of an hour session working with Alex.

Sample

Goals:

1. Identify strengths and weaknesses of current work situation

2. Clarify and underscore motivation(s) for change

Questions:

1. Tell me about yourself. How did you come to be a postdoc at MidWestern University? What did you enjoy most about the postdoc experience? What was your biggest obstacle?

2. You mentioned that you feel “burnt out” on your research now. Are there times when you don’t feel that way? What do you like most about it? Teaching?

3. What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t working?

4. Is there anyone you have met recently who, when telling you about their work, made you think, “Wow! That sounds really interesting. I think I’d really enjoy that”?

5. What feels most difficult when thinking about shifting career paths?

Task 2

Follow up with Alex in a 150-200 word email in response to his most recent correspondence.

Sample

Dear Alex,

Thanks for your message. Congratulations on the work you have done to narrow your career focus to Research and Analysis. I’m glad you reached out to get help thinking about next steps even though we cannot meet in person. I would recommend that you begin learning more about the range of opportunities in the field. A few things you could do before we meet again.

1) Identify 3-4 people with whom you could conduct an informational interview. If you don’t know anyone in your immediate personal network, use LinkedIn and the MidWestern University’s Alumni Database to see if you can find people to reach out to.

2) Start learning about companies and organizations who employ people to do Research and/or Analysis. Make notes about the nature of the work, what interests you most about it, and the job titles of people who are doing work there that most interests you.

3) By extension, you might also run some very broad job searches on sites like HigherEdJobs.com or Glassdoor.com to get a sense of the kinds of jobs that most interest you and the skills desired.

Since you are still conducting research, you don’t need to limit the search geographically. Instead, gather as much information as you can about the jobs so you can start thinking about how your experience and knowledge aligns.

The last two exercises can also help you come up with topics to discuss and questions to ask during the informational interviews. Let me know if you have any questions, and do get in touch when you are able to meet again.

Sincerely,
Jane