As part of my Certificate in Career Studies and Coaching I need to undertake practice sessions - if you're interested in free career coaching, message me for more details!

Hi all,

I am currently working towards completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring at Sheffield Hallam University and I am conducing this survey to understand the biggest challenges that PhD students encounter and explore whether coaching could them help overcome these challenges.

Coaching focuses on unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. The role of the coach is to supports the individual to identify, focus on, and achieve what is important to them in a way that is supportive and non-judgemental. That goal could be to finish your PhD by a certain time or to explore new career options.

Your contribution is really appreciated! The survey is anonymous and should take no more than 5 minutes of your time and can be accessed from

Hi AnnJolie, it wasn't one thing that led me to consider pursuing non-academic roles, more a combination: I realised I didn't really enjoy teaching and was becoming increasingly aware that this is the bread and butter of most academic roles; I also realised that the path was extremely competitive and once my heart was no longer in it, I just didn't see much point in spending years trying to pursue the elusive lectureship. I wanted a job which had a better work-life balance and better structure - from what I've seen, most academic jobs are somewhat flexible but operate on the principle of peaks and troughs and I wanted something that would be more predictable. Finally, I wanted a career that was more portable than an academic lectureship in sociology (if I ever managed to get one!) - I wanted a career that gave me a lot of options and didn't lock me into a particular geographical location. Last but not least, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed with the process of academic publishing as it took ages and didn't feel terribly transparent. I do get very occasional twinges of missing the research process, that was the bit that I really enjoyed but it wasn't sustainable as a career for me and I am really happy with what I do at the moment and the stability as well as my career prospects. I am particularly happy about getting more immersion into the world of IT and technology:)

Hi Ann,

that's what I did - I completed my PhD in sociology six years ago and moved into project management - and as of next month I will finally be moving into a permanent role as IT project manager, bit of a sideways move for somebody with no prior technology background:) To answer your questions: I am happy not continuing as academic, I work with academics a lot on the projects I manage and see the reality of their job and they are not happy bunnies (pressure from students, pressure due to REF, pressures from management, drowning in admin etc. and added to that, frequent restructures which mean that even permanent jobs are not safe). In terms of getting the job - yes, it was really difficult to get a permanent job and I went through a string of short-term contracts which I absolutely hated because of the insecurity and being treated like second-class citizen but in each contract I made sure to get as much development and experience as possible and that helped me finally land a permanent role. Nobody ever asked me why I didn't want to continue as academic, they were interested in my project management skills and having the PhD was a nice asset as it meant I could talk to academics. Re: your last question - as I have stopped publishing and teaching, there is really no way back into academia but then I don't want to be an academic, I am much happier doing what I do at the moment, working reasonable hours, doing interesting work and knowing that I have transferable skills so it all worked out fine - it's not a career dead end, it's a completely different career.