The Employable PhD: How to prepare for your future career before you submit

Postgraduate students are intellectual entrepreneurs: creative, highly motivated freethinkers who are expert at solving problems. So, why is it that they often feel least prepared to enter the workforce?

I'm really excited to be speaking at short seminar series, presented by the wonderful University of Western Australia Postgraduate Students Association - "The Employable PhD".

The aim of the seminars? To explore strategies that can help postgraduate students prepare for their post-PhD career before they submit their thesis.

We’re all aware it’s getting more challenging to secure academic roles. What other options are available and how can students better prepare for these opportunities?

The seminar series will feature business coach & educator, Arjun Murthy, and topics include: how to identify key strengths, market academic skill-sets to non-academic employers, navigate hidden job markets, network effectively and optimise your online presence.

Here's an overview of the three sessions...

Tuesday, 25 September - “Know thy self": Identify your strengths and skills

The essential first step in career management is to understand the strengths and  skills that you can offer employers. This seminar will be presented by coach and trainer Arjun Murthy, who will assist you to better understand your personality preferences and transferable skills.
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Wednesday, 26 September - "Tell your story" Promoting yourself and your research online

With more and more employers using Google to screen job candidates, establishing a strong online presence is now one of the most powerful ways to gain a competitive advantage in job markets. This interactive session, presented by myself, will address common concerns that prevent academics from promoting their research online and outline how to develop a communications strategy that will allow you to tell your story to a global audience, build a community around your research, and become an influencer in your discipline area.

Please bring an ipad or laptop to this session if you can as we will take a tour of the interwebs at some point. However,  if I see you on Facebook I will cut off your hands. Kidding*!

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Thursday, 27 September - “Don’t just sit there!”: Strategies to proactively seek out career opportunities

Discover a toolbox of strategies to help you seek out opportunities in your chosen job market - or even create new ones. Arjun Murthy and myself will explore career management and goal setting, tips for effective networking, and how to identify hidden job markets.
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I'm looking forward to sharing the results and will report back in a few weeks!

*I'm not really kidding.

And so it begins.

In March I’ll be commencing a PhD in History at the University of Western Australia – which means I will be spending the next three years investigating a research question that keeps me up at night. It’s an amazing opportunity made even better by the fact that the university has offered to support me with a scholarship while I am doing it. I like to think of it as a completely wonderful (but extremely underpaid) new job that just so happens to be equally thrilling, terrifying and the most difficult thing I have ever done.

My research project will investigate the influence of consumer culture on the Anzac Legend and Australian national identity - in particular, the ways in which an increased public fascination with the Anzac Legend since the 1980’s has been articulated and commoditised by memory industries including publishing, tourism and entertainment.  I’m a public historian at heart and through my research I hope to better understand non-academic forms of historical engagement  as well as the ongoing - and growing -  fascination Australians have with the past.

During this time I have a feeling that this blog will remain an important creative outlet where I can:

• share untold stories from Australian history
• explore the intersection of history and digital media
• curate and share thought-provoking content from blogs & websites I follow 
• try out different writing styles and develop my own voice as a historian
• experiment with digital storytelling in diverse formats including photography, videos and podcasts
• play with new ideas and get feedback from a community of fellow history nerds
• keep connected with the outside world during the PhD researching and writing process

Historypunk is likely to remain a delightfully eclectic space - hopefully full of interesting bits and pieces to keep you entertained and inspired. There's a long road ahead so perhaps it will also inspire me too and serve as a reminder of why I fell in love with history in the first place.

Here goes nothing!