Leaving The Academy

In this paper we report the results of an open participatory research project that surveyed 209 people with a Ph.D. who have left academia. In this paper, we share the advice they had for people who have not yet left their academic position.

We found significant themes in the advice we heard from respondents:

• We heard advice that folks leaving academia need to shift their mindset when thinking about transitioning out of academia. This mindset shift includes reframing the choice to leave as something that is beneficial as well as beginning the process now and not waiting. We also heard a sense of optimism and positivity around leaving academia as well as suggestions around how to reframe one’s career.
• Folks leaving academia have found a wide variety of practical strategies helpful during their career transition. These include how to explore careers, how to reframe one’s skills, the importance of networking, informational interviews, and to consider the differences in doing job applications outside of academia versus a CV and cover letter inside of academia.
• Finally, we heard advice on the realities of leaving academia in the form of frank advice around money, value and worth as well as a discussion of the differences between academic work and industry positions.

Our hope is that the discussions of the mindset, practical strategies and realities of leaving academia will be inspiring to people looking to gain insights on the choice to leave academia and the honest realities from those who have experienced the shift.

This project is an experiment in participatory qualitative research.

Our open dataset is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8014779

We encourage anyone wishing to look at the full dataset to contact the lead authors, Beth M. Duckles and Borhane Blili-Hamelin.