How can I make sure job offers line up so I can compare them?
A postdoc asks—
I just did an on-site interview at a university that is not my top choice but it seems like the interview went well, and I’m scheduled for a screening interview at a university I’m much more excited about. I don’t have invitations from other places I’ve applied for so far, so these might be my options. Is there any way I can see how far I get with the place I’m more interested in, while keeping the door open at the first place?
Do companies use AI to read resumes?
A postdoc asks—
I've heard that companies are using AI to screen resumes before a human ever reads them. Is that true, and should I be writing my CV differently because of it?
I just finished quals...now what?
A third year PhD student asks—
I just passed my quals and I don’t know what to do next; I feel like for so long I was working really hard just focused on my quals deadline, but now I feel like I’m doing nothing and I’m constantly worried I’m falling behind.
Woo! Congrats on having quals behind you! First of all, I would genuinely recommend taking time off—even if it is just a long weekend. Quals is a stressful experience and it’s important to take time to recover and recalibrate.
Will AI save me time preparing cover letters?
A postdoc asks—
I'm getting ready to job search and realizing how much time preparing a separate cover letter for every position will take. I liked your advice on using AI in exploring careers, do you have any advice on how I could use ChatGPT to help with my applications?
I have 1 year left in my program—what do I do?
A 5th year PhD student asks—
I have just about 1 year left in my PhD, and I’m realizing I need to start planning to finish things up, not just continue working kind of endlessly on my projects. Like so many things in grad school, nobody really teaches you how to do things; nobody teaches you how to finish. Where do I start?
Am I doing something wrong?
A postdoc asks—
I've been searching for a job for almost a year without any luck. I know the job market is really bad, but I’m desperate to get out of my lab and get onto my real career. Do I just have to wait out the bad job market and hope to get lucky, or is there something else I should be doing?
While just hoping to get lucky is not a strategy we often recommend, sometimes it does just take time, and if the process feels bad it’s not necessarily a sign that you are doing anything wrong! These are the parts of your process to check in about:
How to prioritize a job search vs everything else
A 5th year PhD student asks—
I know about all the things I need to do for my job search but realistically I don’t know when I’m going to do it. I think I can handle each part when I think about it in a vacuum, but in addition to my ongoing research, I have to start writing my dissertation, plus I’m doing revisions on my paper, I’m going to a conference in the summer, and I have a vacation planned while I’m out there. How do I fit all this stuff in?