This week’s letter is from a tenured creative writing professor at a state college, who has two small children and is looking for a career change. Here’s an except from Coral: I like my summers off, excellent health benefits, and upper division students. I hate the increasingly inane bureaucracy of my university, my 4/4 teaching load (2 are freshman composition), my geographic ...

This week’s question is from a research university doctoral student, Ellen, and it is one I would like to throw out to others to share your experiences as well. Here’s Ellen’s question: I'm wondering if you think it's level-headed for Ph.D. students to get pregnant. I have just finished my coursework and I'm about to begin my dissertation, which will ...

I’m glad I asked last week, as I happily received many thought-provoking questions and comments, and I look forward to getting to each one. This week, I’ll tackle a question from Renata, a doctoral student with much life and work experience, who asked me about a career track I often discussed at the university career center: community college teaching. Here’s (part of) what Renata ...

When we started the Mama, PhD blog, coeditors Caroline Grant and Elrena Evans really wanted to have a career advice component – a place where our readers could ask your burning career-related questions and get support in your transitions and challenges. Thus, my Monday “The Career Coach Is In” Q&A was born. As the newness of our blog wears off, and the school year winds down, the ...

This week, I’m going to include the full letter from a reader, because I think it’s a great illustration of what many of us go through in our twenties (inside academia or out), searching for the right career fit, for validation, and for our own definition of success. This is what she wrote: I already have non-academic job (albeit at a university) and am pondering whether I ...

A professional mom named “Abigail” wrote me in the throes of deciding whether to leave her corporate career for an academic one. Here’s a piece of her letter: I need advice on a career transition. I am in an opposite situation than many of your readers. I’d like to leave the corporate world and pursue a PhD and an academic career. My biggest concern is that I’m 29 (30 in two ...

I received a letter with this title from “Amanda” -- a PhD student at an Ivy League institution who wants to know if she should jump ship. Her letter is excerpted here: I'm just finishing the first year of my doctoral program, and I'm having strong doubts about whether I should even be here. My key concerns are: 1) I'm about to turn 35 and I want to have children. 2) ...

This week’s letter addresses a common question of PhD students considering leaving academia – where does one even start exploring non-academic career options? The letter reads: I'm months away from completing my Ph.D. and truly believe at this point that this path was not the correct one for me - but I still 'play the game' and do things that prepare me for looking ...

Editor’s Note: Megan Pincus Kajitani will be answering your career transition questions here each Monday. Read on, and send your questions to mamaphd@insidehighered.com I struck up a conversation recently with a woman who works as a consultant at my hair salon -- turns out she has a Ph.D. in psychology. I drove by a van a few months ago with the logo Ph.D. Plumbing. And ...