Why PhDs keep leaving academia

For a long time, there was a clear path: finish your PhD, complete a postdoc, become a professor.

But that path is no longer the norm.

Today, PhDs leaving academia isn’t the exception, it’s the reality for the majority. Data suggests that up to 75% of science and engineering PhDs will ultimately pursue careers outside the professoriate. If that’s you, you’re not off track.

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Why Are So Many PhDs Leaving Academia?

After speaking with PhDs across dozens of institutions and looking at the available data, five patterns show up again and again:

1. There simply aren’t enough faculty jobs
Universities continue to graduate tens of thousands of PhDs each year but tenure-track positions haven’t kept pace. The result is a deeply imbalanced system where highly trained scholars are competing for a limited number of faculty roles.

2. The postdoc bottleneck is real
What was meant to be a short-term training phase has become a holding pattern. Many PhDs cycle through multiple postdocs, waiting for an opportunity that may never come while watching peers in industry move forward financially and professionally.

3. Low pay (for most)
While a small percentage of faculty earn high salaries, many PhDs patch together multiple roles just to make ends meet. For the level of training required, the return often doesn’t add up.

4. High workload and burnout
Heavy teaching loads, research expectations, and administrative work create unsustainable demands. When you calculate the actual hourly rate, it’s no surprise that burnout is common.

5. Industry isn’t what you think
Many PhDs assume leaving academia means giving up intellectual stimulation. But that’s not necessarily true. Industry roles can still involve research, publishing, collaboration, and meaningful problem-solving. Once PhDs figure this out, many leave.

What This Means for PhDs Leaving Academia

If you still want a faculty role, go for it.

You are simply part of the majority exploring other paths.

You already have valuable, transferable skills:

Research and analysis
Writing and communication
Critical thinking
Problem-solving

These skills are in demand. The biggest challenge is learning how to translate them.

The Biggest Mistake to Avoid

Many PhDs approach the non-academic job search the same way they approached academia—using the same language, the same CV structure, and the same assumptions.

It doesn’t work.

Instead, you need to:

Research the job market intentionally
Study job descriptions and extract key skills
Conduct informational interviews
Tailor your materials to the audience (not your discipline)

This is exactly the approach outlined in Navigating the Pivot, which walks through how to align your experience with what employers are actually looking for.

Final Thought

Choosing a path outside academia is not “selling out.”

If only 10–15% of PhDs land tenure-track roles, then building a meaningful, well-paid, intellectually engaging career elsewhere isn’t failure.

And you don’t have to leave your identity as a scholar behind to do it.

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