Academia and the World Beyond: Navigating Life after a PhD

Christopher R. Madan

Springer Nature, Aug 23, 2022 - Psychology - 242 pages

A common question posed to PhD students from friends and family is, “What will you do after?” But many students are too focused on the PhD itself and have not yet had a chance to sufficiently think about post-PhD life. This book is a collection of 22 interviews with those have completed a PhD and then are now in an academic position or another career path. In either case, they have all been successful and have a multitude of insights to share with those who are interested in considering a variety of careers. Academic careers share many commonalities with many non-academic careers, with skills learned within academia being valuable in other career paths as well. Nearly all the individuals interviewed here have been on the job market recently and understand today's job climate. No other book on the market includes the diversity of perspectives presented here. In particular, the focus on psychology and neuroscience draws from a variety of individuals that have similar training but havenonetheless taken divergent paths.

Contents

• A PhD Is a Journey But Where Will It Lead?: 1
• A Career Path in Open Science Has Been a Great Fit: 11
• Technical Skills Are Always Useful No Matter What Youre Actually Working On: 23
• Align Your Mission and Vision with Your Next Steps After Your PhD: 30
• I Might Have More of a Knack for Science Communication Than for Doing Actual Science: 39
• You Should Create a Job That Youll Never Need a Vacation from and Turn It into a Career: 53
• A PhD Has Helped Me Learn How to Think Through Problems: 61
• A PhD in Industry Is a Revered Qualification: 69
• No Matter How Specific Your Interests There Are Options Out There: 79
• I Am Pretty Interested in Coding Technology and Infrastructure: 90
• There Is an Enormous Market for PhDs in Technical Sales Positions: 101
• I Had No Idea That the Option to Pursue a Career as a Professional Scientific Editor Even Existed: 111
• Having a PhD Is Seen as a Strong Asset When Being Considered for Hire as an Intellectual Property Attorney: 118
• I Advocate on Behalf of Psychological Science Before the US Congress: 129
• Finding Your Passion and Staying Authentic: 137
• To Thrive at an Undergraduate Institution One Must Love Teaching and Advising: 150
• I Really Enjoy the Hectic Multitude of Jobs I Get to Complete in Any One Day: 161
• Find a Mentor Someone Who Loves to Teach and Who Is Good at It: 170
• Be Bold and Go for Opportunities Outside Your Comfort Zone: 183
• I Get to Travel a Lot and Talk to Many Really Smart and Thoughtful People: 195
• Your Skills Are Valuable and You Likely Have Many Options After Your PhD: 203
• Running a Research Lab Is Like Running a Small Business with a Highly Uncertain Constantly Fluctuating Budget: 216
• There Are Many Reasons That People Succeed in Academia: 229
• Index: 237

About the author

Dr. Christopher Madan is Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham. He studies memory using a combination of cognitive psychology, neuroimaging, and computational modeling methods, with a particular interest in what factors makes some experiences more memorable than others (such as emotion, reward, and motor processing) and how these influences can manifest in future behavior, such as decision making. He also specializes in characterizing inter-individual differences in brain morphology, particularly with respect to aging, dementia, and cognitive abilities. Dr. Madan received a 2021 Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society and a 2017 Rising Star award from the Association for Psychological Science. Dr. Madan received a 2021 Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society and a 2017 Rising Star award from the Association for Psychological Science. He is a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society and AdvanceHE and has been elected to the membership of the Memory Disorders Research Society.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Academia and the World Beyond: Navigating Life after a PhD; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
• Editor: Christopher R. Madan
• Publisher: Springer Nature, 2022
• ISBN: 3030826066, 9783030826062
• Length: 242 pages
• Subjects: Medical / General; Philosophy / General; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition; Psychology / General; Psychology / Research & Methodology; Science / Cognitive Science; Science / Life Sciences / Neuroscience