Encore: Too Many Graduate Students, Not Enough Jobs

“I was born in Russia, where there wasn’t an entrepreneurial spirit. But there was a belief that if you want to change your life—if you want to do something—you have to do it yourself. That’s something my mom started telling me at a very early age: ‘No one else is going to hand you anything. You have to go out and get it.’ I think these ideas came together for me when we moved to the U.S. when I was in high school.”

“Graduate school was the pivot point for me. In my academic program in psychology, we had a wonderful course called ‘professional issues.’ In it, we talked about what it really takes to make a career as a tenure-track professor. They told us there were far too many PhDs and not enough jobs for them. They told us, if you want to become a tenure-track professor you have to really want it and put in the work and the hours. You have to be better than everybody, because you’re all going to be competing with each other for a few jobs. That class was an eye-opener for me. Up until then, I just assumed I was going to be a professor.”

“Everything in my life seems to come down to teaching. I absolutely love it! The key for me is to realize that there are role models, and then to go out and find them. Connect with them. See what they’ve done. Model their success. Know that it is possible. Always keep your eyes open because opportunities will come when you are able to see them.”

Leaving the Ivory Tower: The Causes and Consequences of Departure from Doctoral Study, by Barbara E. Lovitts

Create or Hate: Successful People Make Things, by Dan Norris

1. Look for a role model, mentor or coach who is doing what you are trying to do. Reduce your learning curve.

2. Instead of setting deadlines for completing projects and achieving goals, set a specific time when you will consistently work on them. This is unusual advice, coming from an efficiency consultant, but I believe this works better.

3. Join a business community. “Doing this has skyrocketed my education!”

4. Keep your eyes open. Opportunities come when you are open to seeing them.