My first piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Vitae site is now available: Alt-Ac or Bust! I’m excited to offer these ten tips for what to do during graduate school to prepare for the possibility of looking for an alternative academic or post-academic position after graduate school, should that become necessary or desirable.

Although the emphasis in the article might seem to be on preparing intentionally for an alt-ac career, I did want to clarify one point — these suggestions are for any graduate student, given how hard it is to get a tenure-track or even semi-permanent, full-time position in academia these days. Yes, they’re particularly helpful if you want to go into an alternative career, but they’re also something to think seriously about even if you fully intend (as I did, ever-so-idealistically!) to go into academia as a professor. Well, enough said – – happy reading, and I hope you find the ten tips useful in some way!