Alternatives to Academic Employment
As we all know, the job market for humanities PhDs has not been encouraging in recent years. Across the country, graduate students in history and other disciplines have been thinking seriously about alternatives to academic employment in fields such as public history, higher education administration, consulting, government employment, non profits, and beyond. The following is a list of useful websites and resources for history graduate students thinking about alt-ac careers.
The Versatile PhD: A set of alt-ac resources for graduate students including information on different careers, job listings, application materials, and personal accounts and advice. Access via Boston College membership portal.
/schools/gsas/currentstudents/vphd.html
#Alt-Academy: A project of Mediacommons where scholars blog and produce articles and other publications about alternative employment in the humanities.
http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/alt-ac/welcome
Beyond Academe: An alt-ac site written by two historians, with advice, personal accounts, and other resources geared to history PhDs.
http://www.beyondacademe.com/index.html
Columbia University/Non Academic Career Options for PhDs: A helpful overview of different types of careers with links to job search sites and other resources.
http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/tipsheets/non-academic-career-options-phds-and-mas
Beyond the Ivory Tower: A Chronicle of Higher Education advice column for graduate students interested in alt-ac careers. Articles on a variety of topics from the job search to hybrid careers.
http://chronicle.com/section/Advice-Columns/144/
Grad Hacker: Alt-ac advice by Ashley Sanders, a blogger with Inside Higher Ed. Includes a concise overview of how to approach alternative careers, useful web resources, and job listing sites.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/going-alt-ac-how-begin
PhDs at Work: PhD networking advice and events, as well as podcasts with interviews of PhDs who have transitioned to successful alt-ac careers.
http://phdsatwork.com
From PhD to Life: History PhD and career coach Jennifer Polk’s blog on transitioning from academia to alt-ac careers. http://fromphdtolife.com/