Leaving Academia for a New Profession
How to Leave Academic Life and Start a Different Career
Sep 3, 2008
Whether you are a graduate student or a tenured professor, the first step to leaving academia is to figure out what you want to do next. Career counselors, if you can afford one, can help you in deciding what your next career move should be. But many of the counselor’s tools, like the Myers-Briggs test, are also available free online.
Don’t underestimate the power of tools like personality tests, and books like What Color is My Parachute [Richard Nelson Bolles, Ten Speed Press, 2008]. You’re making a complicated choice that you want to simplify in the initial stages of transitioning. These self-evaluations give you a concrete starting point, a place to begin thinking.
Keep Your Day Job
If you are a funded grad student, a lecturer, or on the tenure track, don’t quit your job until you find a new one. Making a career transition takes time - sometimes years - and you’ll want a way to support yourself as you make your move.
Identify Key Skills and Retrain
Once you have settled on a new profession, look at want ads to identify the skills that you’ll need to get hired in your profession, then look for training in these skills. Extension programs of major universities offer training and professional certificates in everything from interior design to editing to not-for-profit management. Community colleges offer individual, low-cost classes in computer programs, from Excel to Dreamweaver.
You could also consider taking a part-time internship in your new profession. Academics are overloaded with work, but they also tend to have flexible schedules. See if you can’t squeeze in a 15-hour a week internship over the summer or during the semester.
Courses and certificates are a great way to rebrand yourself when you go on the job market in your new profession. They show potential employers that you are serious about your transition, and that you have the skills to hit the ground running in your new job.
Networking
In addition to providing new skills and credentials, internships and certificate courses offer networking opportunities in your new profession. Teachers in certificate programs are often professionals in their field, and can give you references as well as useful tips for navigating your new profession. Internships are a great way to network in your new profession, as well as secure references from professionals in your new field.
Maybe You Decide to Stay
Making a gradual transition lets you test the waters of a new profession. You may decide that you like academic life and redouble your efforts to get a tenure track position or a better job within academia. Don’t be afraid to change your mind and stay put if an academic is really what you want to be.
But if you decide to leave, remember to take time to decide what you want to do next, and take steps to retrain and rebrand yourself before striking out on a new career path.
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