The Story Behind Work Your Career
Work Your Career, my most recent book, co-authored with Loleen Berdahl (University of Saskatchewan), has been building for twenty years. As we describe in the book, we both pursued our PhDs in the 1990s being open to the idea of non-academic career paths - I personally dabbled briefly in such a path and Loleen entered into it for ten years. And while we won’t claim we actually exemplified most of the things we advise to do in the book, we did take a fairly proactive approach to our PhDs - getting involved early in publishing, multiple projects, etc. That’s the mentality that underlies the book, and I've been thinking about these issues and actively advising others for a long time. In 1999, while still a PhD student, I wrote a guide for incoming students in my program, and an essay for the U of T official newspaper on the need for more work and attention to non-academic jobs for PhDs.
After becoming a faculty member in a large PhD program and active in the Canadian political science community, I saw new waves of PhDs constantly struggling with the same issues over and over. I also realized that, while by no means omniscient, the mentality I had developed back in my own PhD years gave me a broad perspective and a lot of tacit and relevant knowledge. I wanted to pass on this knowledge as much as possible and was always looking for opportunities to do so.
A particular moment was in 2010, when “rumour blogs” became popular among many junior academics, including some devoted specifically to Canadian political science. These unmoderated bulletin boards responded to the genuine need and desire for career information and guidance in the sprawling and often opaque world of academia, but were often aggressive, sexist, and even defamatory. I decided to counteract this by creating my own blog under the pseudonym “polcanprof,” and for a year made weekly posts of career advice for junior Canadian political science academics. The blog was well-visited and attracted commentary and discussion. I eventually ran out of fresh things to say every week, but the blog stayed up for years and continued to attract visitors.
Loleen was mostly out of the academic world for ten years and while her work connected her to see other PhDs working in non-academic environments, she was not actively engaged in doctoral career mentorship issues. But she later returned to academia with her position at the University of Saskatchewan, and in 2014 we both joined the board of the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) and met for the first time. We discovered our shared mentality and approach to PhD education and job opportunities, and I told Loleen about the blog. Loleen saw the potential for the blog to be expanded to help promote much-needed discussion on the issue, and suggested that the blog posts could be the foundation of a book. I had never considered this but quickly saw what a great idea this was. The idea for Work Your Career came together easily at that point, and Mat Buntin at University of Toronto Press was instantly receptive and supportive. As we wrote the book, we also saw the potential for a broader agenda and began further research and outreach initiatives in the CPSA on career mentoring and development that are continuing. Work Your Career reflects two decades of thinking about PhD education and academic mentoring, but it is not a one-off project. There is more still to come, and we look forward to ongoing engagement and discussion on the issue.
After becoming a faculty member in a large PhD program and active in the Canadian political science community, I saw new waves of PhDs constantly struggling with the same issues over and over. I also realized that, while by no means omniscient, the mentality I had developed back in my own PhD years gave me a broad perspective and a lot of tacit and relevant knowledge. I wanted to pass on this knowledge as much as possible and was always looking for opportunities to do so.
A particular moment was in 2010, when “rumour blogs” became popular among many junior academics, including some devoted specifically to Canadian political science. These unmoderated bulletin boards responded to the genuine need and desire for career information and guidance in the sprawling and often opaque world of academia, but were often aggressive, sexist, and even defamatory. I decided to counteract this by creating my own blog under the pseudonym “polcanprof,” and for a year made weekly posts of career advice for junior Canadian political science academics. The blog was well-visited and attracted commentary and discussion. I eventually ran out of fresh things to say every week, but the blog stayed up for years and continued to attract visitors.
Loleen was mostly out of the academic world for ten years and while her work connected her to see other PhDs working in non-academic environments, she was not actively engaged in doctoral career mentorship issues. But she later returned to academia with her position at the University of Saskatchewan, and in 2014 we both joined the board of the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) and met for the first time. We discovered our shared mentality and approach to PhD education and job opportunities, and I told Loleen about the blog. Loleen saw the potential for the blog to be expanded to help promote much-needed discussion on the issue, and suggested that the blog posts could be the foundation of a book. I had never considered this but quickly saw what a great idea this was. The idea for Work Your Career came together easily at that point, and Mat Buntin at University of Toronto Press was instantly receptive and supportive. As we wrote the book, we also saw the potential for a broader agenda and began further research and outreach initiatives in the CPSA on career mentoring and development that are continuing. Work Your Career reflects two decades of thinking about PhD education and academic mentoring, but it is not a one-off project. There is more still to come, and we look forward to ongoing engagement and discussion on the issue.
