Category: Your Career

Thesis Whisperer Jnr was eight months old when I started my Masters degree by research at RMIT and was seven years old when I graduated with my PhD from the University of Melbourne. In retrospect, the decision to go back to post graduate study with a very young child seems slightly insane, but I remember …continue reading.

My friend and colleague Dr Rachael Pitt, otherwise known on Twitter as @thefellowette has had a conventional academic career. By ‘conventional’ I don’t mean that she finished her PhD, accepted a permanent position as a lecturer and has worked at the same university ever since. Oh no no no – that was a conventional academic …continue reading.

Floor Basten is an independent scholar in the Netherlands. In this post she shares her wisdom of 12 years of working as an independent scholar. A life of unknown wealth and luxury, days filled with sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll, a palace packed with the presents fans from all over the world voluntarily …continue reading.

This post is by Lilia Mantai who completed her teaching degree at Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany. She has been teaching at Macquarie University, Australia, and working as a Research Assistant at the Learning and Teaching Centre for several years. She is currently conducting PhD research on the role of social practices and researcher development …continue reading.

Marnie Graham completed her PhD as a co-tutelle student at Stockholm and Macquarie Universities. Her primary co-supervisors were Dr Henrik Ernstson from Stockholm University and Dr Sandie Suchet-Pearson at Macquarie University, and together they work on the ‘Ways of Knowing Urban Ecologies’ project. This post is a discussion between Marnie, Henrik and Sandie on the pros and cons of …continue reading.

We’ve written about parenting through a PhD quite a lot on the Whisperer. Last time we heard from Jonathan Downie he was parenting a toddler. This time Jonathan reflects on being a PhD Dad. You can read more about Jonathan and his work on his blog Rock Your Talk. It’s 4.30pm and the new student …continue reading.

Recently I put together a promotion application. For those of you unfamiliar with the Australian system, this is similar to a tenure application in the U.S.A. You must compile everything you have done in your academic career, assess its impact and present it all as a legible ‘story’ of your contribution to your discipline and …continue reading.

If you follow the narratives of the PhD in the mainstream media you can get really depressed. All the reports are so negative on your job prospects. What’s a PhD student to do? Well, some clever people are turning their minds to the problem and this post concerns a new book on the subject. Normally …continue reading.

Can you still be a scholar without an academic post? Increasingly, people are making this seeming contradiction work for them – in diverse and creative ways. This post is by Aleisha Ward, who was one of the first graduates of the Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) at the University of Auckland (2003). She holds a …continue reading.

Have you thought about running your own business after finishing your PhD? Shari Walsh worked as an expert PhD career counsellor when I first met her, around 5 years ago. Now she runs her own business called ‘Growth Psychology’ and specialises in helping PhD students develop a successful post-PhD career both inside and outside of …continue reading.