Options for Success
The PhD’s Guide to Navigating Career Transitions and Thriving in Your Next Professional Chapter
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For PhDs asking “What’s next?”, Options for Success offers a clear, empathetic roadmap beyond academia.
Blending a step-by-step framework with coaching insights and real-life transition stories, it empowers readers to reimagine their paths, translate their skills, navigate the messy middle of career change, and transition confidently into fulfilling new roles. Woven throughout the narrative are practical exercises, templates, and scripts that help readers move from insight to action in real time.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Detox: Make Space and Time to Launch Your Career Transition
2. Discover: Reimagine Career Expectations and Life Choices
3. Assess: Uncover, Translate, and Boost Your Job Skills to Be a Competitive Candidate
4. Connect: Gain Job Leads Through Social Listening and Authentic Networking
5. Apply: Create Résumés, Cover Letters, and Social Media Bios That Get You Noticed
6. Interview: Master Tough Questions like “Tell Us About Yourself” and “Do You Have Any Questions for Us?”
7. Self-Care: How to Manage Job Search Fatigue
8. Onboard: I Got the Job, So Now What?
Epilogue. A Final Pep Talk from Your Coach
Additional Resources
Early praise for Options for Success
“This book meets PhDs in the unlit hallway between ‘what now?’ and ‘what’s next?’ and hands them something better than advice: a plan. The framework is shaped by the same kind of iterative thinking you’d find in design—practical, focused, and built to move you forward. It offers clarity without oversimplifying and structure that helps readers act, even when the path ahead feels uncertain.”
— Abby Williams, Assistant Dean for Professional Development, New York University
About the Author
Fatimah Williams, Ph.D., is an executive coach, speaker, and founder of Professional Pathways. A cultural anthropologist with over 15 years of consulting experience, she has advised national organizations like the National Institutes of Health, the Urban League, and more than 30 universities on leadership development, organizational strategy, and career growth.
Her thought leadership appears in both academic and popular outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education and Essence. A former career services leader at the University of Pennsylvania, she also has served on the board of the University of Virginia Alumni Association and the advisory council of the Zimmerli Art Museum. She is the author of three books, Be Bold, Professional Pathways Planner, and her newest book, Options for Success, published by Oxford University Press, which guides PhDs through career transitions and the messy middle of reinvention. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her spunky rescue dog Rey.
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