• Will employers think a PhD is overqualified for most of the jobs? Are recent or soon to be PhDs competitive in non-academic jobs compared to non-PhDs with longer experience in the workforce?

• How “easy” is it to switch from an academic to a non-academic career and vise-versa?

• Are there sections to add or remove from a CV?

• What are ways to translate academic experience to non-academic employers? (for example, teaching a class of 100 students, designing surveys, in-depth interviews, literature review, etc.) I am a department chair; how do I prepare PhD students for non-academic careers better?

• I am a department chair; how do I prepare PhD students for non-academic careers better?

• What networks can a PhD student build while in school to be more expand their appeal to non-academic employers?

• How do you keep motivated without call-backs from employers or overcome imposter syndrome when looking at the job requirements?

Corrie Monteverde San Diego State University / UC Santa Barbara

Corrie Monteverde (She/her/hers) is a Ph.D. student within the geography department at SDSU and UCSB who specializes in climate science and modeling and is invested in local and regional success at adapting to a changing environment. She co-founded and leads SDSU's Geography Graduate Student Association and strives to provide students necessary information about career paths both within and outside of academia through alumni outreach and mentorship.

Kyle Buck U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development

Kyle Buck (He/him) received Ph.D. in Geography with from the University of South Carolina. Worked as contractor for NOAA in Coastal Resilience and the Post-doc with EPA working on human well-being. Permanent hire with EPA as human geographer working on human-environment connections in the context of community resilience. I am a human geographer and started my work in natural hazards and human health before broadening out to work on index creation for well-being and resilience. Now I am getting back to more local work in resilience and sustainability.

Morgan P. Vickers UC Berkeley Department of Geography

Morgan P. Vickers (they/them) is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley, focusing on Black geographies, water infrastructure, and racialized dispossession. While working on their degrees, Morgan is freelancing and has worked with Roadtrippers Magazine, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Community Histories Workshop, the Red Record team, The Association of Recovery in Higher Education, and the Future Histories Lab. Morgan is passionate about public history, interactive learning experiences, and illuminating narratives, and is currently exploring academic and non-academic career paths.

Magdalena Benza The Climate Corporation

Magdalena Benza (she/her) is a Geospatial scientist at The Climate Corporation. Magdalena holds a PhD from the joint doctoral program in Geography at San Diego State University and The University of California Santa Barbara. Her work focuses on studying human-environment interactions through GIS and remote sensing. Prior to her role at The Climate Corporation Magdalena was a postdoctoral research scientist and Adjunct professor at San Diego State University

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