Interview with Jennifer Polk - Ep. 43
PhD Talk
English - September 22, 2021 10:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MB - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsEducation Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
In today's episode, we interview Dr. Jennifer Polk, who has a PhD in history (2012) and has been working as a career coach and consultant since 2013. She is an expert on the challenges PhDs face transitioning to employment.
We learn from Jen how she went from being a PhD in history to a career coach, and what her research back then has in common with the work she does nowadays. She explains us the different steps one should go through when starting to think about a career after the PhD (spoiler alert: self-reflection is incredibly important).
We also talk about what supervisors and universities can do to give more attention to life after the PhD during graduate school, and hear Jen's recommendations for books with career advice.
Finally, we talk about a day in the life, the impact of COVID-19 on Jen's work, how she sets boundaries to work, and her best advice for PhD candidates.
Where to find Jennifer Polk online
Reading recommendations
What color is your parachute (updated by Katherine Brooks) Karen Kelsky - The Professor is In Hillary Hutchinson - Scaling the ivory tower Leaving academia - Christopher Catherine So what are you going to do with that? - Susan Basalla Career advice blogs on Inside Higher Ed Carpe Career column Jennifer’s curated reading listOther resources mentioned in this episode
Lauren Easterling - list of jobs / career paths in biomedical sciences Council of graduate schools Canadian association of graduate studies CAGS' Upcoming conference: Care, Social justice, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies Graduate career consortium GPDN Graduate and Professional Development Network