Kellie Hogue graduated from Indiana University in 2012, with a combined Ph.D. in American Studies and Anthropology and a Ph.D. Minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies. She gave an interview in May 2017 to the NAIS Newsletter.

I work as a Senior Policy Analyst at the California Research Bureau. We provide independent, non-artisan, timely, and confidential research and analysis to the California State Legislature, the Governor’s Office, and other state constitutional officers. I’m part of an intellectually curious group of librarians and researchers who identify, collect, and organize information to make it readily available to our clients in an accessible, understandable format. We are actively and intensely multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.

No, this is not my first job. I was fortunate to have come to the academy later in life and held a number of different jobs before I came to IU. This is my third job post-graduation. My first post-grad position was as a temporary analyst in the UC Davis School of Law, the second job was also at UC Davis, as an executive assistant to the Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. I feel incredibly blessed to have a job that allows me to potentially contribute directly to the lives of all Californians. When I attended IU, I never dreamed that such a job might exist—or for that matter, that I might have such an opportunity! Oh, and I am also proud to serve the California State Library as a SEIU Local 1000 Job Steward.

Everything I learned at IU prepared me well for post-graduate life. The broad knowledge of methods received (qualitative and quantitative), as well as learning how to take massive amounts of written material and convert it all into succinct short pieces of narrative is crucial to my current job. Having the skills to assess and evaluate the credibility of sources is instrumental in my everyday work. The formal and informal skills we learned, mostly having to do with professionalization and especially the necessity for soft skills/emotional intelligence when it comes to working with people, have been super valuable to me in all of my post-grad jobs.

As you prepare to finish your degree and look forward to the job market, keep in mind that the world beyond academe is filled with folks who will treasure and value you for all the skills and talents you may bring to the table.

As one of my mentors told me (when I apologized for not finding a tenure track position): “There are lots of ways to lead an intellectual life.” It’s true! Treasure the opportunity to exercise and practice interdisciplinary and community-based research methods while you can and keep these ideas close as you explore options for the future.

Be open. Be accessible. Be adaptable. Be flexible. Be humble. Be confident. When all else fails, find a way. Find your way.