A few weeks ago, University of Toronto Press sent me a complimentary copy of “Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD“, a book written by Dr. Loleen Berdahl and Dr. Jonathan Malloy. It’s the first time I have gotten a complimentary copy of a book of this type and while UTP did not ask me to review it, I figured that it would be good for those who follow me on Twitter to get a sense of what the book offered.
Reading “Work your Career” by @loleen_berdahl and Jonathan Malloy. Really pragmatic and useful suggestions. I think it nicely complements other similar books. I’ll admit I wish they had made this flow chart basically saying “don’t do a PhD” pic.twitter.com/EsoQKmohsz
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 1, 2018
I stand by what I said on the above shown tweet: I don’t think anybody who wants to work in academia should do a doctoral degree right now. The market is atrocious and we don’t anticipate that it will improve any time soon. But since there are thousands of PhD students worldwide, and I DO want them to succeed, I will continue to write about how to do a doctoral degree as much as I can.
I think what makes Berdahl and Malloy human is how they add their own experiences. I wish my PhD had been an easy 3 years, “hi, bye, thanks for my degree”. I was *on the way to doing exactly that*, but life happened and I learned from the experience. pic.twitter.com/w4SPT1UNSq
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 1, 2018
I’m glad Berdahl and Malloy cover A LOT of ground (which in all honesty makes this book great as a backbone, but I will also be very honest in admiring you will need companion books. This isn’t a one-stop-shop for everything. It covers much ground and thus loses a bit of depth. pic.twitter.com/pjgXFvfagK
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 1, 2018
There are a number of things that make “Work Your Career” worth checking out. It’s an honestly written book, and it does offer lots of good suggestions. It also speaks to challenges doctoral supervisors face. And as always with books like these, there are important gaps. Berdahl and Malloy cover grant proposals (which many books don’t), but they skim over the thesis writing process (which is what many books DO cover, and one of the places where most students get stuck). As I said, I like this book as a backbone/workbook to work from. his book is an excellent and refreshing addition to my collection of books on how to help doctoral students.
I am glad they do offer suggestions to faculty who supervise doctoral dissertation, but if I may be so bold as to say, I think Berdahl and Malloy should have scolded supervisors more! At any rate, a good read, which I am sure will help my own doctoral students.
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