Coming to Montreal from an MA in Australia, I was very naïve about how academia worked at first and didn’t know how to (or even that I should) apply for major grants. Several part-time jobs, including an administrative position in my department, helped to get me through until I received grants in the latter part of my PhD, which took me four years. Funding and an excellent supervisor helped me to move quickly through my dissertation on graffiti and the street art movement. It helped that I had come to the PhD with a very clearly defined plan to write a specific book, not to pursue an academic career.

After graduation, I was an orientation coordinator for the Faculty of Fine Arts for a year, and then worked for my father’s software engineering company for 6 months—both positions unrelated to my PhD training. Then, I had 6 months to get a book (based loosely on my thesis) ready.

I applied for, and received, postdocs, but I ended up turning them down. Instead, I applied for the newly created position of Department Coordinator in my old Art History department. In this role, I’ve supervised an internship course and thus mentored undergraduate students. It doesn’t draw on the content of my research, but the skills I gained from my PhD training are transferable. This full-time permanent position comes with the security, regular schedule, and ability to pay off my student debts that I wanted—and I’m still able to do international guest lectures as a result of my PhD work. I’m also an affiliate professor, which allows me to teach and sit on committees, but Department Coordinator is my main job.

After being in the department for so long, I see how certain supervisors and mentors are better at setting up their students for success than others, especially students who may know less about grad school and academia. More structural supports to help PhDs finish and professionalize would be greatly beneficial.

Coming to Montreal from an MA in Australia, I was very naïve about how academia worked at first and didn’t know how to (or even that I should) apply for major grants. Several part-time jobs, including an administrative position in my department, helped to get me through until I received grants in the latter part of my PhD, which took me four years. Funding and an excellent supervisor helped me to move quickly through my dissertation on graffiti and the street art movement. It helped that I had come to the PhD with a very clearly defined plan to write a specific book, not to pursue an academic career.

After graduation, I was an orientation coordinator for the Faculty of Fine Arts for a year, and then worked for my father’s software engineering company for 6 months—both positions unrelated to my PhD training. Then, I had 6 months to get a book (based loosely on my thesis) ready.

I applied for, and received, postdocs, but I ended up turning them down. Instead, I applied for the newly created position of Department Coordinator in my old Art History department. In this role, I’ve supervised an internship course and thus mentored undergraduate students. It doesn’t draw on the content of my research, but the skills I gained from my PhD training are transferable. This full-time permanent position comes with the security, regular schedule, and ability to pay off my student debts that I wanted—and I’m still able to do international guest lectures as a result of my PhD work. I’m also an affiliate professor, which allows me to teach and sit on committees, but Department Coordinator is my main job.

After being in the department for so long, I see how certain supervisors and mentors are better at setting up their students for success than others, especially students who may know less about grad school and academia. More structural supports to help PhDs finish and professionalize would be greatly beneficial.