beyond your phd. : how to place yourself in the market
DESCRIPTION
I was asked to give a workshop on how to put yourself in the market after your PhD. Enjoy!TRANSCRIPT
WORKSHOP: BEYOND YOUR PHD, HOW TO PLACE YOURSELF IN THE MARKET.Dr. Amber Walraven
PhD day Graduate School Open University
June 16, 2012
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 2
ABOUT ME!
Dr. Amber Walraven
Got the title in December, 2008
Dissertation: Becoming a critical websearcher: Effects of instruction to foster transfer
Open University: CELSTEC
Currently assistant professor at University of Twente
Blog: amberwalraven.edublogs.org
Twitter: @amberwalraven
Linkedin:http://nl.linkedin.com/in/amberwalraven
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 3
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 4
ABOUT ME!
When my defense was coming up:
Nu.nl
Radioshows
RTL 4 News
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 5
ABOUT YOU!
Please introduce yourself:
Name
Date of defense (or probable date of defense)
Subject of thesis in 1 word!
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 6
CENTRAL IN THIS WORKSHOP:
How will your last PhD. months go?
How can you make your work insightful and visible for society?
How can you optimally place yourself in the market?
What do you want to do with your PhD-degree? How can you use your degree?
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 7
YOU WILL BE GOING HOME WITH:
A list of people/ organizations to send your thesis
A press release for your thesis (or a press release that you want to avoid at all costs…..)
An idea of what or what not to say to journalists
A social media summary of your thesis
An idea of what you want to do after your PhD.
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 8
HOW WILL YOUR LAST PHD MONTHS GO?:
Writing writing writing
Sending out the manuscript to the reading committee
Thinking of statements
Working on the ‘I could not have done this without these people’ part of the thesis (the only part everyone reads!!)
Hint: use groups, and mention the ones that were really special personally
Lay out Who will publish your thesis? Glue or stitch binding? Preprints! Thesis cover: who will design it and are there any uni-specific rules? Paperwork!!!
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 9
HOW WILL YOUR LAST PHD MONTHS GO?
Who are you going to send your thesis?
Think about organizations that
might be interested in your work
They will probably not read it, but
need to know it exists.
In my case, this led to a guest blog
on a popular website.
Announcements of thesis on
LinkedIn groups, so people can
sign up for a hard-copy or the PDF.
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 10
HOW WILL YOUR LAST PHD MONTHS GO?
Exercise Write down some of these organizations and why they should receive a copy
and what you want them to do with it. This should be in the accompanying
letter.
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 11
PRESS RELEASE
The university will send out a press release, but you need to control the content!
Exercise:
First: everyone writes down questions.
Own perspective: what do you like talking about the most? And: which question do I not want people
to ask!
Interview round 1 in pairs, A = journalist, B = PhD. Candidate (we will switch roles) (only 5 min!)
Interviewer writes (very) short press release, interviewee writes down best en worst question and why he/she chose these questions. (about 10 min) KEEP THE PRESS RELEASE TO YOURSELF, DON’T SHOW IT TO THE INTERVIEWEE!
After that: switch roles!
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 12
PRESS RELEASE: RESULTS
We have 8 press releases and 8 lists of interesting and annoying questions
Who want to share questions?
The press release…
Without reading it, think about the title you would want to put above the press release about your own dissertation.
You only have 1 minute!
Give the press release you wrote, to someone else (not the interviewee!)
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 13
PRESS RELEASE: RESULTS
Come up with a title for a press release you were given just now.
Give the title and the press release to the person’s who research was in topic of the press release
You will now receive the press release about your own research + the title a peer gave it.
Volunteers to read their preferred title and the title that was given to the press release by a peer.
What do you think about the press release on your research?
How do the titles differ, and why?
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 14
WHAT TO DO WITH THIS EXERCISE?
Use it when you go home to think about what happened. Are you satisfied with your answers to the questions? Were you forced to discuss points you would rather avoid? How can you improve the story you tell about your thesis?
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 15
You can control the content of a press release…..
You can’t control the media….
Or can you?
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 16
HOW YOU PUT YOURSELF IN THE MARKET…
How to make the things you want people to know insightful and visible….
Social media!
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 17
SOCIAL MEDIA
Sociale mediasites/ platforms
Hyves, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, blogs
User generated content
Interactive
Sharing
Up to date
Objective?
Wisdom of the crowd or foolishness of the group?
SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMPLES
Marketing: KLM
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 18
SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMPLES
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 19
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 20
SOCIAL MEDIA: THE CASE OF TWITTER
Only 140 characters per tweet
What can you do with it?
Summarize your work in 5-7 tweets
Use the right #
Have a clear Twitterbio…
that describes who you are, what you do, what interests you
Follow the right persons and interact!
Check if researchers in your field are active on Twitter!
Tweets to send:
only positive tweets (doesn’t mean you can’t be critical!), regular updates, share links
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 21
SOCIAL MEDIA: LET’S TRY IT!
Choose something to do now:
Write 2 Twitter bio’s
current
placing you in the job you see yourself in after your promotion. (To check for nr. Of
characters: count, or actually type it on Twitter (if you don’t want to make an account just
yet, use the laptop…)
Summarize your thesis in 5-7 tweets
(To check for nr. Of characters: count, or actually type it on Twitter (if you don’t want to
make an account just yet, use the laptop…)
Which # would interest you the most? Think about them, and check if they exists and are active.
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 22
SUMMARY
How will your last PhD. months go?
Coverd that! Check with the university for the rules and regulations!
How can you make your work insightful and visible for society?
Coverd that! Content of press release and social media presence
How can you optimally place yourself in the market?
Covered that! Be aware of the story you want to tell, and the online image you want
to have! Let people know about your thesis!
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 23
SUMMARY
What do you want to do with your PhD-degree? How can you use your degree?
Homework!
Read the press release
Read the questions you came up with yourself (they tell you what you like to talk about!)
Take a look at your Twitterbio’s
Ask yourself: is this the topic I want to continue working on?
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 24
AND IF YOU GO TOTALLY BLANK….
Don’t worry! There is something you can ALWAYS do with your degree…….
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 25
Use the title to impress companies when writing a letter of complaint!
(It got me a huge discount on a house!)
16-6-2012Beyond your PhD., how to place yourself in the market 26
THANKS!
Dr. Amber Walraven
Mail: [email protected]
Blog: amberwalraven.edublogs.org
Twitter: @amberwalraven
Linkedin: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/amberwalraven