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I'm only 2 weeks into my new job & I feel this way so strongly! I told my therapist last week that I don't really believe it & feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. In grad school, I lost hope that a job I loved that used my PhD & was good for my mental health existed https://twitter.com/FromPhDtoLife/status/1288116283750223889
In my last few years of dissertating I was so isolated, depressed, anxious, & just personally lost. What I was passionate about when I started grad school I didn't recognize or care about. I just needed to be done. All that work & I couldn't find my passion anymore. That sucked.
I assumed that since I didn't want to do research, & I needed out of academia for my mental health, that I had done all that work to complete my PhD for nothing. That I couldn't use it.
I took a PT job after graduation tutoring high school students and, honestly, I loved it! I loved that I got to teach, help students, and felt like I had value again - like I could contribute & help others. It felt good & was refreshing & helped me heal.
That PT job turned into a fulltime job, where still not using my degree directly - as a manger - I was able to learn new skills, understand how a corporation functioned, and found myself really enjoying my work, the people I worked with. Most importantly, I was healthy.
Through that FT job, I had the opportunity to work with instructional designers, understand how to build content & curriculum in the online space, and work with folks of varied backgrounds. More & more my interdisciplinary background & time in higher ed was proving valuable.
And that job & the opportunities I had to learn & grow as part of it led me to my current job - Learning Experience Designer. I get to meet with professors weekly to help them design awesome interactive courses for high schoolers!
Day to day I meet with professors, do a lot of editing (my favorite activity to do for colleagues in grad school), and brainstorm fun activities to translate their work to pre-college students.
Literally, it's the job I got my PhD for, even if I didn't need a PhD to do it. In my NSF GRFP I wrote that I was earning my PhD so that I could be in charge of education programs that inspire students. Exactly what I'm doing.
You don't need a PhD to be a Learning Experience Designer - but in my case, as I work closely with professors, I know that my PhD holds value & gives us a rapport that I wouldn't have otherwise. It gives us an instant connection understand & that has been really valuable.
In grad school, I once shared with a professor & institute director that I'd love to work with professors & help create education programs. They told me I *had* to be tenured to do that or else professors wouldn't listen to me. From my recent experience - that is bullshit.
I was also told that my interdisciplinary background would make it so no one wanted to hire me. That I needed to pick a specialty and stick to it or I just wouldn't be marketable. Also bullshit.
A reason I got this job is because of my interdisciplinarity, my diverse knowledge.
A reason I got this job is because of my interdisciplinarity, my diverse knowledge.
Sure, maybe in the TT world some of that advice would hold true, I don't know.
For the alt-ac education world that I'm in: my PhD adds value, my interdisciplinarity adds value, my passion & love for teaching adds value, my #scicomm experience adds value
For the alt-ac education world that I'm in: my PhD adds value, my interdisciplinarity adds value, my passion & love for teaching adds value, my #scicomm experience adds value
Things I was told, point-blank, in grad school that detracted from my research and marketability - these things add value.
The things I am passionate about, that I am rediscovering my passion for. They add value.
YOUR passions add value. Cultivate them.
The things I am passionate about, that I am rediscovering my passion for. They add value.
YOUR passions add value. Cultivate them.
In grad school, especially depending on your adviser & program - cultivating your non-research passions can feel incredibly difficult, if not impossible. They did for me for a long time. I did not do a good job of cultivating them, I lost them completely for a while.
Having them back, re-discovering my excitement for education is invigorating. It's refreshing, it's healing.
I had no idea my current job/career tract existed - but I am so glad, & thankful, that I found it.
I had no idea my current job/career tract existed - but I am so glad, & thankful, that I found it.
This thread, per usual, got longer than I anticipated & I'm not sure where to end it. So, I'll just give this reminder & link to my recent article on this topic:
"Your value, your worth, goes far beyond what you achieve in the ivory tower*"
https://katiewedemeyer.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/katie-ws-spectra-may-2020.pdf
"Your value, your worth, goes far beyond what you achieve in the ivory tower*"
https://katiewedemeyer.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/katie-ws-spectra-may-2020.pdf
*If you are TT, or hope to be TT - that is awesome! We need people who want to take that route and people who don't. We are all in this together, and we are all more than our research.
