What They Didn't Teach You in Graduate School: 299 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career

Gray and Drew, who co-authored this piece, taught at the same school. (Full disclosure - I studied with both of them.) They provide a marvelous set of insights that grew from hallway conversation to informal document to publishable tome. Not all of their advice will apply to every situation - for instance, they say never to change jobs while you're still working on your dissertation, as the new employer will likely not support you as well as they might, and the new colleagues will have reasonable expectations for your engagement in your new employ. But this depends on that new employer - so while one can sometimes safely decline to heed their advice, it still provides fodder for discussion with the new employer and colleagues.Their advise covers a wide range of topics, from getting the Ph.D. and writing the dissertation to the job hunt, interviewing, making a contribution, getting published, and getting promoted. While Ph.D. programs prepare you for the process of research and your specific disciplinary knowledge, they rarely provide insight into the life of an academic. Gray and Drew do that with depth, breadth, good humor and with the insights of two lifetimes of teaching and research experience.I highly recommend this book to any Ph.D. student and to any new or even not so new academic!

I like how this book gives advice. It directly tells graduate students what to do and what not to do. I love it!

Perhaps, if I were an apple-cheeked college freshman thinking about one day going to graduate school, this book might have been slightly useful, but anyone who has been in graduate school (or even high school) for a just few months already knows pretty much everything there is to be gleaned from this insultingly basic book. For some examples: Secret tip #114: Don't plagiarize. Secret tip #214: Use spell-check. Secret tip #115: Make backups of your files. Secret tip #193: Go to conferences. Secret tip #37: Write a résumé. Secret tip #18: Finding a dissertation topic is hard. Apparently, the real lesson to be learned from this book is: if you're a professor, forget research in your field: writing overpriced, sub-mediocre guidebooks is easier and far more lucrative.

This is an easy and entertaining read that conveys important information for grad students, and those who hope to be. The hints to succeeding in a graduate program are presented in a clear manner, and the book is one I pick up frequently. I learned and laughed.

Great points and insight into life beyond grad school

I refer to this ever now and then. It's a nice quick reality check.

As a first year PhD student, this book is really great and offers little tips for navigating your way through graduate school

Very-well written and concise book. Depending on where you are at your graduate studies or professorship, this book would be helpful. Highly recommended for new tenure-track faculty.

Easy and entertaining reading with the book, while learning some important hints for succeed in graduate school! Its size is portable and you can read it very handy whenever you want to.