Feeling Good

By Jennifer Polk - From PhD to Life. I’ve just finished hosting my first group coaching call and I’m feeling pretty darn good about it. That’s how I feel about my life these days in general: pretty darn good. A year ago—less, even—I was jokingly telling friends and acquaintances that I was a loser with a PhD. I was only half joking.
How did I get here?
When I finished my PhD in history in February 2012, I knew where I was headed. I was already doing occasional freelance jobs as a researcher and administrative assistant, and liked the project-based work and flexibility of being self-employed. My plan was to carry on, adding more clients and taking on more challenging assignments. But things didn’t work out that way, and by the time I graduated in June, I wasn’t feeling so great about where I was at. Come the fall, I’d realized that Things Needed To Change. I quit one uninspiring part-time gig and started getting serious about my career search. More...