The Versatile Phd

Are you a graduate student in the Humanities and Social Sciences? Are you worried about your future or wondering about nonacademic careers? Help is on the way.

The Versatile Phd Pitch

A new resource called The Versatile PhD is now available to you that demystifies nonacademic careers for humanists and social scientists. It can show plausible career paths and provide robust support should you decide to prepare for a possible non-academic career. You can:

• Read first-person narratives written by real humanities and social science PhDs and ABDs who have established non-academic careers, describing how they did it and sharing their advice from experience
• Join a thriving, supportive web-based community where you can dialogue with “Versatile PhDs” in and outside the academy

The service is completely confidential.  No one at any university will know you are using this website unless you tell them.

Access to The Versatile PhD is password protected to insure that only authorized members of the Syracuse University community take advantage of these key resources. Once you click the link below, you will be prompted for the proper user name and password (your netid and password). Once entered, you will find links to a number of resources that will help you to with your non academic career search. Questions about how to make maximum use of these resources may be directed to Rosanne Ecker, Graduate Student Associate Director at Career Services.

The Versatile PhD is a web-based resource for graduate students, Ph.D.’s, alumni, and postdoctoral fellows interested in exploring non-academic careers. The site can be accessed from any computer and is confidential. The Versatile PhD is currently mainly for those in the humanities and social sciences, BUT, a second forum was created this year for science, technology, engineering and math students.

 Continued Versatile Phd Pitch

While many areas of the site are open to everyone, UW-Madison is now a subscriber, which means that current students, faculty, staff and recent alumni get access to the high-quality Premium Content Area of the Versatile PhD site. Here’s what you’ll find:

• A thriving and supportive web-based community where you can participate in discussions and network with actual “Versatile PhDs”, or just listen and learn
• Examples of successful resumes and cover letters that resulted in humanities and social science doctoral program graduates getting their first post-academic positions
• A collection of compelling first-person narratives written by successful humanities and social science PhDs and ABDs, describing how they established their non-academic careers, and including their actual application materials
• Successful CV-to-resume conversions that resulted in a PhD or ABD getting hired into his or her first non-academic position
• Archived panel discussions featuring PhDs working in non-academic fields who describe their jobs and answer questions from members

The Versatile Phd: Another way to look at it

This morning I received a message from my university’s career center informing me that they now subscribe to a pay-for service called “The Versatile PhD” which has:

* Examples of successful resumes and cover letters that real PhDs and ABDs used to get their first post-academic positions

* A collection of first-person narratives written by successful non-academic PhDs and ABDs, describing how their careers have developed after grad school until now

* Archived panel discussions where PhDs and ABDs working in specific non-academic fields describe their jobs and answer questions.  Past topics include Federal Government, Policy Analysis, Freelance Writing and Editing, Higher Education Consulting, Management Consulting, and University Administration.

In an effort to understand this service (after I determined that my university login was not working to get me access to the site), I went to their website and learned that it’s geared especially towards the Humanities and Social Sciences, “to help humanities and social science PhDs identify and prepare for possible non-academic careers. We want them to be informed about employment realities, educated about nonacademic career options, and supported in preparing for a range of possible careers, so that in the end, they have choices.”  It’s a laudable goal, and I commend the Versatile PhD service and my uni’s Career Center for providing options for all of us unemployable PhD-types.  But it seems to me, that such stories are available in many places online, such as in Bethany Nowviskie’s open-source (i.e. free) book “#alt-ac: Alternate Academic Careers for Humanities Scholars.”

Call me cynical, but it seems to me that the Career Center could better serve its Humanities constituents by giving them the skills to search the web and become digitally literate in open-source offerings rather than offering canned content about possible careers from a proprietary service.

Do you agree?

From PostAcademic.org

We’ve mentioned the WRK4US listserv maintained by Paula Chambers, which is pretty much the best-known online resource for Ph.D.-types transitioning to work off the tenure-track.  Well, the listserv is in the midst of metamorphosing into The Versatile Ph.D., a website that still does all the things WRK4US did, but with more new features and a more accessible online interface.  The confidential email-delivered discussions are now happening on message boards, so you can participate at the website and opt out of receiving email updates if your inbox (like mine) is too cluttered.  Nonetheless, the discussions are still confidential, since you have to be a member of the Versatile Ph.D. community to participate.  If anything, networking and taking part in the good vibes of the helpful, supportive discussions are probably easier in this format, since there’s a list of participants and a search function for members on the website.  Basic membership is free and only requires some info about yourself.

It’s now also easier to access information like job postings and events, since they are tabbed at a menu at the top of the page.  There are more new projects in the works at the site, including a premium content area geared towards institutional members who can subscribe and gain access to non-academic job search info for their grad students.  Check it out for yourself, whether you’re a WRK4US veteran or a curious newbie looking for something to browse while you procrastinate from dissertating.