The Portable PhD

Thanks to your graduate training in psychology you have the skills to do great work in fields such as public policy, education, healthcare, and business. But to make a successful transition into non-academic employment, the right mindset is essential.

In this guidebook, you’ll explore common unspoken assumptions and attitudes in academia, and use them to prepare for different work cultures. You will also learn to build your network, as you identify a career path that matches your interests.

Each chapter in this book offers tips and key terms for navigating various kinds of employment, as well as simple action steps for communicating your talents to hiring managers. Your ability to conduct research, to understand statistics and perform data analysis, and to perform technical or scientific writing are all highly valuable skills, as are the insights into human nature you’ve gained from your psychology studies, and your ability to think innovatively and work cooperatively in a variety of contexts.

This guide will show you how to market your skills, and build the confidence and the plan you need to take your degree anywhere you wish.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Career Development Timeline

I. Premises: A Starting Point

1. Academia’s Unspoken Assumptions
2. Cultural Adaptations You’ll Need to Make in Your New Workplace

II. Packing Your Bags: Identifying Your Skill Set

3. Five Transferable Skills You Definitely Have and How to Talk About Them
4. Other Transferable Skills You Probably Have and How to Talk About Them
5. Skills You May Need to Acquire or Refine

III. Orienting Yourself To a New Culture

6. New Culture, New Identity: Developing Your Professional Self
7. Communicating Your Story: The Building Blocks
8. Communicating Your Story in a New Culture

IV. Finding or Charting the Path Ahead

9. Well-Worn Paths
10. Less-Worn Paths
11. How to Apply for Jobs

References

Index

About the Authors

Patrick Gallagher, PhD, applies behavioral science daily in his position as director of research at the BB&T Leadership Institute.

His professional roles in industry have included marketing, customer experience, corporate communications, consulting, and employee engagement. Patrick regularly works with managers and C-suite executives, and has been involved in hiring employees with and without psychology backgrounds.

He lives in Winston-Salem, NC.

Visit the PhDs Outside Academia website and follow @POAtraining on Twitter.

Ashleigh Gallagher, PhD, is senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in the psychology department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She leads the departmental system for academic advising as well as the undergraduate internship program. She teaches courses including an undergraduate course on the career possibilities available to psychology students, and she serves as a faculty teaching mentor to graduate students.

She lives in Winston-Salem, NC.

Visit the PhDs Outside Academia website and follow @POAtraining on Twitter.