Leaving Academia?
I’ve been thinking about the phrase “leaving academia.”
I use it all the time. Other people use it too.
It sounds fairly straightforward. You were in academia. Now you’re leaving. Except that the more people I work with, the less straightforward it seems.
I’ve seen people become quite excited about leaving. They’ve decided there is a bigger world out there and they want to explore it.
I’ve seen others who really don’t want to leave. They spent years imagining themselves as professors and researchers. An industry job may be Plan B—or Plan C.
Sometimes something happens that forces the issue. Funding ends. Another postdoc doesn’t make sense. The academic job search hasn’t worked. Money becomes a problem. Family circumstances change. A relationship with a supervisor has become intolerable.
And sometimes there doesn’t seem to be a moment at all. Someone just gradually starts wondering whether the academic career they’ve been working toward is really what they want anymore.
I’ve talked with people who seem almost relieved to be leaving. Others are angry.
Some are excited about what comes next and frightened by it at the same time. And I’ve seen people land what looks from the outside like a very good job and still struggle with what they’ve left behind.
I’ve noticed something else in my own programs.
Some people find me because they’re already wondering about a career outside academia. They start exploring it, maybe come to a session or begin the program, and then pull back. I’ve wondered about that.
Maybe looking seriously at another career starts to make the possibility of leaving academia a little too real.
You aren’t just looking at jobs anymore. You might be starting to imagine a different future for yourself. And maybe not everyone is ready to do that yet.
So when has someone actually left academia?
When you decide you’re going to look for something else? When you take another job? Or maybe sometime later?
I’m not sure.
Maybe for some people it really is quite straightforward. But I’ve also met people who left years ago and I’m not sure they ever really left. That’s one of the things I’m trying to understand.
What did leaving academia actually look and feel like for you?
Was it something you chose? Something that happened gradually? Or did circumstances make the decision for you?
I’d really like to hear how it happened for you.
Don
P.S. Writing this has me wondering about something else. Have I ever actually left academia?