A hopecore professionalization podcast for graduate students and postdocs curious about how to transition their academic skills into other jobs. Three times a month we share why the skills you've learned in grad school make you a great candidate for your dream job. We cover the non-academic job search and unlearning bad habits using real examples from grad students and academic professionals just like you who have found their dream job. The website for the show is not quite finished yet but feel free to leave questions or topics for other episodes in the comments!
In this episode, we go over what we're bringing back and what we're starting for Season 2 of What if Grad School Was Useful, Actually?
7 Nov 2025
10 Transferable Skills and How to Use Them in Your Non-Academic Job Search
Continuing from last week, we tackle another section of transferable skills from Dr. Kelsky's, "The Professor Is In" job guide giving examples of how you might phrase them on your resume, put them in your cover letter or use them to shape your job search itself.
31 Oct 2025
100 Skills That Translate Out of the Academy: Part 1
In this week's episode, we go through the list of over 100 transferable skills in Karen Kelsky's "The Professor Is In."
While Dr. Kelsky's list of skills is a great place to start, in this episode we go through over 20 skills giving examples of how they might appear in your resume, help you in a resume, or narrow your job search.
5 Oct 2025
Why the "Why"--Where People Often Get Stuck in Translating Their Skills
As promised a few weeks ago, today's episode digs into the third, and trickiest, question in my 3-part formula for identifying the skills that you cultivated during grad school.
In honor of a new follower who is about to finish their PhD in History today's examples are almost exclusively drawn from that discipline.
If you'd like examples specific to your discipline in a future episode feel free to leave comments here or head over to the Gram at ifgradschoolwasuseful and message me there.
11 Sept 2025
Cover Letter Makeover: From Higher Ed to Nonprofit Manager
In this episode, I share a recent client's cover letter before and after edits. This client has worked in Higher Ed for almost a decade. While they are an excellent writer their cover letter was full of terms a non-academic audience cannot easily interpret.
We start the episode by going over what's good about their original cover letter then we move on to the changes we made paragraph by paragraph before comparing the first and final version.
If you are curious about how to transition your academic skills, especially teaching skills, to a nonprofit audience use this as a step-by-step example.
8 Aug 2025
So, you want to go to grad school!
Today's episode is dedicated to those starting, or returning to, graduate programs in the fall term.
In this episode, we elaborate on one of the core beliefs of this podcast: that engaging with grad school for any amount of time--ANY--amount of time, builds skills you can use to get your dream job. We also cover the importance of starting to prepare for all career options as soon as you can.
As always, please leave your questions or requests for future topics in the comments.
21 Jul 2025
Unlearning the 4 Academic Skill Sets
4 big buckets contain all academic contributions.
3 important questions can help you identify what skills you're developing while pursuing your academic goals
2 find your
1 dream job!
15 Jul 2025
"Non-Academic" Jobs
In this episdoe I go over why I use the phrase "non-academic" when talking about jobs for graduate students and postdocs.
Lately, there has been a trend to move away from the phrase "non-academic" when talking to grad students and postdocs about career options. I think the theory is great, but until the rest of the academy catches up, I'm going to keep using this phrase for the reasons shared here. Let me know what you think!
1 Jul 2025
Ideation, Implementation, and Other Skills
Hello, All! After a brief hiatus, it is good to be back!
In today's episode I want to share with you an encounter I recently had with a friend discussing what skills she wants to use as she looks for a new role and why those skills are actually a secret academic super power!
4 Jun 2025
An Example of How to Break It Down
In this episode, I chat with my partner's aunt who was gracious enough to let me help her with her resume when she was updating it to apply for an adjunct position at her alma mater.
In this episode, we go DEEP into unlearning the academic habit of seeing things as a whole and how to break them down into parts so potential employers have a better idea of your skills.
If you have questions you'd like to dig into based on this episode or would like to be a guest for a future episode then leave a comment below!
22 May 2025
Finding a Job: Unlearning Academic Bad Habits, How to Look, and Where.
In today's episode, we discuss unlearning academic norms about job seeking and one deceptively powerful trick for narrowing down the field of possibility to eliminate overwhelm at the start of your job search process. We also go over some of the pros and cons of different job search platforms.
14 May 2025
Teaching: What does that word mean?
A friend recently told me they were having trouble finding a job outside the academy because "Nobody counts teaching as experience."
In this episode we take a look at what "Teaching Assistant" can mean for graduate students, the executive skills these roles build, and give a couple of suggestions for jobs that will let you use your teaching skills in industry, non-profit, or government roles.
8 May 2025
Don't do this!
In this episode I go over the #1 thing I see grad students, postdocs, and other academics do to sabotage themselves when looking for non-academic jobs.
If you listen to one episode then let it be this one!
30 Apr 2025
Job Documents and Their Differences in Under 7 Minutes
In last week's episode with our Special Mystery Guest, we referenced several different types of job documents. In today's mini-sode, we discuss the differences between them and situations you in which you might use them.
This is a great starter episode for anyone curious about how applications outside of traditional faculty jobs work.
22 Apr 2025
Fabulous Mystery Guest Episode
In our first guest episode, I chat with a friend and former client on what was most surprising about transitioning an academic résumé to an industry résumé. Listen along to find out what some of the many meanings of "students" are, discuss formatting issues, and much, much more!
9 Apr 2025
Grad Student: What does that word mean?
In today's mini-sode we dive into what "graduate student" means, or doesn't, to people both inside and outside the academy and how understanding the difference will make you a better job candidate.
1 Apr 2025
What are we doing here?
Welcome to the first episode of What If Grad School Was Useful, Actually? A hopecore podcast on professionalization where we believe that your time in grad school taught you everything you need to know to be the perfect candidate for your dream job.
In this episode I introduce myself (hi!), explain the show's name, and share why public speaking is your superpower even if you don't know it yet.
Unfortunately, our website isn't finished yet but please feel free to share topics you'd like to see covered during future episodes in the comments.
Host of What If Grad School Was Useful, Actually??
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
