JD + PhD Loves Helping Students

Name: Amber Jannusch (she/her)

PhD: Communication Studies, University of Iowa, 2014

What is your current job?

I am the Owner/Founder of Amber Tutors Law, based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

I offer tutoring and mental wellness coaching for pre-law students, law students, and students taking the Bar Exam. I particularly focus on students who are struggling or who have failed multiple times and are battling additional psychological complications that inhibit their completion.

What is your favorite thing about your job?

I love helping people realize they CAN actually do this - people who have failed the Bar Exam multiple times and worry that they'll never be a lawyer and wasted all that time and money; people who are passionate about being a lawyer but can't quite figure out how to improve their score on the LSAT; people who don't learn from the Socratic Method and think it's too hard for them but feel really smart when they realize they CAN understand the material.... (I also love being able to make my own schedule; as a night person, I love that I don't have to start until 10am and I can work Sunday and take Friday off for errands.)

What is the most important skill you developed or experience you had during your PhD that now helps you in your current position?

Teaching! During grad school and while a professor I got to work with so many amazing students that had individual challenges (often mental health related like anxiety or depression), and I worked through ways to present information and organize material that would be accessible to all of them.

How did you build the skills necessary for your current role?

I took classes in the College of Education during my grad program to help me be a better teacher.

I also am involved in the mindfulness and mental health community and use podcasts and books on wholehearted living, mindfulness, Buddhism, and mental development to supplement the lessons and the way that students learn and practice.

How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?

I developed it! I began doing tutoring on the side through online platforms during the pandemic, and fell in love with it. But the payment from third parties as an independent contractor isn't sustainable - in order to make a living I'd have to be doing 40 or 50 hours of face to face delivery of services. So I took a class through an organization in the Twin Cities for women entrepreneurs on how to develop a business and slowly built it up.

J.D. ➡️ Ph.D. graduate ➡️ Visiting Assistant Professor (x 2 year) ➡️ legal researcher full time and adjunct ➡️ tutor ➡️ business owner

If someone is interested in a similar role, what would you recommend they start doing now to prepare?

Build your resources and your community - no one person can know how to do all this alone, so find people who are good at a lot of different things (a bookkeeper, an accountant, a visual artist, a marketing and sales person, a librarian, etc.) to be resources.

Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?

Not difficult - academia has quickly become a business model meant to get money from students, where tenure track is limited and based on external accomplishments like publication, while at the same time the number of tenure track jobs were slashed and less sustainable adjunct positions were created everywhere in an effort to take advantage of academics. Students in college have begun to look at it as grades 13-16 and many (especially in public schools) just expect a particular grade because they are paying for it.

The commercialization of academia drove me out. I went into it for the learning and development and intellectual curiosity at the college level, and either I was naive at first or it has changed. Either way, the actual existence of academia in the 2010s was hostile, and I'm glad I'm out.

What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?

Don't just focus on publishing in academia - get your own work out there in popular or independent press and do it your way, to create a basis for you once you leave.

Also, you're worth more than they suggest you are.

Are there any components of your identity you would like to share, including how they have impacted your journey?

Yes - I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder when I was 15, which is now categorized as treatment resistant. Additionally I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. I mention this for two reasons: 1) because I have had to learn to adapt my productive time to account for times when my mood disorders get in the way; and 2) because I have found that sharing that information with others who also have psychological issues can be motivating. I think that's also part of why I was drawn to teaching and now tutoring,

And for those interested, what was your main area of research?

Interpersonal persuasion - I did a case study and discourse analysis of how a conversation among a group of friends operated to limit expressions of disagreements and embed deeper commitment to shared ideology.

Before my Ph.D. I also earned a J.D.