Name: Summer Kim (she/her)
PhD: Marketing, University of Kansas, 2023
What was your main area of research?
Within Marketing, I focused on Consumer Behavior. My research is on consumer-brand relationships and brand perceptions.
What is your current job?
I am a Consumer Intelligence Analyst at BarkleyOKRP in Kansas City, Missouri.
I do mostly quantitative survey research for the ad agency I work at. This includes things like brand health trackers, demand landscapes, and creative testing. This often involves writing and programming survey questionnaires, cleaning/weighting/analyzing data using SPSS and other software, organizing the storyline from the data, and presenting key insights to internal and external stakeholders.
Being on the agency side, things are always very dynamic and I get to work on many different types of projects for different clients at the same time. This style of work environment might not be for everyone, but it's a great fit for my personality.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
On LinkedIn! I opened it, and it was an ad on my screen haha. I was targeted!
PhD Student ➡️ Volunteer UX Researcher for non-profits ➡️ UX Research Intern/Consultant for a startup ➡️ UX & Market Researcher at a financial institution ➡️ PhD Graduate ➡️ Consumer Intelligence Analyst at an ad agency
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?
For me, it was a combination of lifestyle factors and the type of work environment I wanted.
I didn't love teaching despite objective evidence suggesting I was good at it.
I liked research, but not so much that I wanted to continue having to design the rest of my life around it.
I knew that my mental health would suffer if I continued on the academic path; I don't do well in environments where I am constantly being criticized and put in positions where I have to defend every single little decision I made.
Knowing all of these things led to the realization that:
I don't have to do something just because I'm good at it, especially if I don't enjoy doing it.
It's okay if other priorities rise in their level of importance — it is your life, and only you get to say what truly brings you joy.
I do my best work in an environment where I feel safe and supported, and academia just wasn't going to provide that for me.
The decision itself was easy but going through the process of making sure that it was the right decision was time-consuming.
I write about my experience in greater detail on my LinkedIn. Here are two relevant posts:
Telling my advisor I was leaving academia https://www.linkedin.com/posts/summerhkim_phdlife-phdtoindustry-altac-activity-7172350974936776704-Bmb1
The thinking process I went through to make sure this was the right decision: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/summerhkim_phdtoindustry-phdlife-altac-activity-7246721786095009792-yMsT
What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
Get on LinkedIn and work on your professional online presence
Do coffee chats / informational sessions (if not on Zoom, then even through DMs)
Most importantly, resist the temptation to compare your journey to other people's :)
Are there any components of your identity you would like to share, including how they have impacted your journey?
I was an international student during my PhD program but got a green card (through marriage) prior to my industry job search, which helped make more employers available to me.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn if you'd like to chat more about anything I said above or if anything resonated with you! https://www.linkedin.com/in/summerhkim/