Editor’s Note: Previously in the Career Talk series, our experts on Ph.D. career counseling have offered advice on drafting a CV, using AI on your application materials, looking for industry positions, and other career-planning topics.
It’s a fraught time to pursue doctoral study in higher education. Depending on your location, field, and personal circumstances, this academic year may feel very different from previous ones, or strangely normal. But in the face of societal upheaval, fueled by a 24/7 information firehose designed to hold your attention, it can be difficult to prioritize your research.
But prioritize it you must, if you want to make progress on your degree this year. Fall is a good time to take stock of your work habits, gauge whether they’re serving you well, and make changes if they’re not. A strong sense of purpose, a robust support network, and an awareness of the resources at your disposal on campus can make a huge difference. So here is some advice from two people who have spent their careers working with graduate students, including in very hard times.
Be deliberate about where to focus your attention. This year is very likely to be a difficult one in higher ed. We are not going to tell you to never let yourself be distracted from your research by current events or by whatever mix of pressures is embroiling your campus. You are a person living in the world, not a monk in a monastery. But we do suggest that you take steps to guard your time and attention, and consider whether your online habits are helping or hindering your work and your overall well-being. A few tips to keep in mind:
- Make this your mantra: Just because it happens does not mean I need to react to it online. Perhaps pick a few topics that are of most interest to you and limit your online conversation to them.
- Consider using Bluesky and other social media primarily for topics directly related to your field and research interests.
- Take advantage of your phone’s ability to set time limits for certain apps, particularly when a writing deadline requires your full focus.
- Prioritize attending in-person talks, workshops, and events on your campus. Use them as an opportunity to work out some of your ideas before taking them public.
Get organized. Right now the academic year stretches out in front of you, but June will be here before you know it. What are your goals for 2025-26? Are there certain milestones you want to hit?
Map out the year. Be sure to include the dates and deadlines of things like your comprehensive exams, advancement to candidacy, job applications, field work, conference presentations, teaching duties, and dissertation chapters that you wish to complete. Even if you are early in your Ph.D. program and your list mostly includes coursework, we still suggest mapping out the year. Include in your goals any certificates you are interested in; it is often easier to complete them if you decide early on which ones to pursue.
Beyond work obligations, map out other career-exploration goals, too. If you hope to do an internship this year, find out the application deadlines (they’re earlier than you might think.) Are you planning to attend certain workshops or seminars offered on your campus on teaching, writing, career planning, or community engagement? Map those commitments as well.
Your plan will evolve, but articulating the milestones well ahead of time will be helpful.
Get connected beyond your department. Perhaps you skipped the campus-library tour as a first-year Ph.D. student, thinking, “I was a clever undergrad. I know how to use a library.” No matter where you are in your research process, now is a great time to hop on the library’s website and schedule an appointment. University librarians are fabulous people and there to help you. They can guide you to essential research resources for your field, help you recognize and avoid predatory publishers or conferences, show you how to manage and share your data, and train you to master the large database of grant opportunities that your university very likely subscribes to. Most important, they can teach you to master bibliographic tools like Zotero and build a scholarly identity (using a tool like ORCID).
The same goes for other campus resources such as teaching, writing, and counseling centers. In the past, you may have thought, “I’ll use these services when I hit a problem that I can’t solve myself” or “These services are for students who can’t just figure it out on their own.” Take time now, at the beginning of a new academic year, to become familiar with these places and people so that, in a moment of crisis, you already know where to go and with whom to speak. For example:
- Connect with your campus career center to start learning how alumni from your Ph.D. program — and similar ones — are employed after graduation. Sit in on employer sessions and learn about different careers.
- Visit your writing center to learn about best practices, whether you are writing your first seminar paper or your third dissertation chapter.
- Connect with your teaching center to see what types of training it offers, on things like classroom management and syllabus design.
If you have been in graduate school a while, some of the novelty of the campus will have worn off. Are there interdisciplinary centers that you’ve been meaning to visit but haven’t? Is there a graduate-student center where you can grab some free coffee and meet students from other programs? Let the energy of a new year buoy you into breaking out of your comfort zone.
Embrace slow progress. Those of you going into your third or fourth year are in what is sometimes called the “messy middle” of doctoral education. The transition from coursework to dissertation — which coincides with comprehensive exams and often an intensive teaching load — can be a difficult one.
Graduate school isn’t an especially efficient experience for anyone, and some amount of messy flailing is inevitable. However, there is a difference between slow progress and no progress. We have seen doctoral students get truly stuck and flounder for multiple semesters, uncertain how to proceed.
No matter where you are in your program, if you have reached a point where you just don’t see how to move forward, don’t silently panic and hope nobody notices. Reach out to the people who are meant to help you. Your adviser is very likely at the top of the list but shouldn’t be the only name there. We recommend cultivating a network of mentors (within and beyond your doctoral program) and friends with whom you can talk through the problem. An appointment with campus mental-health services can also be helpful.
If you feel like your support network on the campus is not as robust as it could be — or if you’re early in your program and just haven’t developed one yet — now is the time to change that. The deeply competitive nature of graduate school can make it hard to ask for help but is also why you need a network of people you can trust and turn to during difficult times. And on that note …
Value kindness and reliability at least as much as “brilliance.” Doctoral students often feel pressure to build dissertation committees and networks of scholarly “superstars,” on the theory that a big-name adviser helps on the academic job market. That may be true — but it often doesn’t help when it comes to getting through graduate school in a timely fashion. Superstars tend to travel frequently and have many demands on their time, which makes it very difficult to schedule meetings with them and get timely feedback on your drafts. The more superstars on your committee, the more difficult it will be to get them all in a room together when it’s necessary.
That’s why, in addition to scholarly profile, you should carefully consider both kindness and reliability in choosing your adviser and committee members. In the long run, an associate professor who meets with you regularly, returns drafts on a reasonable schedule, and provides substantive, constructive feedback may be a better adviser than a senior superstar who is never in the country, takes months to return chapter drafts, and provides vague feedback.
Be aware that graduate school will end. No doubt that seems obvious if you’re in your fifth year — you are probably all too aware of the end of your program. But for folks early in their training, the end can seem pretty far off.
Many Ph.D. students put off thinking about graduation because it makes them anxious. But the best thing you can do for yourself, no matter where you are in your studies, is to figure out what you want when graduate school ends. And the answer needs to be more specific than “a faculty job.” In addition to them being increasingly difficult to come by, not all faculty jobs are created equal, or created equal for you. Spend some time thinking not just about that first job but about the life you want. We all have personal hopes, dreams, and ambitions, and they matter just as much as the professional ones.
The beginning of a new school year is a good time to pause and reflect on what you’ve learned so far — about your field, the world, and yourself. Be honest about what you are enjoying and what you aren’t. Maybe you’ve realized you don’t love classroom teaching, although you like working with undergraduates. Perhaps you’ve discovered that you’re skilled at organizing department events or programs. Or maybe you’re very good at explaining research to nonexperts.
Such self-knowledge is good to have, but it only matters if you pay attention to it. The best favor you can do for your future self is to be prepared for the coming job search. That’s especially important if you are going to be searching in the United States as an international student or managing a job search in a different part of the world, both of which will require extra research, time, and care to execute well.
Protect your well-being. You may have noticed this as a running theme, but it’s worth reiterating. Even under the best circumstances, graduate school is demanding. There are times of serious self-doubt. But there is also great satisfaction to be found in doing hard things. In those moments when satisfaction is out of reach, we would suggest two things.
First, make sure you’re seeking out connections, particularly with friends and family outside of academe. Hone the skill of being able to explain your research to them and why your topic is important, both to you and to a wider public.
Second, remind yourself why you chose to do this in the first place. What inspired you to pursue a doctorate? Use that recollection to remotivate yourself. It can even be helpful to write yourself a note, in a prominent spot on your desk, that spells out exactly why all of this work is worth it. Your intentions and goals may shift — and that’s the case for most people — but the work itself should continue to challenge and excite you.
