Academia and the World Beyond, Vol. 1: Navigating Life after a PhD

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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 have nonetheless taken divergent paths.

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Table of Contents

[1] Introductory chapter by Christopher R. Madan [pdf]
(“A PhD is a journey, but where will it lead?”)

Interviews with
[2] Ana E. Van Gulick (Figshare)
[3] Matthew B. Wall (Invicro London; Imperial College London; University College London)
[4] Maira Quintanilha (Quali Q Inc.)
[5] Jens Foell (Florida State University; maiLab)
[6] Alice S. N. Kim (Teaching and Learning Research in Action)
[7] Aaron Moss (CloudResearch)
[8] Joseph M. Moran (Rapid7; Google)
[9] Alison Caldwell (University of Chicago; Neuro Transmissions)
[10] Arfon M. Smith (Space Telescope Science Institute; GitHub Inc.)
[11] Cleyde V. Helena (ASC Group LLC)
[12] Stavroula Kousta (Nature Human Behaviour)
[13] Anastasia Greenberg (Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)
[14] K. Andrew DeSoto (Association for Psychological Science)
[15] Muireann Irish (University of Sydney)
[16] Jessica M. Karanian (Fairfield University)
[17] Gavin Buckingham (University of Exeter)
[18] Kelly J. Arbeau (Trinity Western University)
[19] Elliot A. Ludvig (University of Warwick)
[20] Eiko I. Fried (Leiden University)
[21] Simine Vazire (University of Melbourne)
[22] Lucina Q. Uddin (University of California Los Angeles)
[23] Jamie L. Hanson (University of Pittsburgh)