Sandlin, a listener sent in a comment on our episode about using LinkedIn that’s worth bringing to the entire Recovering Academic Community:

Hey all! Love the show! I just listened to the LinkedIn episode, and no one mentioned the thing I used LinkedIn for when I was transitioning.

I would look up job titles I was curious about and read how those people described themselves and their work. It helped me learn about different roles and career paths quickly, and pick up the language.

For example, editors are always “detail-oriented,” trainers/outreach professionals are always “engaging,” and instructional designers are more “creative” than curriculum developers.

I love what you are doing- keep up the great work!

As PhDs and postdocs, one of the things we do is research. Lots of research. And this extends to search for a job in a new field. Learning the language, seeing how people in a field describe themselves and their work, as well as how various companies talk about the work that they do. Many companies’ employees often post essays on LinkedIn as well. These are all good sources of information for a job search!

Thanks to Sandlin for this insightful comment! If any of listeners (or readers) feel there’s something we’ve left out of a discussion, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can address it as a blog post or as a discussion topic in a future episode.

Cheers,

Ian Street, (near future) Recovering Academic