Hi! I’m Ryan Collins. I’m a SEO and Data professional. After Your PhD is a passion project and informational resource for PhDs looking to explore careers outside of academia. I graduated with a PhD degree in Media Arts and Sciences from Indiana University Bloomington. I wanted to be a film studies professor at one time in my life. I left academia because I didn’t want to move across the country for a job that may have been temporary. I also wanted a better life for my family.
When I began my transition from academia, I had a lot of questions and there were few resources at the time (and this was a few years ago). I was afraid to ask questions about myself despite being in a space where questions are all part of research and teaching. Through a series of informational interviews, exploration, and trial and error – I fell into SEO and digital marketing.
Due to the extreme stress of being a PhD and then transitioning, I wanted to help others who go through this similar process. I wanted to create a resource that might help bring some type of clarity to those with career anxiety.
The goal of After Your PhD isn’t to focus only on my experiences, but to bring in diverse perspectives from other PhDs who had different journeys than mine. By sharing different perspectives, I hope to bring clarity to as many career pivoters as possible. At the core of After Your PhD is questions, and I hope to ask many more.