Surprises from Two Years of Recovering from Academia
It was just over two years ago that I called up my department chair and told her I was leaving my tenure-track faculty position at a liberal arts university. It was for personal reasons, my reviews were good, my teaching was on track, and I was on my way to getting tenure. It was just not the right job for me.
I know it’s a bit tongue in cheek to use the term “recovering academic”, but many of us who leave the academy feel an invisible addiction to the lifestyle. We spent so many years committed to this profession and for one reason or another doesn’t work for us. When we leave, we find ourselves thinking back to our teaching and research, missing the identity and needing to make sense of our new selves.
Since quitting my job as an assistant professor and becoming a recovering academic I’ve struck out on my own doing writing, research and consulting in user experience and survey research. I’m content. I won’t say I’ve figured it all out (who has?) and I’m certainly still understanding how the post academic thing “works”, but there have been some things that have surprised me about leaving academia. I thought I’d share.
An important caveat — I realize that not everyone has the choice to leave and I won’t pretend I can speak for anyone else or that my experience is usual. I chose to leave for reasons that are probably clear enough if you look at my creative nonfiction/storytelling. Many many others leave because there is no job for them or because they work as contingent labor. We should listen to their voices.
- People in the academy were much more supportive than I expected
Sure, I did get a couple of insensitive comments, but on the whole my colleagues, friends and former professors were much more supportive about my choice than I would have guessed. I knew my close friends and family were already on board, but I was surprised at how many people went out of their way to say that they supported me and wished me well.
A few folks told me they were jealous. Several colleagues sat me down and said they too had thought about leaving academia and that one thing or another had kept them back. An administrator saw me at a bar before I left and gave me a big hug saying “You have to leave, I know you have to leave and I HATE that you have to do it but I know it’s best for you.”
Over the past two years, several academics have sent me notes asking about my experience and “what it’s like” on the other side. I find myself listening and giving advice to those who have left the academy more often than I would have expected.
I’ll tell you what I tell them: the non-academic world isn’t the same but there are parts that are pretty damned awesome.
2) Outside of the academy, people don’t care about the academy
There are very very smart, very interesting and incredibly engaging people outside the academy. They exist, they are fabulous and I am grateful to have gotten to know a few. That said, you’re not going to be able to spend five hours walking through the details of that theorist you adore with these lovely folks. Normal people don’t have time for that. They also don’t care that you won a paper award, that you have read Das Kapital or that your first publication has more than 10 citations.
That doesn’t mean normal people don’t care about ideas. People outside of the academy ARE hungry for smart stuff, good information and new ways of thinking. They may not care about that theorist you’ve dissected like a boss, but they might be interested in some of the IDEAS if you frame it as a solution. Just because someone isn’t up for your marathon exegesis on whatever, don’t think they aren’t smart or interested in new concepts.
Non-academics are much more interested in what you can DO or who you are as a person. If you’re going to work for them, they probably want to know that you can accomplish whatever it is that they need.
So by all means, it’s awesome to keep being smart and saying interesting things! I just learned not to expect a captive audience that would allow me to go through the entirety of a pet theory I think is marvelous. I got ignored.
3) Academics have skills
It took me a number of friends shaking me (sometimes literally) and saying “YES BETH YOU DO HAVE MARKETABLE SKILLS” to realize that there are things I am very capable of. The training to become an academic can emphasize the fact that you are reaching to do cutting edge, extra special work, but deemphasize that the basics are often quite powerful. The core competencies of what you know and do as a professor and likely within your field are remarkably marketable skills. You just have to translate them.
In graduate school, I wouldn’t have thought twice about some of the things I do now as a career (and frankly, I was paid very little for doing them). Now I do things like: ask really good research questions, help people work on their research plan, figure out what the data says, data analysis and data visualization.
Surprise! People really really need these skills.
What I had to learn was to translate. I had to talk about those skills in a non-academic way and use them to solve problems and insights.
4) Volunteering is awesome
While figuring out what to do with myself, I volunteered to do a quick research project for a nonprofit I support. Before I knew it, I had work coming in because folks had read about that research project and wanted something similar.
I was incredibly surprised to find that my volunteering would lead people to better understand my skill set and how I could help them. In a way, part of what volunteering gave me was a way to show off my skills and learn how to talk about what I’m capable of.
Obviously, you might not be able to volunteer if you’re trying to make ends meet. But I strongly encourage post-academics and hell, even existing academics to get involved in their community (whatever you conceive that to be) and use your skill set help out. Not only do you get the pleasant experience of someone thanking you for your work (seriously, when was the last time a senior colleague thanked you for committee work?), you also might just find new ways to connect your skills to the community you’re in.
5) I am not alone
If you too are a recovering academic, you’re not alone. I’ve met people who started an academic position and found it wasn’t for them or dropped out of a program or just got fed up with the shuffle between visiting positions and wanted to have a bit more security in life. They’re everywhere, in government, nonprofits, and the corporate world. They’re smart and they’re thoughtful and they’re doing work they often didn’t expect to be doing.
The world is full of recovering academics, we just don’t talk about it.
The problem is they don’t start out conversations with “Hi, my name is Beth and I’m a recovering academic”. We could really use a secret handshake to make us feel less isolated.
I don’t know about you, but I’d sure like there to be a lot less stigma and shame attached to leaving the academy. I’ve had remarkable, mind opening conversations with other recovering (recovered?) academics who have found fantastic and creative ways to use their skills to help humanity and it made me understand how much we have to offer.
I long for a world where the rigor and thoughtfulness we find in the best of academia can be turned into useful and relevant insights for our society.
Photo Credit: Eric Mueller “Study, study, study”
Beth M. Duckles is a writer, researcher and ethnographer based in Portland, Oregon. Find her at www.beth.duckles.com.
