PhDone - What Next?As an academic you may be likely to have career gaps or be inclined to take one. Overall, a career gap is personal to your journey and important. When it comes to job searching, it’s important you’re able to explain your career gap positively and offer reassurance you’re ready to thrive in the world of work again.
Historically, you should stay in a job for a minimum of 2 years. It’s becoming more common for people to move after 1 year. Changing jobs comes with both pros and cons, here we discuss them in detail.
Good work habits are important throughout our professional careers. Your PhD offers you a chance to perfect them. Knowing how to manage your motivation, time, productivity, and prevent burnout whilst also ensuring you keep developing is key to thriving in any career whether that be in academia or beyond.
Landing a promotion in the workplace is often seen as the benchmark for success. However, most academics don’t approach this in the right way. To help achieve a promotion it’s important to leave our feelings at the door, keep the conversation open, and to start the discussion as early as possible.
Knowing what to put in your CV and résumé is the first step. To take it to the next level it’s important to portray the same information but in a more aesthetic, simple, and professional way. Being able to express yourself and your personal brand from the first interaction will improve your chances of landing your dream job.
The pomodoro technique is a popular method to improve productivity whilst keeping you motivated. This post provides a succinct breakdown of the pomodoro technique, how to use it, the evidence to support it plus a few handy apps to help you implement this into your daily routine.
Academia is often siloed and a lonely journey. Knowing how to foster your career visibility in the workplace doesn’t come naturally to academics and PhDs. It’s an important skill to learn and develop when outside of academia. It will be essential to supercharging your career progression.
Being methodical is the key to keeping the big picture in mind. It’s important to move away from a reactive and reactional state of mind for any job. Thinking about the strategic direction for your role, team, or company will fast-track your career success.
When it comes to career changing, it’s inevitable that you’ll be asked ‘why leave academia’. If you’re not careful, your answer could ruin the interview. It’s important to pause and use it as an opportunity to emphasise what attracts you to the current role, helping to elevate your personal brand.
Being a manager isn’t as straight forward as it seems. Having adept interpersonal skills to foster support and develop those around you is essential. As you progress up the ladder it’s important to think about your manager shadow – how others perceive you, model and emulate your behaviour.