PhDon’t Panic – Hitchhiker’s Guide to Your PhD Can Help You Excel in Grad School and Your Career

A quick internet search will reveal that graduate school can be hard. Try adding the words attrition rate, depression, anxiety, cost of living, strike, or job prospects to PhD or graduate school in your search and see what you find. On the other hand, graduate school can be very rewarding. If you want a well paying and fulfilling job working on interesting and difficult problems a PhD should definitely be on your radar. That’s why the author of the new book “Hitchhiker’s Guide to Your PhD: How to Excel, Jumpstart Your Career, and Not Panic” wants to help you get the most out of what a doctorate has to offer while reducing your stress. (https://hitchhikersguidetoyourphd.com/)

“I wanted to write the book I wish I had when starting graduate school” the author Matthew J. Bauer, PhD said. Initially a first generation college student graduating from Clarion University with a Bachelor’s in Physics and Mathematics, the now Dr. Bauer went on to complete his doctorate from the University of Florida while authoring several papers and patenting novel sensing and antenna technologies. 

“This isn’t the type of thing you can do on your own” Dr. Bauer notes as he references the importance of collaborators who helped the projects he worked on to succeed. Collaboration is one of the key aspects underscored in his book. There’s a lot of risk in research, if you knew what was going to happen it wouldn’t be research. That’s why you need to find great collaborators and spread your time across multiple projects, both one’s you lead and those lead by others. The book contains sections giving general high level graduate school advice learned through experience, as well as specific tools and tips. “I don’t get into study habits and test taking, if you’re reading this [book] you’ve got that down” said the author, instead he focuses on things like risk, time, and stress management.

There’s a grounded feel to the advice throughout. One example is the author’s insistance that graduate school stipend and cost of living near the school, along with the working environment and your particular advisor, should be considered over school prestige. This makes sense, if you have a hard time getting by financially it’s going to make a PhD incredibly difficult. But if you surround yourself with excellent people in a good working environment you’ll accomplish more, and your results matter much more than your university’s name recognition. You need to have something solid to show at the end to put yourself in a good position for your career.

The release of the book is set for January 6th to help PhD students kick off the new year strong. Amazon kindle pre-orders are available now to help you commit to your academic development or give someone you know who’s pursuing or interested in pursuing a PhD a great holiday gift, while the paperback will be released on the 6th.

Kindle Pre-Order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZMK4X8B/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_K1zTDbCVE7J49

About Hitchhiker’s Guide to Your PhD

Providing PhD students with the project, time, and stress management skills needed to excel in a competitive academic and career environment