Career Development Strategies E023 How to Navigate in the Job Market as a PhD in Rhetorics? What Are the Origins of #hirehighered?
Dr. Eric James Stephens is the founder of #HireHigherEd, #ChangeHigherEd, and Thousand Plateaus Consulting, LLC. His organizations’ goals are to highlight the value of higher ed workers as they migrate to industry, government, and non-profits jobs outside of academia. During this foundational shift in the landscapes of higher education exposed by the COVID pandemic, Eric sees opportunity for change.
No one is happy with the state of higher education. Rather than theorize about change or offering just another white guy’s opinion on the “state of things,” Eric is committed to building a platform for others to share their stories. While earning a PhD in Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design (Clemson University, 2018), he learned the importance of learning about others, hearing their stories, and helping to amplify those voices in a meaningful way that leads to action.
In this webinar, Eric told us about his personal story and motivation to launch his projects. We also talked about the values that industry rewards versus what we are rewarded for in the academic community. What are the biggest problems of the job market for PhDs these days? What is the best piece of career advice one can give? And lastly, what does Eric’s tattoo mean?