The Essential Guide To Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job

The advice in this book is priceless. It really makes a big difference on the job market. I personally did my job documents with Karen and her help was amazing. However, the only reason I give this book 4 stars is because almost all of what it contains is already on the blog, sometimes word for word. As someone who read the blog so many times, I found that a little disappointing as I was hoping for a little more. I am still happy that I have it in a book and do not need browse around the blog to find articles anymore.

Pretty good one. The only problem is that the author is on the social science side, and I believe the natural science and engineering side can have diiferent perspectives. Anyway, it is still a pretty helpful book.

This book is very informative. The book is easy to read and her tone is welcoming and straightforward, which is more than I can say for any 'adviser' I ever had. I wish I had known about this book a year before I graduated. But, honestly would I have had time to read it then? ?

Using this extensively for my academic job search. I have recommended it highly to the other doc students in my program. Even if all you gleaned was one thing, it is worth the price of the book. Believe me, you will pick up lots of great tips. Don't dilly dally - just buy it.

This is a great book. Although some of the insights it provides are discipline-dependent, most of them are not. I read it during my job market search, went back to some chapters several times, and found it extremely useful. In retrospect, I would have read it earlier in my PhD too. The book offers very practical advice for anyone starting a PhD, close to completion, or professors who are mentoring PhD students.

A guide to everything your advisor should be telling you, and is probably not. If you are a grad student, you often find out information from other students by chance: this book compiles the advice you should receive systematically.

This book has been an invaluable resource for me as I apply for grants, fellowships, prepare for the job market, and write my teaching statement. I was also pleased to see that the book covers gendered issues in the job market.

This book is filled with clear, concise, brilliant advice for grad students too! I am currently applying for PhD programs after a 7 year break from a MS program in Conservation Biology. I found many nuggets of truth and tips that I only wish I had known 10 years ago. Karen thank you for channeling your rage to help others navigate academia!

Excellent guide to navigating the graduate school experience and provision of ideas upon which to reflect as one navigates from the student identity to job seeker / employee. It feels current and right in line with personal experience in a way that make this a particularly useful advisor for moving forward.

Cannot recommend this enough. Really clear explanations with tons of examples of what NOT to do, and how to correct the mistakes that we're so inclined to make. Also, it's written in the style of a coaching session - direct, break-you-down-and-build-you-up, always happy that you listened in the end.

Entertainingly written, and hammers home the key points. If I had read it earlier I might have gotten a faculty job this year :) I only give it less than 5 stars because in the ideal version of this book it could do a better job of speaking with more authority on differences across fields, rather than acknowledging that there are differences, but still speaking primarily to Dr. Kelsky's experience. Perhaps Dr. Kelsky would consult with other disciplines and/or add a subordinate author or two to make it perfect.

While it masquerades as an academic advisory, this book is really a paean to a universal truth: other people are more interested in their needs than yours. If you want to be hired, you need to show them quickly and succinctly how you add value, and you need to do it in their terms. Kelsky conveys this results-oriented mindset with practical advice in a manner that's both frank and edifying. Her book is a mental reset and, to my mind, a useful read even outside of academia.

Although Kelsky provides remarkable insight into the academic job market, I am very disappointed with the book's formatting and content, which are both too similar to her blog.

Kelsky's advice is phenomenal - she is particularly excellent at providing information about cover letters and CVs. Her advice mirrors what my advisors have told me - in the cover letter, don't focus so much on my dissertation, have a second book project, be specific and concrete about publication plans, add a line to one's CV every month, etc. This book will specifically benefit graduate students in the humanities and social sciences who are just starting out because she focuses so much on how students need to craft a professional persona, which is easier to do at the beginning of one's career. Kelsky's prose is also accessible and vibrant - she has a sharp sense of humor and refrains from using excessive jargon, which is refreshing since most academic prose is boring and jargon-heavy (and I say this as a fellow academic).

However, the book's layout is static and underwhelming. Her chapters are extremely short (about 3-5 pages each) and read more like blog posts than book chapters. In fact, most chapters are, word for word, taken directly from her blog. I was shocked that I had read 90% of the content already and was hoping that her book would extend, rather than replicate, her blog. While I like Kelsky's advice, you really do not need to buy this book - her blog is sufficient enough. I also found that her blog's comment section is helpful since other academics weigh in on both the shortcomings and validity of her advice.

I always tell my students that one's writing should fit the genre, so imagine my surprise when I see that Kelsky's book looks like a paper version of her blog. She claims that the book provides examples, which she omits from her blog, but she really only provides one or two examples of job materials, certainly not enough to warrant buying it.

Overall, while Kelsky is definitely knowledgeable and personable, I don't think you need to buy this book. Read her blog plus the comments section, and you should be all set.

This is a very helpful handbook for grad students and junior scholars in the job market seeking a tenure track social sciences or humanities assistant professorship in the USA, especially for those seeking positions at research universities. It is as relevant today as it was in 2015 and will continue to be relevant for at least several more years. Kelsky is no-nonsense about her recommendations and observations of academe from her perspective. The motif in the first part of the book ("End of an Era") about the ostensibly idyllic lifestyle (or myth) of senior faculty at her program is well-written and sets the scene for a descent into the behind the scenes reality that many graduates will face in today's perhaps Hunger Games-like market. Practical and jarring, this handbook has interesting anecdotal stories with helpful advice and examples.

This book is mostly a regurgitation of her blog posts (which were available for free and then taken down after the release of her book - although some have been put back up, probably after complaints). Some chapters are virtually word-for-word what she posted on her blog even though she promises "expanded" or "updated" advice. I don't have an issue with someone trying to make money off their expertise, but it seems like a cop-out to simply compile all your blog posts from over the years and put it between a book cover and expect people to pay for it when it was offered for free. Especially when you tout said book on your blog to dedicated readers. I was expecting more information, not the same information. I also agree with another reviewer who pointed out that the book (and the blog) gives a lot of great advice on what NOT to do, but very little advice on what to do. For example, she spends chapter after chapter talking about how students and post-docs need to present themselves as a colleague, not a lowly graduate student. But then she spends another chapter talking about how some students can be too narcissistic and grandiose and gives example statements that seem like they would have been written by someone after they read the first half up the book. In the end, I was left with rampant paranoia about using certain words or phrases that would convey either unworthiness or arrogance. She provides an example template for a cover letter, but it is completely useless for anyone outside of the humanities who doesn't spend their entire graduate program on one project/book. She comes from a humanities background, so she often uses the cop-out line that you should check with your advisor/trusted mentor to see what is customary in your field (after she spends half a chapter decrying the lack of practical advice that faculty and universities give to PhD job seekers). This was fine when she was writing a free blog, but if you're going to write a book claiming to be an expert on how to get a job with a PhD, it doesn't make sense to only include information relevant to a very narrow market of job seekers (and the ones least likely to get a job).

I bought this book through her website. She cannot improve upon your experience and knowledge, but if you pay attention and learn from her, she will make your dossier as strong as possible. I when through academic job cycles four times: two before hiring her and two after hiring her. It is a small sample, but I received only one first round interview (no campus interview) before working with her. After working with her, I had three campus interviews and two job offers, including the job of my dreams.

This book, in addition to her blog and writings elsewhere, provides an indispensable guide to turning your Ph.D. into a job. It also gives so much more helpful information. If you are earning a Ph.D. as a credential for the job market, you need to buy this book. She provides so much of the necessary advice that good mentors provide.

In Karen Kelsky's book "The Professor Is In," the author guides graduate students and first year professors/adjuncts through the maze of the modern academic job market. From the tenure track job search through how to write job documents through the academic interview and into the final negotiations, Kelsky provides a broad and sobering overview of how to go from a lowly graduate student to a tenure track position. The advice that she offers is not esoteric, but rather succinct and concrete. Broken into dozens of smaller chapters, Kelsky provides a desperately needed resource that not only offers advice but gives solid examples. In a day and age when the academic job market has shrunk to possibly its worst state in history, and when advisors are increasingly trying to save their own skins at the expense of their students, "The Professor Is In" is an important book that should become standard fare for anyone in graduate school. Well-written, thoroughly researched, and engaging, Kelsky's book should become the gold standard for all of those aspiring to enter academia.

I purchased this book on the recommendation of a friend. I am giving it 2 stars because it is of limited use for those in STEM or business, and the description doesn't make this limitation clear. The text itself does make a good effort (in earlier chapters) in pointing out areas where the advice may not apply to the humanities or social sciences, however, it does not attempt to provide useful alternate resources. I would imagine that this book is a great resource for those in the humanities or social sciences, but it is of little use for those in STEM or business.

My husband swears by this book! He credits it with his attainment of a tenure-track faculty position straight out of a 2-year postdoc. We have since purchased about 10 copies of this book to give to friends who are finishing up grad school/postdocs.

Reading college advice guides is a lot like looking at those pictures where they overlap the faces of the 25 hottest stars to show you what beauty is. You can pick out an ear here, an eyelash there, but you realize they’re almost all exactly the same. The Professor Is in: The Essential Guide to Turning Your PH.D. Into a Job is the Quasimodo of this allegory. Karen Kelsky‘s guide to transitioning from grad student to tenure-track faculty doesn’t overlap with books of its ilk, and it looks pretty damn ugly to anyone considering grad school.

If it sounds as though I’m downing Kelsky, rest assured: I’m not. I can’t fault The Professor Is In for any of the ugliness it brings, because it’s a necessity. The outlook for grad students isn’t Hollywood overlap-pretty, and Kelsky isn’t airbrushing its rough edges. Instead, she eviscerates the flaws in the academic system that allow PhDs to languish in adjunct hell for years, and maps out the most hopeful course for those with their eyes on the tenure prize.

Not only has Kelsky identified and appealed to a gap in advice materials available to grad students, but she’s also closed it. Barring great changes for terminal degree holders in the jobs market, The Professor Is In has monopolized and exhausted the conversation. Kelsky leaves few, if any, stones unturned, and she spreads out her information in such a way as to leave no need for other voices. It’s a shrewd and compassionate decision on her part, to offer graduates a single book to answer all their questions. For Kelsky’s readers, there’ll be no combing nearly-identical texts for minor differences in chapters and footnotes, and no competition for the foreseeable future.

It’s worth noting that I almost never purchase copies of books I’ve read digitally, but I ordered a copy of The Professor Is In before I’d even finished it. Kelsky’s words didn’t dissuade me from pursuing a graduate degree, but they have proven vital to that journey. The Professor Is In is the item you grab when it gets dangerous to go alone, and I wasted no time recommending it to friends in the process of applying to graduate programs. If you’re considering a second degree, or know someone who is, put this book in their hands. They’ll thank you later.