Episode 39 - Mentor PhDs in Non-Academic Job Explorations Using GROW [Pt. 2]

Hi Professors,

How do you mentor PhD students on a career pathway that’s very different from your own? What advice would you give to your students who are looking to leave higher ed, especially if you have never worked outside of academia?

I think for many faculty, this situation can seem pretty daunting. It’s one thing to be advising PhD students at your first job and to step into the mentor role for the very first time. But it feels even more uncertain to provide guidance and strategies to students who want to pursue a career in a field in which you have zero experience.

Plus, you may be in a department where the culture is one where the expectations are for graduate students to follow in your professorial footsteps.

This is a thorny issue. But it’s also one that faculty have to contend with because more and more PhDs are opting to pursue careers beyond academia.

It’s the reason why I decided to I focus my previous podcast episode on the topic of “Supporting PhDs in Non-Academic Career Explorations.” In that episode I talked about how it’s often difficult for many doctoral students to admit to their advisors that they are not planning to pursue a career in academia. This can be because of shame, fear of disappointing their advisor, or concerns about the pulling of funding.

In that episode, I offered the suggestion of being more intentional about creating brave spaces for your grad students to discuss their concerns about the non-academic job market with you and to be able to do so without a sense of shame or repercussions from your department.

In this 39^th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’d like to continue this discussion and introduce you to a simple coaching tool called the GROW model that you can employ to help with mentoring your PhD students.

The Challenges that PhD Students are Facing Right Now in US Universities

I’ve been thinking a lot about graduate students who are currently in their doctoral programs in the United States. These are distressing times to be living through as a PhD student. And let’s be honest. For many graduates, there aren’t any real guarantees that gainful employment on the academic tenure track will be on the other side of the PhD.

Moreover, because of the actions of the current Trump administration, many international graduate students are experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and fear because of the possibility of VISA revocations and forced deportations, also the denial of entry when re-entering the country, and even the active barring of Chinese students who gained admission into US universities this spring.

By the way, for a really insightful webinar on this last topic, please check out a very recent online teach-in called: “Chinese Exclusion 2.0: Visa Revocations and What it Means for Chinese Students and the U.S.” This was a teach-in that was convened by UCLA’s Center for Chinese Studies.

Returning to why it’s hard to be a PhD student right now…

There’s also the issue of critical funding sources being cancelled by the federal government. Many PhDs typically rely on external fellowships like Fulbright-Hayes or Fulbright IIE to support their field research.

Will departments be able to pick up the slack and defray the costs of their students conducting their archival or field research?

I’m not so sure.

While there will be other funding sources to apply to, competition to secure funding will become even more fierce.

This funding crisis extends to PhDs in STEM fields, who may have seen large research projects or their advisor’s labs impacted by the cuts to NSF. And the same applies to research in the medical fields.

And lastly, PhD students who study what could be construed as “DEI”-related topics are now having to make decisions about whether they want to comply by pivoting their research topics or to resist by staying the course.

It’s no wonder that many doctoral students are pondering what their Plans A, B, C, and D may be post-graduation. And Plan A might not include applying for tenure-track positions.

So, how can you mentor your PhD students in this current moment when you have never experienced searching for a job outside of the academy?

If you feel uncomfortable or ill-equipped to provide advice, then maybe the best thing to do is to not actually give advice in this situation.

You can still offer mentorship to your graduate students by offering a non-directive form of support.

How can you do this?

By moving into more of a coaching modality.

Try Out the GROW Model when Mentoring Your PhD Students

You can use something called the GROW model, which is a tool that is used in both coaching and mentoring, and it comes originally from the UK. It’s a four-part framework that focuses on

G: Defining one’s goals

R: Assessing the current situation, or the reality

O: Exploring possible options or solutions

W: Identifying the way forward or the will

Now how would this work in practice?

It might be beneficial here to paint a hypothetical scenario for you in order to illustrate how you can apply the GROW model.

So here it is:

Your PhD advisee has returned from a year of anthropological fieldwork and she’s in the middle of writing her dissertation. She wants to complete her dissertation, but she has recently admitted to you that she doesn’t intend to apply for academic positions.

She is concerned about paying back her college loans, and she wants to secure a job after graduating from her PhD in a year.

She comes to you for advice on what to do.

With the GROW model, you shift away from offering your own advice and center your student in this query-based model.

So Step 1 is to Define one’s Goals

You can ask questions along the lines of:

• What are your goals?

• What are your goals in the next year?

In response to those questions, your student states that she wants to write a good dissertation, but that she also wants to use her final year to prepare to look for jobs in UX research and writing.

Step 2 is Assessing the Reality

Questions for step 2 engage with assessing the current situation. You could ask things like:

• Where are you right now with reaching your goal of finishing your dissertation?

• Where are you right now with preparing to look for jobs in fields like UX research or writing?

The student replies that her dissertation is half-way completed and that she is in a helpful dissertation writing support group. With respect to her job search, the student mentions that she is just starting to learn about the field of UX research and writing.

Step 3 is Exploring Possible Options.

You may be unfamiliar with UX. What does that even stand for? And you start to panic a little bit. How can you mentor your advisee in a field that you don’t know anything about?

In this model, you don’t really have to know.

You just have to ask questions and serve as a thinking partner.

You can start by asking questions like:

• What are some of the challenges with the job search that you are encountering right now?

• What are some possible things that you’d like to explore?

• What are some resources that you want to look into?

• What do you need to know right now?

To probe a little bit deeper, you could also ask:

• What are some skills that you have that could be applied in UX research or UX writing?

Often times, you’ll be surprised that your student can actually generate a list of options on her own.

Step 4: Way Forward or sometimes referred to as Will

In this last step, you then help your advisee to determine what their next action steps may be to achieving their goals.

You can let her take the lead here.

She might say:

• She wants to connect with the career services office on campus and schedule an appointment soon.

• And then she’ll start to listen to a podcast she heard about: Anthropology to UX, and that she wants to follow certain UX professionals on LinkedIn like Amy Santee.

• In terms of her dissertation, she wants to set deadlines with you to submit completed chapter drafts of her dissertation to you.

After this,

You might ask her:

• How do you feel about these next first steps? Do they feel feasible?

• And what kind of support would you like from me at this moment?

• A final question could be: what are you learning about yourself right now?

That one feels a little more coach-like.

Now the GROW model is really versatile and can be used in so many different situations.

By now you’ve probably figured out that you could also apply it to your PhD student who is planning on going on the academic job market.

But perhaps the difference in these 2 situations is that you would have a lot more knowledge and experience about what is entailed with applying for academic jobs. And you’d be more inclined to provide advice and guidance from your position as a professor.

This is perfectly fine, and this is often what is expected in many academic mentoring relationships. Just know that you can also provide support to your PhD students in more non-directive forms of support, using something like the GROW model.

Who knows, by doing this kind of exercise with your students, you may find the model useful for exploring your own goals and next steps in a non-judgmental and generative way.

If you end up trying this out, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out.

And also I wanted to let you know that I have made some updates to my website, with a new tab for Workshops and Speaking. So if you’re currently planning for the next academic year, I do offer a number of workshops for graduate students and for faculty, as well as some keynotes. You can find that at RisewithClarity.com, under the Work with Katherine tab.

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Additional Resources

Career Coaches and Services

Karen Kelsky

Jennifer Polk

Ashley Ruba

Gertrude Nonterah