I just wanted to make sure that those of you who are on the non-academic and academic job markets know about Interfolio. Its main strengths seem to play best to those doing a high-level or academic job search, since one of its key functions is managing and shepherding along your letters of reference. If your campus career centre doesn’t already do this, the service is a great way to get your letters out without constantly nagging your referees. There is also a document-sharing feature, so if you need a quick, tidy way of, say, getting copies of your dissertation out to people, this would be ideal.
But it could be beneficial to those focussing on a non-academic search: one really nifty thing it offers is a portfolio option, which essentially is a web page with nice, clean layout that helps you establish your online identity. This is something that job hunters inside academia and out can really benefit from. If you don’t have the chutzpah to set up a blog or the skills/money to establish a website, getting set up on Interfolio would be a great way for you to have a professional presence online. Of course, this is the main reason why I’m not using Interfolio, ’cause I don’t need much help in that regard! But perhaps you do, readers.
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I know it’s unusual for me to throw two posts in one day up on the site, but today is an exception. I just want to formally announce that I’ve set up an array of services for those of you who are thinking about leaving academia and need a bit of extra assistance beyond this blog (and the other online resources you may already be accessing).
At the top, you’ll see a “Services” tab, and if you click on the page, you’ll find that I’ve got three kinds of offerings that you might find useful. The first is a series of workshops and seminars that I’m cooking up. These are talks that I conduct either in-person at your campus career centre, departmental meeting, graduate student association, etc. We can also arrange for a webinar or teleconference in the event that time, distance and money prevents us from meeting in person. The workshops are, for the most part, designed to be totally hands-on, so that you’ll actually walk away from the talk with a sense that you’ve moved closer to figuring out whether you want to leave and if so, how. Workshop and seminar topics include:
- Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Weighing the pros and cons when deciding whether to leave academia.
- Preparing For Your Non-Academic Career: A workshop designed to show grad students how to cover their bases while still in school–without diverting their attention from getting their degree.
- Transferable Skills For People Who Feel Like They Don’t Have Any: A hands-on workshop helps participants translate their academic experience into language employers understand. Participants will leave this workshop with a personalized list of their own transferable skills.
- From CV to Résumé: A hands-on workshop demonstrates how to slash, burn and rewrite an academic CV, transforming it into a killer résumé. Participants arrive with a CV and leave with a draft of their new résumé.
- Envisioning Your Post-Academic Career: What does life have in store for you after you leave? This workshop will create an opportunity to start picturing what your next career could be, and will identify concrete steps you can take to get there.
These workshops can be combined to make a half-day or full-day presentation of career-change goodness.
The second service I offer is individual advising (typically over the phone). Maybe you feel really stuck and need some help figuring out what direction you should go in. Maybe you feel like you don’t need help over the long haul, but just want a one-hour session converting your CV to a résumé. Maybe you are totally daunted by identifying your transferable skills and need a handful of meetings to sort those out. I can give you that kind of assistance on a one-off or a long-term basis. And if I know I can’t help you, I can recommend a certified life coach who is specifically trained in helping you get to the next chapter in your life (and she’s a former academic, to boot!).
Beyond that, I’m also offering research and consulting services to universities, funding agencies and post-secondary sector agencies.
Why should you hire me? I’ve been through what you’re going through. I survived grad school and made the decision to leave. I’ve transitioned into the private sector and have created a life that I love. I’ve done research into how other former academics landed happily in successful careers. I’m also familiar with the research that’s been done into post-academic careers. I’m up-to-date on the latest trends on résumé-writing. I offer sliding-scale fees, too, depending on your situation. And most of all, I’m totally committed to helping other people make the transition out of academia in a way that minimizes the heartache and emphasizes all of the possibilities your life has to offer you.
If you’re interested in learning more about any of these offerings, please email me at sabine [at] sabinehikel [dot] com.
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