How hard is it to leave academia? It depends:

1. What are your skills?
2. What job do you want?
3. Where do you want to live?
4. How much time do you have?
5. How confident are you? *

* if you're not confident in yourself, leaving academia is going to be very hard.

Annual reminder for PhDs on the academic job market:

I spent a decade in academia. I had 15 first author publications. I won two dissertation awards. I had a prestigious post-doc fellowship.

No one could guarantee I would get an academic job.
You must consider non-ac careers.

Annual reminder for PhDs on the academic job market:

I spent a decade in academia. I had 15 first author publications. I won two dissertation awards. I had a prestigious post-doc fellowship.

No one could guarantee I would get an academic job.
You must consider non-ac careers.

2 years ago, I left academia & my 'dream science projects'. What I've realized is:

(a) dream jobs don't exist
(b) financial stress will kill your passion
(c) there is so much more to life than work

Non-ac careers don't mean giving up on your dreams. You just create new ones.

Students: do not listen to privileged academics who tell you that nothing good comes out of your presence on social media and it is a waste of your time. For some marginalised researchers, social media such as Twitter is the only way to collaborate with likeminded people.

3 months ago, a psychology professor asked for my help. She had been a professor for 12 years, and couldn't do it anymore.

Today is her first day as the Learning Design Lead at a healthcare company.

It doesn't matter if you have tenure. You can always leave academia.

I never wanted to start a business.

But I've always wanted to help other people.

That's why I started studying developmental psychology. I wanted to understand people. How they thought and felt. What they needed to grow. I hoped it would help me understand myself too.

2 years…

Two years after leaving academia, I'm still learning how to prioritize my mental health.

I'm still learning how to accept compliments for my work.

I'm still learning how to work less.

Technical skills are overrated. Soft skills are what set you apart from other job seekers:

1. Empathy
2. Communication
3. Motivation
4. Confidence
5. Ability to learn

Master these skills, and the offer is yours.

To all my peers landing faculty jobs:

I hope you are the change in academia.
I hope you respect and care for your trainees.
I hope you improve professional development.
I hope you fight the system, instead of justifying it.

This is what I would have done.

Over the past two years, I've talked to 100s of PhDs who have left academia.

Fewer than 5 regretted leaving. Most would have left sooner if they only had the resources and support to change careers.

What does this say about academia?

Top 5 advantages that PhDs have outside of academia (save these for your next interview):

1. We know how to teach ourselves.

Every PhD has a story (or five) of how they had to learn a new topic in a few days. We know how to teach ourselves with minimal supervision - we were…

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Emma Dench said only wealthy students should pursue graduate degrees.

Seven months ago, I started a job I knew virtually nothing about. Here's how it's going today:

My PhD is in Developmental Psychology - I studied babies for over a decade. Today, I am a human factors engineer at a medical device company, building technology to assist orthopedic…

You knew leaving academia would be hard.

But you didn't know it would be like this.

You've listened to all the advice. You've deleted pages of publications, presentations, and awards from your CV in order to make a resume. You've applied to jobs where you're qualified.

You…

In 2024, I've helped 10 PhDs land non-academic jobs in < 90 days. Here's how they did it:

1. They adopted a growth mindset 🌻
2. They learned to love LinkedIn (it's the best).
3. They were proactive and built a strong network.

Leaving academia doesn't need to be so hard.