Turning a life lived in academia into something else can feel overwhelming. But there are strategies that work, and more resources than you can begin to imagine. Want to see all of the ones I’ve talked about so far? Click here for the job-search archives.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks I see when people are leaving academia and searching for new careers is an unhealthy focus on the concept of “professional.”
It’s usually implicit rather than explicit, but it goes something like this: Academia was a high-prestige, high-professional career, so if I’m leaving that for whatever reason, I have to find a career that is at least as high-prestige and high-professional as academia. If I do anything else, it will be a sign that I have failed.
It’s as though getting that next high-prestige, high-professional career will somehow “make up for” “failing” in academia.
There’s only two problems with that
First, you haven’t failed.
Whether you’ve decided it’s not for you, not found a job, or hit some other roadblock, you haven’t failed. You’ve learned a ton, and life isn’t working out as you’d hoped and planned.
Yes, it’s disappointing. Yes, it can be hard as hell. Yes, we might even be able to describe the situation as having not reached a goal you were striving for. But “failure” is something else entirely.
That means you don’t have to make anything up — to anyone.
Second, focusing, even implicitly, on high-prestige and high-professional careers both limits the field (there just aren’t that many) and subordinates your happiness.
High-prestige, high-professional careers tend to have long training programs, limited opportunities, and strongly kept gates. They (just like academia) aren’t that easy to get into, and they bring along with them all the stress and panic and everything else.
And focusing on them means you’re likely ignoring all of the other careers that would really fulfill you because they aren’t shiny.
The problem of selling shoes
So often, in academia, we tell this story that if you don’t get tenure somewhere, the only other thing you’re qualified to do is sell shoes (or whatever) somewhere.
It’s such crap. By virtue of having gotten to graduate school at all, much less through it, it’s clear that you have tons of transferrable skills that hiring managers all over the place would be happy to have. If you leave academia, you can take those skills and do just about anything.
But sometimes, when we have that “you can do anything” conversation, it leaves out an important piece: What if you would really, really, deeply love selling shoes?
It all counts
The only things that matter in terms of your career — really matter — are whether or not you’re happy in it and whether or not your bills are getting paid one way or another. That’s all.
That means if you deeply love animals and want to open a doggie day care, that is a legitimate alternative to academia. If you’re passionate about changing the world one person at a time, being a hotline operator for a suicide line is a legitimate alternative to academia. Selling real estate, running a landscaping business, designing brochures, caring for children — they are all legitimate alternatives to academia if they make you happy.
In fact, this is so important I’ll say it again — whatever makes you happy is a legitimate career alternative to academia.
So as you’re figuring out how to translate your calling into a job, try not to narrow your own field. Try not to exclude fields just because they aren’t in the same tier of prestige and professionalism. Investigate your own fears and assumptions around prestige and professionalism.
And at the end of the day, know in your bones that success and deep contentment with your life are two ways of saying the same thing.
A few comments about comments
The whole question of being unhappy in academia — no matter what stage you’re in — can feel fraught. If you’d like to comment but are feeling shy about “being out there,” feel free to make up a persona or comment anonymously. You can also email me directly.
First-time commenters are always moderated (because you wouldn’t believe the spam I get), so if your comment doesn’t show up immediately, hang tight! Chances are, I’m not right on my email.
And most of all, let’s all practice compassion for ourselves and others in this difficult time and space.
Leave a Reply