Interview with Jennifer Polk - Ep. 43

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Jennifer Polk, who has a PhD in history (2012) and has been working as a career coach and consultant since 2013. She is an expert on  the challenges PhDs face transitioning to employment.

We learn from Jen how she went from being a PhD in history to a career coach, and what her research back then has in common with the work she does nowadays. She explains us the different steps one should go through when starting to think about a career after the PhD (spoiler alert: self-reflection is incredibly important).

We also talk about what supervisors and universities can do to give more attention to life after the PhD during graduate school, and hear Jen's recommendations for books with career advice.

Finally, we talk about a day in the life, the impact of COVID-19 on Jen's work, how she sets boundaries to work, and her best advice for PhD candidates.

Where to find Jennifer Polk online

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook Page
• LinkedIn
• University Affairs blog
• Newsletter (the PhD Career Clarity course will be announced through the newsletter) 
• Degrees of Success 

Reading recommendations

• What color is your parachute (updated by Katherine Brooks) 
• Karen Kelsky - The Professor is In 
• Hillary Hutchinson - Scaling the ivory tower 
• Leaving academia - Christopher Catherine 
• So what are you going to do with that? - Susan Basalla 
• Career advice blogs on Inside Higher Ed 
• Carpe Career column 
• Jennifer’s curated reading list

Other resources mentioned in this episode

• Lauren Easterling - list of jobs / career paths in biomedical sciences 
• Council of graduate schools 
• Canadian association of graduate studies 
•  CAGS' Upcoming conference: Care, Social justice, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies 
• Graduate career consortium 
• GPDN Graduate and Professional Development Network