For universities, faculties and training programs
Readiness is developmental.
Career success cannot be bolted on at the end of a doctoral program and measured only by participation or short-term outcomes. It has to be designed, supported and sequenced.
Why career support produces uneven results
Universities care about what happens to their PhD graduates and postdocs, and they keep investing in career support. The results stay uneven. That is not a lack of goodwill or effort. It is structural.
Most programming rests on a reasonable assumption: give graduates the right information, skills training and job-search tactics, and they will translate their education into careers. It is reasonable, and it is incomplete. So support is mostly what is visible and easy to teach, the résumé workshop, the job board, the networking event. It tends to arrive near graduation. It is counted by attendance. And when outcomes stay uneven, the explanation becomes the individual’s confidence or effort.
PhD graduates are not under-skilled. They are under-prepared for transition. Tactics work once identity, direction and decision-making are in place, and they fail when they arrive first. The sequence is the problem, not the people.
I also take the research mission seriously. I encourage students to finish the degree, and I treat a research background as a strength to build on, not something to leave behind.
How I work with units
Start here
Talks and seminars
A talk for your graduate students, postdocs or faculty, usually 45 to 90 minutes, in person or online. Most units start here.
The program
Career Builder for institutions
A cohort of 24, in a 2- or 3-day workshop with coaching afterwards, or over 12 weeks. Often under your unit’s own name.
Then
Repeat and expand
Further cohorts in the same unit, and the program offered to neighbouring units once results are in.
Results, and how they’re measured
Programs have been delivered with units at the University of Alberta, including the Department of Chemistry (ChemPD), the FD2D training program, and an open enrolment program through Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Each program measures results on two tiers:
- What the program controls: completion, industry-ready materials, active job-search engagement, network growth, satisfaction and skill gains.
- What it influences: employment in roles that use graduate training within 12 months, time to offer, job satisfaction and salary competitiveness.
Each proposal selects the measures that matter to your unit and your funders. I’m glad to share results from past programs.
Funding
Units usually fund the program from their own budget: a department, faculty, centre or training program. Grants can offset the cost, and I help write the application. Grant success is a bonus, not a condition of going ahead.