It’s time to come clean, dear readers, about a little secret I’ve had for the past two months or so. I, Sabine Hikel, prophet of all that is great and good about ditching the academic life, am on the job hunt. It’s true: I’m out there on the job market, just like you. Not having job searched for over three years now, it’s been a very clear and solid reminder of just how much work is involved in looking for work!
Now, the situation I’ve got going at the moment (i.e. the freelance life: cobbling together writing, editing, consulting, workshops and research projects) has its virtues, much in the same way that any flexible work arrangement has its virtues. But the downsides of all that flextime and being my own boss include managing the isolation, keeping many balls in the air all at once, and the lack of steady income.
What I lack in income, though, I make up for in time. As we’ve discussed before, like other former academics, I wouldn’t be able to be self-employed if my partner weren’t bringing home the bacon on a steady and predictable basis. I’m taking advantage of this situation by steadily, systematically and vigorously meeting new people, cultivating my current contacts, and learning, learning, learning about the job market.
This is why, as much as this is a semi-awkward time in my life (being a freelancer, I mean), it’s also an incredibly rewarding one. Since the inception of Leaving Academia, I’ve been able to meet an incredibly diverse range of professionals who’ve shared their time and thoughts with me. This started off, of course, as my podcast series of interviews. It evolved into my own personal information interviews, not always with people who had ditched academia, but with people who were working in roles and sectors that I was curious about. This is a process I am still engaged in, and enjoying just as much as ever.
At first, I wasn’t sure about sharing my job-hunting adventures on this blog because I was afraid I’d discredit myself. How could I keep a blog about non-academic job hunting when I was in the same position as many of my clients and readers? And then I realized two things. One is that, as someone who already left academia three years ago, I’m actually moving from strength to strength. I’ve done the heavy lifting of the resume writing, the transferable skills analysis, and landing that first non-academic job. I’ve dismantled my academic identity and built up a wholly new one. So although I’m changing jobs again, I’m a hell of a lot further ahead than I was a few years ago.
The other realization I had about sharing my decision to go from freelance to finding something more stable was about practicing what I preach. Use social media as part of your networking strategy, I’ve been known to say. Tell everyone you know that you’re on the job market. Well, not sharing my professional ambitions with those of you who read this and my other work online seems unwise, at best.
So there you go: I’m out here in the trenches, just like many of you, and I’ll be writing more dispatches to let you know how it’s going and what strategies I’m using. And as always, leave your comments and questions below, since it’s you guys who make Leaving Academia the resource it is.
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Sabine, congrats on taking this step!
We’re with you!!! SD