The other day, I went down a rabbit hole on Reddit that left me feeling disheartened.
Here’s why:
There were hundreds of threads of people who have completed PhDs (in various parts of the world) who now feel useless and helpless.
I came across comments like:
“Exploring the job market outside of academia makes me feel really useless: none of the skills that I have are ever required by any employer, and seems that the only thing that I can do is go back to do hospitality jobs.”
“All the fields I wanted to go into…feel impossible right now. And I don’t know what to do with my PhD anymore. I’m just stuck and tired.”
“I will soon become 33 and never had a job in the industry… I feel like my thesis is not good or interesting enough… Is there anything I can do with just a PhD at this point?”
On and on it went.
It felt discouraging and also reminded me of a statement I made to myself during the first year of my postdoc: “I didn’t do all this schooling to end up broke and disappointed.”
I won’t sugarcoat. And I also don’t like to lead people into a “the sky is falling” spiral.
But I do have this to say:
I’ve interviewed close to 100 PhDs. The most common time range for making the pivot to a job outside academia is 6-12 months. The longest I’ve heard is two years. It took me 18 months.
So if you’re facing this, I want to remind you of 3 things:
- You are not alone.
- It’s not your fault.
- The frustration ends.
But I especially want to say this:
- You have power.
- I am personally over the idea of anyone’s emotions being held captive by any particular employer or the lack of an employer.
- I’m now on a mission to see PhDs and academics to create opportunities for themselves that NOBODY can take away.
Yes, I am saying this as someone with a regular 9-5 job that I enjoy and am grateful for.
But, even if you are happy and satisfied with your regular work, it’s important to future-proof your career. Now more than ever. So when I say I want to see more academics create opportunities that nobody can take away, I mean:
- cultivating a career brand that is not tied to an employer (if you don’t like the word “brand” you can call it public scholarship or thought leadership)
- curating a portfolio of work that demonstrates the work you can do beyond literature reviews and experiments to future employers or clients
- cultivating a network of people who can support you when you need it (this recent example I saw of a network in action was refreshing)
- creating fulfilling side projects that can turn into independent income streams
- becoming wildly confident in the fact that where you work OR don’t work, doesn’t define your worth.
You don’t have to do all of these. But having at least 3 of them will make you unbreakable.
One of the ways to do number 4 for instance, is to build a portfolio career. I made a video about that concept last year. Click here to watch that video.
You followed the rules, got a PhD, and should not feel disappointed with life after that.
If any part of today’s newsletter hit a nerve for you, hit REPLY and let me know what resonated the most and I’ll create more resources around that.
Have a great weekend.
Gertrude Nonterah, Ph.D.