Crash Course or How To Start

Before you do anything else, get on this listserv right now: https://lists.duke.edu/sympa/info/wrk4us
"WRK4US is the premier email discussion list on nonacademic careers for people with graduate degrees in Humanities, Education and Social science disciplines."

It's uneven and, at times, totally self-indulgent. Also subscribers are seemingly incapable of deleting the 5 messages that precede their comment. Still, you will find gems in among fluff. You'll see me citing the wrk4us listserv often. Get it in the digest form and you'll be fine.

Read this book: So What Are You Going to Do With That?: A Guide for M.A.'s and Ph.D's Seeking Careers Outside the Academy

Everyone says to read this book. There's a reason for that. I happened to have read it when I was really wavering about being in or out of academia. It came along just when I needed it the most. My best bud in this postacademic journey had already mentally decided to leave academia post-PhD, but was still coming to terms to the emotional decision and identity adjustment. She read the book. We occasionally call it the Bible.

Even if you are actually pretty sure you don't want to do anything else but the classroom. You should read this book, just in case. I got through it in an evening. The parts that don't apply to me yet (like interview suggestions) I skimmed. Just read it, yeah?

If you are just starting out in this game, or are still just testing the waters make a list of places you think you might want to work at or industries you might want to be a part of.

My list looks like this:
What sound like reputable places on NPR?: Brookings Institute. Pew Research Centers.
What kinds of publications did I find useful during fieldwork?: Reports from Urban Institute. Reports from The Department of Housing and Urban Development. Social Security Adminstration. The Census Bureau.
What else am I interested in?: Publishing

I maintain a spreadsheet and everytime I read or hear of a place that sounds like I might be even possibly hireable there, I do a 5 minute google search, get their website and mission statement/description and add them. I also enter where I heard about the organization and what day. Never used a spreadsheet? Now's the time to start working on those skills you're going to need in your new job. Seriously, this year I've taught myself how to do basic math and data maintenance on spreadsheets and its like a whole new world has opened up to me.

My spreadsheet's pages currently look like this:

*resources links to listservs, studies on post-PhD anthropologists, FAQs for leaving academia, etc

*govt internship and fellowship programs with specific departments. my login and pw info for usajobs.gov.

*policy-research this is where I put alot of my--hmmm, sounds like a place that might hire me--links.

*academic presses the general AAUP website, employment pages or homepages for presses I'm interested in. Also intel I gathered at my last professional meeting on hiring and financial situations at said presses.

*nonacademic presses if I get hungry enough, now I know what websites to freelance edit from or where I can find what kinds of positions McGraw-Hill is looking to hire

*commercial potentially sketchy, also potentially cool. I read a newspaper article about Yahoo using anthropologists in testing products. Saved the link and copy and pasted into the spreadsheet the relevant passages.


Where else to get ideas?

usajobs.gov (searches are called agents--how very unappealing)

idealist.org

Thinking of Policy and Research Tanks?

List of policy organizations, links to their homepages, etc. Everything from Brookings, to Dem&Rep Nat'l Cttes, NAACP, MADD, ACLU, etc.

What is a Think Tank? Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys?
Bookmark your dreamjobs' job postings websites. Start RSSs feeds if you can on employment pages. Don't know about RSSs? Another great skill to have in the new job! (most websites will walk you through it, so don't worry if you don't really know about RSSs)

Make friends with your Graduate College's Career Services Center.They are awesome and have all of this stuff up in their heads and at their fingertips. They helped me get my first "real" job (i.e. an hourly gig in academic publishing) and they turned me on to much of this information. Career Services roxs.