phd pivot
Empowering academics to own their careers
What is PhD Pivot?
My name is Elijah. I left academia for big tech. Now I give PhDs actionable steps and execution plans to do the same.I don't need to sell you the why: it's obvious higher ed is broken. I do, however, want to impress upon you – regardless of where you're at – failing to plan is planning to fail.Now, I didn't invent the steps. I just optimized and organized what I inherited from my mentors into executable plans. I then broke them into 4 distinct stages along the critical path to success:Explore | Target | Apply | Interview.Below, you can preview the plans or look at the design thinking behind PhD Pivot: an Agile framework for project management I learned at Google.
The Backstory
After my PhD program at Indiana University, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to teach at a Jesuit university Santa Clara University. Five years later, I just couldn't do it anymore. The pay... the politics... the publish or perish anxiety.It was heartbreaking to leave my "calling". I feel our career change is unlike any other transition. "How do I break into another industry when this is all I know?"I was fortunate to have mentors from FAANG advising me how to break into a big tech company. They let me in on the trade secrets: tried and true strategies that got me into Facebook in 2018 and Google in 2020. And I did it with virtually NO industry experience.
So why did I create PhD Pivot?
Right after I joined Google, I started getting calls from fellow Googlers:
"Hey, Elijah. Can you help my colleague do what you did to get hired?"One, two, five people later, I'd managed to help all but one get hired into more lucrative positions than my own! (one didn't follow my steps).Then I started getting calls from friends leaving academia, and I remembered how uniquely challenging the PhD career path is. Then hundreds more...literally. Between August and September of 2022, I'd spoken to over 200 PhDs desperate to escape their situation. Adjuncts... tenured professors... department chairs. Even a Dean and a VP of Academic Affairs.So I sat down to refine the steps and optimize the strategies for people like me: hyper-skilled experts, but under-experienced outside academia.
A new calling
(ok, not so grandiose)
It became clear what I needed to do: make the smartest altruistic people the highest paid people. I want to turn Poor hungry Doctors into Paid handsomely Doctors.
I have to share these execution plans. Of all the "disruptive" technologies today making people's lives better, no one thought to disrupt the pain of a job search?! Nobody?! I have a plan that fixes this.
I've helped hundreds of PhDs now to do this without the tears...okay fewer tears. The path has already been carved and I'm just operationalizing what probably seems a mystery to you. It's not magic. Let me show you.Whenever you're ready, you can check out the plans of execution below, or check out the design behind them.
A few Rockstars
Elena Costello, PhD
Leader in Healthcare Accessibility and Language Access
"Talking to Elijah was like therapy. I had to step back with Elijah and think, is this a work life balance for real? Elijah gave me the confidence to know it was okay to walk away from academia. Less than 2 months after talking to Elijah, I had 5 job offers, 4 of them at more than double what academia was paying me, and all but one of the five was hybrid/remote. The hardest part of accepting a job that pays me more and respects work-life balance is believing it is real."
Daanish Faruqi, PhD
International and Multicultural Research Professional | Ethnographer | Qualitative Research methods expert | Branding | Strategy
"As a Ph.D. in the humanities transitioning into industry, the journey often felt like stepping into the wildness. Elijah's coaching shortcut the process for me, effectively teaching me how to own an academic background to command success in industry spaces. He also made clear to me that there are several equally rewarding and lucrative career pathways available in the post-academic turn. Can't recommend him enough."
Diana Pacheco, PhD
Design Thinker, Innovation Strategist, Learning Experience Designer, Community-Engaged Researcher
"Elijah is a gem of a human being who is passionate about helping others pivot out of academia. He has provided invaluable advice that has helped me navigate this new world as I transitioned from academia to industry. After meeting with him, I felt more confident and prouder about my achievements. As a result, I have been able to better position myself by learning how to communicate my hard-earned academic skills in new professional settings. Anybody would be lucky to have him as a coach!"
Kaidi Wu, PhD
UX Researcher
"Elijah is knowledgeable, generous, and provided me with incredibly helpful information when I needed it. He is also someone who thinks outside of the box and provides advice based on your needs. I highly recommend Elijah!"