The Bold PhD Podcast: A Career Podcast for PhDs, by a PhD.
You worked hard. You sacrificed the years. You studied. You researched. You published. You defended. And yet… here you are. Not where you thought you’d be.
Maybe you’re unemployed. Maybe you’ve been on the job market for months. Maybe you were laid off from what you thought was the perfect role.
Whatever it is, this isn’t the outcome you expected after doing everything right.
And if you’re honest? You’re disappointed. Maybe even disillusioned. Not just with your career but with yourself.
If that’s you, stay with me. We need to talk.
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A PhD didn’t protect me
A few years ago, I went through a layoff.
I have a PhD in microbiology and immunology. I published papers. I did a postdoc. I checked every academic box I was supposed to check.
So when I found myself on the job market for a long time, I was stunned.
And over the years, I’ve received countless emails and DMs from people who’ve experienced the same thing.
So if you’re reading this in 2026 — or any year — and facing that quiet disappointment, this is for you. This is how you turn the corner on this kind of disappointment.
Step One: Name the Grief
When something like this happens, it’s natural to grieve.
You’re grieving:
- The timeline you imagined
- The identity you built
- The story you told yourself about how life would unfold
And it’s okay to say:
- I’m sad about this.
- I feel overlooked.
- I worked so hard and this hurts.
I remember sitting with a mentor during that season and just crying. Saying out loud how disappointed I was. That alone was healing.
Naming the grief sets you free.
You can’t build clarity on top of denial. You have to acknowledge the disappointment before you can move through it.
You’re Probably Not as “Behind” as You Think
When I was laid off, I was in my mid-30s. I kept thinking about how behind I was and where I should have been by then.
Sound familiar? I get it.
But beating yourself up with “I should be further by now” is rarely grounded in objective reality.
If you have a doctorate, you’ve already proven a few important things:
- You have grit.
- You can take an undefined problem and create knowledge.
- You can persist through ambiguity.
- You can finish what you start.
Take pride in that and leverage it as you explore your next opportunity.
Recognize You Are Playing The Game with the Wrong Rules
Here’s the shift that changed everything for me: I realized I had been taught to play the game of academia.
In academia, the rules are clear:
- Publish.
- Present.
- Get grants.
- Stack credentials.
It’s (theoretically) merit-based. But outside academia? That’s not the game being played.
It’s like being excellent at basketball and then suddenly being dropped onto a soccer field.
If you use basketball rules in a soccer game, you won’t win. Not because you’re incompetent, but because you’re playing the wrong sport.
Many academics struggle to make career moves into roles outside academia, not because they lack ability, but because they’re using the wrong rulebook.
That realization was freeing.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t good enough.
It was that I needed to learn a new game.
Nobody Is Coming to Save You (And That’s Empowering)
Once I realized no one was coming to rescue me, I stopped waiting for someone to give me a chance and started creating my own opportunity engine.
Doing the two things below changed everything.
1. I Built on the Skills I Already Had
During my postdoc, I had started freelance writing for extra income. I never imagined it would become anything serious. But during unemployment, I leaned into it.
I built it intentionally.
That freelance work:
- Funded my life for months.
- Built a portfolio.
- Gave me practical experience.
- And ultimately helped me transition into science writing and medical communications.
I stopped seeing myself as “just a scientist” and started seeing myself as someone with:
- Research skills
- Analytical ability
- Writing expertise
- Fact-checking precision
- The ability to translate complex science
Those skills had market value. The degree was just a container. Breaking down your degree into its components and matching those with problems that need to be solved in the marketplace is a powerful way to demonstrate your value for companies and hiring managers who need your skills.
2. I Made My Work Visible on LinkedIn
I didn’t set out to build a personal brand.
I just started sharing my work. And people started finding me. Over time, my personal brand has evolved and led to speaking engagements and even the opportunity to write a book with an academic press.
And it all started with me sharing my work.
Reframe the Season
Last but not least, reframe the season you’re in.
What if this isn’t a failure? What if this is a redirection?
In 2019, after a period of really sitting down with myself to understand what I wanted, I remember telling my husband, “I want to become a scientific writer.”
That season of unemployment wasn’t the end. I’ve always seen it as the season I reinvented myself.
It was the season I learned to:
- Stop following a script.
- Question what I actually wanted.
- Take ownership of my career design.
Maybe you followed the script because everyone said you were smart.
But now?
You get to ask:
- What do I want?
- What kind of work energizes me?
- What kind of life am I actually building toward?
This season, painful as it may be, is fertile ground.
Disappointment doesn’t mean you’re done.
It might mean you’ve outgrown the original path.