WORK WITH DON
PhD Career Academy
Every program at PhD Career Academy is built on The Career Decision Canon
There is no generic advice here. No templates adapted from group workshops. No motivational content dressed up as strategy.
Every engagement – whether 1-on-1, cohort, or institutional – is structured, sequenced, and grounded in the same framework: the Canon’s six laws, the Purpose-Clarity-Strategy Transition Model, and the Nine Foundational Job Search Elements.
The work addresses the actual causes of stalled PhD career transitions — not the symptoms. Inner Game before Outer Game. Sequence before tactics.
NOT SURE WHERE TO START? — TAKE THE CRI FIRST
Career Readiness Index (CRI) — Free Diagnostic
A structured assessment that measures your current development across the Nine Foundational Job Search Elements. Identifies which stage is limiting your progress and whether fear or purpose is currently driving your decisions. Takes approximately 15 minutes. Results are immediate.
→ Take the CRI at PhDCareerAcademy.com/careerassessment
■ OFFERING 1
1-on-1 Training/Coaching – PhD Career Builder
For: PhD graduates and doctoral candidates seeking a bespoke, precision-built transition
A 12-week, 2-session-per-week program built entirely around you – your background, your target market, your blocks, your strategy. Knowledge Sessions teach the Canon framework directly. Coaching Sessions apply it to your specific situation. Nothing is adapted from a group context or generalized across a cohort.
↓ See full program details, deliverables, and pricing · scroll to 1-on-1 full details
□ OFFERING 2
Group Cohort Program
For: PhD graduates who want structured peer learning alongside individual coaching
The same Canon framework and Knowledge-plus-Coaching session architecture as the 1-on-1 program, delivered in a cohort of peers who share your academic background and transition challenges. No translation required – everyone in the room knows what it means to leave academia. Cohorts open on a campaign basis.
↓ See cohort structure, waitlist, and enrollment · scroll to Group cohort full details
▲ OFFERING 3
Institutional Program
For: Universities, research institutes, graduate schools, and departments
A premium Canon-based program for institutions seeking a structured, sequenced intervention for doctoral graduates – not career advice bolted onto a degree. Addresses the upstream conditions that determine transition outcomes: identity clarity, decision readiness, and purpose-driven direction. Cohorts up to 20 participants.
↓ See program scope, structure, and inquiry process · scroll to Institutional program full details
All three programs enter through a free strategy call. The call clarifies your situation, identifies the right program, and ensures the fit is genuine before any commitment is made.
FULL DETAILS – 1-on-1 Coaching – PhD Career Builder
12 weeks. Bespoke from first session to last.
The PhD Career Builder is a high-touch, high-support engagement. There is no shared curriculum to pace yourself against, no group dynamic to navigate, no session where the focus belongs to someone else. Every hour is yours.
That means the Canon framework is taught in direct response to where you are – your specific discipline, your specific career history, your specific blocks. Strategy is built for your target market, not generalized across an archetype. Materials are developed for your background and refined in real time against your actual feedback from employers.
1-on-1 is the right choice when your situation requires precision.
Every session in the PhD Career Builder program is about you. Your specific background. Your target market. Your career materials. Your blocks. Your strategy. Nothing is adapted from a group context or generalized across a cohort. The work is bespoke from the first session to the last.
The program runs 12 weeks at two sessions per week – 24 sessions in total. Each week contains two distinct session types, designed on the same principle as a university lecture-and-lab model.
KNOWLEDGE SESSION
The lecture
Structured teaching of Canon laws, framework principles, and the sequence logic that governs effective PhD career transitions. You learn the architecture before applying it.
COACHING SESSION
The lab
Application of what you have learned to your specific situation – building materials, clearing blocks, developing and refining your strategy. The lab work is entirely yours.
✓ 24 sessions (12 Knowledge + 12 Coaching) delivered via Zoom
✓ Video recording and full transcript of every session
✓ PDF presentation materials for every Knowledge Session
✓ Workbooks, templates, checklists, and examples
✓ Between-session support
$2,997 (or $2,497 as a single payment – save $500)
FULL DETAILS – Group Cohort Program
Structured peer learning. Canon framework. Limited enrollment.
What the cohort adds
The group program delivers the same Canon framework and Knowledge-plus-Coaching session architecture as the 1-on-1 program. What it adds is the peer dimension – a room of people who share your academic background, your transition fears, and your ambitions.
When everyone in the room has lived the same experience, no time is spent on translation. The group creates a recognition that accelerates individual work. Insights that might take weeks to surface in isolation emerge quickly in a cohort context.
The cohort program is structured on an academic term model with limited enrollment. This is deliberate. The peer work requires a group small enough for genuine individual attention within the cohort.
Enrollment and waitlist
Cohorts open on a campaign basis. When a cohort is not actively enrolling, a waitlist is available. Joining the waitlist places you first in line for the next cohort and triggers a sequence of framework orientation materials in the meantime.
Pricing is discussed during the discovery call.
FULL DETAILS – Institutional Program
For universities, research institutes, graduate schools, and departments
The institutional accountability gap
Universities and research institutions invest significantly in doctoral education. The transition outcomes of those graduates – how successfully they move from the academy into industry, government, or applied research – reflect directly on the institution’s ability to prepare researchers for the full scope of their careers.
Most institutional career support addresses the Outer Game: resume workshops, interview practice, networking events. These are not without value. But they are applied before the upstream conditions that determine their effectiveness are in place.
The PhD Career Academy Institutional Program provides a structured, sequenced intervention for cohorts of doctoral graduates – addressing identity clarity, decision readiness, and purpose-driven direction before strategy and tactics are introduced.
Program structure
The program delivers the full Canon framework curriculum – the six laws, the Purpose-Clarity-Strategy Transition Model, and the Nine Foundational Job Search Elements – in the same Knowledge-plus-Coaching session architecture used in the individual programs. Cohorts of up to 20 doctoral graduates.
This is not career advice bolted onto a degree. It is a premium strategic service designed for institutions that take graduate transition outcomes seriously.
→ Email: don@phdcareeracademy.com
Direct inquiry to Don Back. Institutional conversations begin by email, not booking link.
Not sure what program is right for your situation?
The strategy call is the right place to start. It is free, there is no commitment, and it is the conversation that determines whether and how the fit exists.