Earlier this week, I was checking out the new site redesign at Brazen Careerist (and if you haven’t checked out this great resource lately, hop to it now). While there, I saw the headline for a member’s blog post called something like “How to job search when your computer is broken,” or something to that effect. I clicked to see the post because, naively, I assumed it was going to be a piece on networking (and as it happens, I’ve been not only doing a lot of networking myself lately, but I’m trying to organize something on that very topic for our next Toronto-based Leaving Academia meetup).
As it turned out, the post suggested activities like, “If your wireless is down, you can still search for jobs in newspaper classifieds,” and “Write letters to companies you might want to work for.” Huh? What about, um, say, talking to actual live human beings, some of whom you may already know!
Networking is not a mysterious activity; it’s also not a sleazy activity. Networking is about relationships. It’s not about begging or cringing while you ask for a job lead (in fact, asking for a job lead is probably the last thing you should be doing while you’re networking). It’s about information gathering and relationship cultivation. Probably one of the simplest, most straightforward pieces I’ve read lately validates what I often tell my clients: talk to everyone you know about the fact that you’re looking to change careers, including your hairdresser, your dog walker, the concierge of your building, and, as the article says, your grandma. Sure, you may not want a job as a hairdresser, a dogwalker, a concierge or…a grandma. But those people all know people, and following the trail of people is partly what networking is about.
But don’t forget that networking isn’t just a one-way street, of squeezing information out from people about job prospects. It’s also about finding out what other people need and want. As researchers, we’re trained to look for gaps — so start using that skill in your everyday life. Is your hairdresser him/herself looking for a dogwalker? Hook him/her up with yours. Is your concierge looking for a a hairdresser? You get the idea.
I’m going to post again about my own networking activities as of late to give you a bit of an illustration about what I mean. In the meantime, I’m going to spend a little more quality time with my computer before I head out to engage with some real, live human beings.
Some people have asked me — in very kind terms, of course –what qualifies me to work with people who are coming from scientific fields, when I was trained as a mere social scientist. My reply is that science folk are looking for answers just as much as humanities and social science people, and my approach — to not feel constricted by your disciplinary background — seems to suit them.
But a reader at Brazen Careerist sent me a link that the scientists among you probably will appreciate quite a lot. It’s called Uncertain Principles: Physics, Politics, Pop Culture. You’ll find there are a number of transcripts of interviews with scientists working outside of academe (and no, they’re not all in big pharma, either). The non-scientists among us can also glean some stories of how networking, luck and timing played in their career trajectories.
Because I am a TOTAL SUCKER for this kind of inspirational stuff, I’m going to pass on this awesome motivational video I saw on Facebook yesterday. Come on, a minute and sixteen seconds of time for a valuable reminder about life? That’s good value.
In an academic job search, the desirability of candidates is demarcated by certain categories understood by all. For example, the candidate who has published a scholarly book by the time she finishes her Ph.D. is ostensibly a stronger contender than applicants who have published book reviews in minor journals. The candidate who has proved she can draw in $1 million of external funding is going to be looked upon more favourably that she who wasn’t able to win any cash past her entrance scholarship. These indicators of scholarly achievement are clearly understood to be the standards by which hirings happen — though of course, what actually shakes down in a hiring committee is also subject to all kinds of human caprice, power struggles and political jockeying.
In your non-academic job search, other, sometimes more elusive, criteria set the standard for your candidacy. Unlike academic achievements, which can be pointed to definitively as proof of your ability, non-academic employers are going to be looking for qualities that can’t be measured by a grades transcript or a list of publications. Sure, they’re going to need concrete qualifications like a university degree, or a knowledge of a certain software package, but they also need things like communication skills, writing skills, teamwork skills and multitasking. Fortunately, these are things the average Ph.D. has. Unfortunately, it’s up to you to demonstrate that effectively to potential employers.
One mistake that fresh-out-of-grad-school post-academics may make when entering the non-academic job market is to assume that your potential non-academic employer really gives a hoot about your Ph.D. Oh, sure, they care about your Ph.D. insofar as they care about someone who can set priorities, meet deadlines, work under pressure, exercise problem-solving skills, and so forth. But he or she may not actually know that getting a Ph.D. is actually proof of all of those abilities. So putting your degree proudly at the top of your cover letter and résumé, as though that alone were proof of your qualifications for the job, is not the way to go (for most sectors). But, I hasten to add, shamefully trying to tuck away the major accomplishment that is the Ph.D. is really no better.
A while back, I met with a client who told me that he felt as though his Ph.D. was a giant boulder he was trying to hide behind him. It was this huge liability, in his mind, that he couldn’t disguise. My response? I said that, from my point of view, there was no point in trying to hide having a Ph.D. Even if you wanted to, I can’t imagine how you would do that (short of actually lying on your résumé, which is SIN NUMBER ONE, in my books). Hiding a Ph.D. seems like a silly strategy when what you could actually do is leverage it.
My reply to this client was to tell him that we were going to take a big old pickaxe and smash it into that big boulder of a Ph.D. We’re going to break into its component pices and offer those pieces to potential employers. What are the pieces? Teaching, research, writing, to be sure, but everything else that I mentioned above, too: ability to juggle and set priorities, meet deadlines, work under pressure, and so on.
By foregrounding and offering employers the skills that they want, you are making it clear that you “get it” — you understand what they need. The Ph.D. (and all the activities you did while undertaking it) are proof of those skills. By using the Ph.D. as proof of those skills, you’re leveraging your degree — neither hiding it nor foregrounding it. Rather, you’re using it optimally to communicate your strengths as a candidate to your potential employer. And wow, it’s so much easier than hauling that big boulder around behind you.
Since launching this current incarnation of Leaving Academia, I’ve had requests from readers and clients to create a space on the internet where members of the post-academic community can congregate, network, socialize, exchange ideas and informally just shoot the shit. While there are places to get post-academic info (WRK4US, Beyond Academe, Sellout, etc.), or do some griping (the Chronicle forums) there hasn’t been a centralized place where networking and connecting with others can happen easily…until now!
That’s what I created leavingacademia.ning.com, a community for academics and post-academics to share and discuss all manner of issues related to leaving. It’s a private list (meaning only members can see what’s going on), but joining is just a matter of registered with Ning. The site is really feature-rich, and I’m excited about what kind of fruitful discussions can come about as a result of all the opportunities for exchanging ideas. There are discussion forums, but there’s also a live chat feature and space for people to form their own groups (by city or region, or by communities of interest, like LGBT leavers). Each user has their own page, where they can maintain their own blog, paste their picture and “friend” other users that they know or get to know. It’s pretty nifty, and it’s there for your disposal, so I really urge everyone to go and check it out.
I just found out about a faaabulous career source that is sooo relevant to the kind of career transition stuff you may be mulling over right now. Prepare yourself for many hours of trawling.
The site is called ICould, and, as their tagline says, “It just shows what you could do.” It features videos of different people talking about their jobs and their career trajectories. What’s really great for the post-academic community is that there is s a search engine where you can actually search for people’s stories by degree attained. As of today, the search engine turned up 118 hits for people with postgraduate or professional qualification.
And as if to verify my own ardent belief that your career trajectory is in no way limited by your area of study, the first vid (okay, the only vid) I watched was with Helen Toland, who has a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering and now works as a radio producer for the BBC — a job that she loves (and yes, she sweated it out in a coffee shop for a year before she wormed her way into the BBC).
So check out ICould and let me know if there are any stories that really get your pulse racing. I found this link, incidentally, from a blog authored by Evelyne Jardin called Docteurs & Co. It’s a French language blog that’s associated with the Association Bernard Gregory, a magazine published in France that’s oriented at Ph.D.s transitioning into the private sector. Although the blog is only in French, the magazine has an English language edition. It is chock full of really juicy information. Evelyne and I have been communicating by email for over a year now (and keep missing each other by phone, where I shall inflict my terrible French on her). Yesterday, Evelyne gave us a shoutout, and that’s where I found out about ICould.
Yesterday, I had a great phone chat with Paula Chambers, whose name you may know from the WRK4US listserv. Paula and I were yakking about all things post-academic when it dawned on me why, exactly, I like the phrase “post-academic.” More specifically, I finally clued in as to why I’ve never, ever used the expression “alternative careers.”
My reason? The idea that doing anything with a PhD other than replicating the professoriate — that is, taking on a so-called “alternative career” — only reinforces the belief that taking a faculty job is the norm. The phrase “alternative career” suggests a deviation (in the many sense of the word) from the acceptable mainstream. This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit. MAs, ABDs and PhDs have long been exiting academia and going into any and all other fields (or, in some cases, giving up paid work altogether and focussing on raising a family). And yet the belief that graduate training only qualifies you for one career path persists. The phrase “alternative careers,” IMHO, reinforces that.
As I type this, I have a vague feeling that I may be echoing what Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius write about the issue in “So What Are You Going to do With That?”: Finding Careers Outside Academia. To me, their use of the phrase “post-academic career” rather than “alternative career” always seemed like the most respectful and accurate way of looking at the career trajectories of people coming out of academia. Over at Carolyn Steele’s Career Sense blog, she mentions that the University of Chicago is now using the phrase “post-graduate career.” This sounds nice, but some people leaving Ph.D. programs do so without parchment in hand. Sure, they are graduates of a Master’s degree. But I think “post-graduate” isn’t all-encompassing enough–plus there’s all that confusion with the UK and their definition of “post-graduate.”
In many respects, I was an unlikely academic leaver. I had some modest success as a grad student (though no one was going to mistake me for a rock star). I had won a SSHRC scholarship (which, in Canada, is a real feather in your cap) to fund 2 years of my research. I’d won OGS scholarships twice (also quite the feather in your cap in the province of Ontario). I’d had a few publications (though none in major journals). I received strong teaching evaluations from students. I’d had an exceptionally supportive dissertation supervisor. I passed my thesis defence with no revisions. I worked on my entire degree very steadily, completing my coursework, comprehensive exams and dissertation all within the time alloted–5 years and 8 months, total. And I kind of had a bit of a life outside of academia, too, manging to meet and marry a lovely non-academic dude (I’d had a personal rule about never dating academics, which turned out nicely for me).
But, as so many post-academics I’ve spoken to since have testified to, I just wasn’t happy. And this sincerely seemed to me to be a sufficient reason to quit the profession and try something else. So I never went on the academic job market. To me, by the final year (though it had been building up in the years prior to that), I was pretty certain that academia was not the right fit for me.
The thing that scared me most about leaving was the possibility that things would get better if I landed a tenure-track position. This was the thought that vexed me most. What if it was the conditions of grad school itself, or my grad program, that caused so much anxiety, stress and uncertainty? Maybe everything would be better once I got to that hallowed faculty post.
What I know now, though, is that the fantastical academic dream is no longer an option for the average junior faculty member. You know that dream: the one where you get to be the kind of teacher Robin Williams was in Dead Poets Society, and where you get to contribute great scholarship to the world, and where you host incredible dinner parties for the faculty and grad students in your spacious dining room. You know: the life of the mind and all of its pleasures. Of course, Robin Williams never had to deal with piles of marking, extreme self-doubt about his research, the constant cycle of applying for external funding (and academics think they’re not trained in marketing! Ha!), or a hostile work environment.
I knew that I loved writing…but my academic writing voice had choked out my creative voice. I knew that I loved research…but I hated the idea of being boxed in to my one area of specialization, when I so often just wanted to bugger off and explore other, equal fascinating areas of scholarship. I loved teaching (when I knew I was really clicking with the students)…but I disliked the university-as-job-factory mentality that made them look at me in the same way they looked at a person delivering a pizza (which isn’t to disrespect pizza delivery persons–gawd knows how much I rely on them–but it is to say that I was a service-delivery provider to them, rather than a teacher, educator, instructor, or, in some cases, a human being).
What was very difficult for me to cope with was the constant pressure of thinking about my research 24/7. An academic’s job–no matter where you are on the totem pole, from grad student to tenured prof–is never done. I know there are a lot of other jobs where late nights are required, or doing a bit of work on the weekends is an expectation. But those expectations are understood by everyone involved, and usually lead to tangible outcomes (e.g. the LaffItOff report gets written; the big presentation to the Dinglebopper Group is ready to go for Monday). There is something I found about the hamster wheel nature of the academic lifestyle that was just, to me, totally dissatisfying.
But the thing that was the apex of what I could not tolerate was the knowledge that what I was doing was making no positive social contribution at all. It was this, most of all, that led me to ditch academia. The idea that I would be on a hamster wheel of research that was totally irrelevant, that would never be read by the public (let alone have any meaningful impact on the public), was intolerable. That was the opposite of why I had gone into graduate school in the first place.
When you’re thinking of leaving academia, there are a mountain of fears to face: what if I can’t get a job doing something else? I don’t even know what my other options are! What else could I possibly do with my life? What if leaving is a terrible decision that I regret for the rest of my life? Can I come back if I leave? What will my supervisor think? What will my friends think? My parents will be so disappointed! I can’t leave–I’m useless!
But against those fears were, for me, some basic truths: I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t living up to my creative potential. I wasn’t being an agent of change.
So leaving had to happen. And it did. And I am so thankful for it. And the fears? Pish-posh! Suddenly, I was too busy being happy, creative and a change agent to even give them any more mind.
It seems last week was a bit of a break from blogging for me, so I’m back this week with a fresh round of post ideas. And there will only be one link roundup post this week–this one! Make the clickety-click below if you want to…
…see my latest post at Inside Higher Ed (in case you didn’t catch it the first time here).
And don’t forget: the Toronto & area Leaving Academia meetup is happening this Thursday at the Toronto Reference Library at 2:30 pm. Please email me (sabine at leavingacademia dot com) if you’re planning on attending.
It’s been one of those kinds of weeks, dear readers, so the blogging has been a bit thin around these parts. I figure, though, that it’s better to give you two link roundup posts in one week than to just leave you dangling with nothing, right? Here’s a collection of some of the nifty, relevant stuff that’s come my way this week:
And now for something completely different: do you know about Yogademia? It’s a great blog written by a woman who’s a mere 9 months away from finishing her Ph.D. (go, Kiki!). Part of her mission is to create work-life balance in academia–I know, a tall order, but Kiki seems totally up to it.
An interview with Doug Peers, associate vice-president graduate and dean of graduate studies at York University, on why academics should consider the life of an administrator. […]
Talk of ending journalism school at CU-Boulder is latest effort to transform such programs, suggesting the only way to build them anew is to tear them down. […]
A large California community college district has gotten rid of all of its emergency notification boxes to save money -- a move not yet commonplace despite boom in cell phone usage. […]
RT @brianlbaker: Seriously, I'll take ANY full-time job, with benefits, within a 100-250 mile radius of Fresno, that pays $35,000+. Cont ... 2010/06/14
What is it with the past couple of days and all this, like, EMOTION? 2010/06/11
RT @alysonschafer: LGBT students hear anti-gay slurs an average of 26 times a day. 30 % of suicides are LGBT. Support is here: http:// ... 2010/06/08
Earlier this week, I was checking out the new site redesign at Brazen Careerist (and if you haven’t checked out this great resource lately, hop to it now). While there, I saw the headline for a member’s blog post called something like “How to job search when your computer is broken,” or something to that effect. I clicked to see the post because, naively, I assumed it was going to be a piece on networking (and as it happens, I’ve been not only doing a lot of networking myself lately, but I’m trying to organize something on that very topic for our next Toronto-based Leaving Academia meetup).
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