Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
So what good is a PhD
Anyway ?
Penny D Sackett
Art from Adelaide Festival of Ideas 2011
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Less Than You May Think
• Does not guarantee you a job in astronomy
• Does not guarantee you a job in closely-related field
• Can make some consider you “over-qualified” for some
positions outside academia
• Does not usually confer communication or persuasion
skills
• Does not make your family and friends hold you in awe
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
More Than You May Think
• Indication that you can think independently and manage
long-term projects (i.e., your thesis)
• Indication you can think logically and self-critically
• Often indicates you can do maths and/or program
computers (big plus)
• Especially if combined with communication skills, puts
you in position for jobs you never imagined
• Permission to use the title “Dr” X to decrease time you
are placed on hold when calling utility companies, etc
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Careers (and lives) are not Generally Linear
My “career” over 3 continents has included (inhale . . .):
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Agricultural worker
Factory worker
Store Clerk
Tutor and Physics laboratory instructor
Practice teaching at secondary school level
Writing for a science magazine
Teaching physics at University
Doing high-energy physics and biophysics research
Team-teaching a University-level critical-thinking class
Scientific editor and writer for an annual report
Writing successful and unsuccessful job applications
Managing discrimination and sexual harassment . . .
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Keep Breathing . . .
. . . Continued:
• Managing grants at the US National Science Foundation
(think “ARC”)
• Writing successful and unsuccessful grant applications
• Astronomy research, independent & leading large teams
• Managing ethical and personal conflicts at work
• Teaching astronomy at University level
• Supervising research students
• Sitting on time- and grant-allocation committees
• Interviewing (successfully and not) for many positions
• Giving very large public lectures
• Serving as Director of a research centre (RSAA) and
observatory (SSO)
• Writing and reviewing many technical articles . . .
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Remember to Breathe
. . . Continued:
• Sitting on more committees than was healthy
• Managing million dollar budgets and staff of 80
• Liasing with legal and heritage teams after 2003
bushfires
• Writing for non-technical magazines/newspapers
• Board member for local and international organizations
• Government employee as Chief Scientist for Australia
• Speaking to school children of all ages about science
• Speaking and writing briefs to politicians about science
• Speaking to boards of industries about science
• Working as a private consultant
• A new step combining art, social and physical science
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
. . . Exhale. Now Ask Yourself
• For many of those activities did my PhD and
University training prepare me ? ? ?
• Answer: < 10%
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Bottom Line
• Your PhD is only a small part of the education you need
• Your supervisor is only one of many useful advisors
• Think in terms of skills, not just outputs:
– My goal is not only to finish this thesis, but to learn
these skills (be specific)
– I am planning both for a working life in astronomy,
and a working life outside astronomy
– Make a written plan
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Your Plan, Your Life
• Write a 1-year, 2-year and 5-year plan
• Include outputs (I will produce X), outcomes (which
should result in Y happening), skills (while teaching me
how to Z), and experience (and allow me to apply skills
in unthesis-related ways)
• Include outputs, outcomes, skills and experience both
for a working life in astronomy and a working life
outside astronomy
• Include who will be a resource for you at each step
• Keep it brief. Be flexible. Be bold.
• Review (and probably modify) it at least once per year
• Discuss it with your supervisor, encouraging them to
think in this way with you.
• Brainstorm the plan with all the other “whos”.
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Three Universally Useful Skills
• Verbal and written communication
• Project management
• Quantitative reasoning, maths and programming
ALL EMPLOYERS FIND THESE ATTRACTIVE
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
Network, Network
• Think about all those things in my career and the
careers of others that a PhD generally does NOT
prepare you for
• How can you, with your networks, prepare yourself?
• Openly discuss these issues
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With your supervisor
With your peers
With graduate students in other fields
At the pub
• Build YOUR OWN professional networks inside
astronomy and outside. Within Australia and overseas.
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
If you are Thinking of Leaving your PhD
• Think again. Look at your plan. Could you change it in
a way that would make you reconsider?
• If not. Make a radical outside-the-box list of
possibilities outside astronomy for which your outputs,
outcomes, skills and experience are relevant. What can
you do right now to make them even more relevant or
stronger.
• Discuss it with several of your “whos” to pick their
brains (and networks).
• Repeat the three steps above.
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
“Success”
• Don’t fall into this common (unspoken) trap:
Success = a post-doc followed by a life in astronomy
Failure = anything else
• Success is living a life you enjoy and are proud
of. Period.
Penny D Sackett
Harley Wood Winter School: 30 June 2012
And Don’t Forget
To Breathe
Penny D Sackett
Art from Adelaide Festival of Ideas 2011