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Career Advice
By PhDs, For PhDs

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Empowering PhDs to build impactful careers & engaged lives, wherever smart people are needed.

Where Will You Take Your PhD?

Our Vision

Our research shows that PhDs define career success as doing work that has a positive impact on society, keeps them intellectually engaged and inspired, and connects them to people and projects that matter to them. This kind of career and life can be found within academia, and far beyond it. And that’s why PhDs work everywhere, across all industries and sectors, contributing their talents and skills to benefit society.

Whether you aspire to work on the tenure track or are changing careers entirely after years of academic study, we’re here to help you. We have resources to support Individuals and partner with Institutions.

For Individuals

The Online Career Hub for PhDs

Our Community is for all graduate students and PhDs, regardless of your current career path. Join a supportive and encouraging community, build relationships with like-minded people, and access resources to help your job search including webinars, courses, live discussions, and on-demand videos.

Be a Professional

Career Resources for Beyond the Professoriate

Be a Professor

Career Resources for the Professoriate
NEW!

Additional Resources

Upcoming Events

Events for Members and Non-Members

Check-out our upcoming events. We host monthly webinars featuring career advice by PhDs, for PhDs. Our webinars teach community members how to successfully find careers in academia and beyond the professoriate.

Read our Blog


Advice from PhDs working beyond the professoriate on how you can find your next-great career. Transition Q&As profile PhDs who have successfully transitioned from academia. Recaps of our Community events allow readers to catch up on what they’ve missed.

I’d been in transition for years--first to leave the professoriate and then to join the corporate world--before joining Beyond the Professoriate, with little success. What I appreciate the most about BP is the community of individuals who are at different stages of their academic careers working toward the same goal and supporting one another. Knowing you are not alone in a difficult transition is empowering, and BP is a friendly space to get that much needed support, both practical and emotional.
Ping-Yuan Wang, PhD
As an English PhD working at a state college for the past 6 years while unsuccessfully searching for a different position, I found your resources to be extremely helpful and practical. Naively, I had always just assumed that networking was only something people in the business world did to make connections and find work, and I had never heard of an informational interview until watching one of your webinars. If I hadn’t found Beyond the Prof, I probably would still be working at a job that wasn’t a good fit for me and feeling discouraged about my future job prospects.
Rachel Edford, PhD
Beyond the Professoriate helped me understand how others, who left academia, navigated their paths. It also provided concrete, extremely useful advice for the postac job search. The biggest thing it has done for me is to make me feel more confident about my skills and abilities, and show me that I don't have to be afraid of what comes next. In fact, it has shown me how exciting and fun this whole thing can be, instead of terrifying!
Marieke Krijnen, PhD
I love the fact that your panelists discussed a wide range of employment opportunities and career paths in the United States as well as Canada. And I would highly recommend this for ALL PhD students who are considering career options outside of academia.
Olukunle P. Owolabi, PhD
These sessions confirmed things I was doing correctly and provided lots of new ideas to expand my ability to successfully navigate the job market outside of academia. Each speaker brought a different perspective and their willingness to be candid about their own stories made these sessions very down to earth and the speakers' stories easy to relate to.
2018 Conference Attendee
I walked away from this conference feeling both hopeful about future prospects and much more confident about my ability to succeed outside of academia.
Kira Jones, PhD
Thank you Jen, Maren and the entire Beyond Prof team for turning my non-faculty job search upside down, for the better! I move forward from the conference feeling connected, empowered, and very well-equipped to explore different career options outside of academia.
Joanne Markle LaMontagne, PhD
I am glad that Beyond the Professoriate exists and that you do the kind of work you are doing. It is super useful and much needed.
Jovana Milosavljevic-ArdeljanerePhD Student

For Institutions

Aurora

e-Learning Platform

Students access on-demand videos to explore career options and learn strategies for career success beyond the professoriate. Available to universities & academic professional associations as an annual subscription.

On Campus

Workshops

Bring co-founders Jennifer Polk, PhD, and L. Maren Wood, PhD, to your campus. We provide a range of workshops on exploring career options and preparing for career success beyond the professoriate.

Seminars

For Faculty & Staff

Our Research & Innovation series features presentations by faculty, senior leadership and administrators, as well as researchers from academic professional associations. Presenters share their research about career pathways for PhDs, and discuss innovative programs on their campuses that support graduate student career diversity. 

About Beyond the Professoriate

We are a public benefit corporation with a mission to empower PhDs to build impactful careers and engaged lives, wherever smart people are needed. To do this, we provide career education and professional development to graduate students and PhDs in humanities, social sciences and STEM disciplines. We have services for individuals, and partner with institutions to support their efforts in preparing the next generation of PhDs for careers in academia and beyond.

Our programming features PhDs with successful careers who share their unique expertise and experiences to support graduate students in their job search and future employment. Beyond the Professoriate is career advice by PhDs, for PhDs.

Co-founders Jennifer Polk, PhD (history, University of Toronto), and L. Maren Wood, PhD (history, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), possess first-hand knowledge of the challenges PhDs encounter when they leave academia for careers beyond the professoriate. Maren and Jen have dedicated their careers to helping graduate students and PhDs find success outside of academia.

Beyond the Professoriate runs a blog series for University Affairs and publishes in Inside Higher Ed.

Connect with Jen and Maren on Twitter and LinkedIn, and join them in the Beyond the Professoriate Community.

Meet Our Team

jen4
Jennifer Polk, PhD
Co-Founder
maren-4
L. Maren Wood, PhD
Co-Founder
susan
Susan Joudrey, PhD
Director of Marketing & Communications
meghan
Meghan Lundrigan (PhD Candidate)
Community Manager

Learn More About Our Founders

PhD Career Interview with Beyond the Professoriate Co-Founder L. Maren Wood, PhD.  Maren earned her PhD in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

PhD Career Interview with Beyond the Professoriate Co-Founder Jennifer Polk, PhD. Jennifer earned her PhD in History from the University of Toronto.

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