Throughout the blogosphere and social media there are numerous supports and resources to help academics leave the academe for "industry," broadly defined.
$#(#( that. I want to help people stay! I get that for a variety of reasons it is a strength-based or practical choice to find other work. Yes, the number of tenure track positions are deceasing. Yes, the academe can be a hard place to be.
But, do you really want to leave? Do you really want to give up? Have you really done everything you can to develop your skill set and have the kind of career you hoped for prior to applying for a PhD?
Or, are you leaving out of fear, or not having transcended some of your barriers?
If you are leaving the academe for good reasons; I salute you! I cheer for you! I am thrilled for you and wish you the best career and a lifetime of joy. Go. Leave. Thrive! I hope your work is meaningful, fulfilling and adds goodness and greatness to the world.
Yet, if in your heart of hearts you know are your going to regret leaving, stop. Take a look within. Get some support. Please. Do the internal work you need to do, and if it still does not work out, you can move on with your head held high, with new dreams envisioned, and without regret.
To quote Kurt Vonnegut " Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are "it might have been."
Or, are you leaving out of fear, or not having transcended some of your barriers?
If you are leaving the academe for good reasons; I salute you! I cheer for you! I am thrilled for you and wish you the best career and a lifetime of joy. Go. Leave. Thrive! I hope your work is meaningful, fulfilling and adds goodness and greatness to the world.
Yet, if in your heart of hearts you know are your going to regret leaving, stop. Take a look within. Get some support. Please. Do the internal work you need to do, and if it still does not work out, you can move on with your head held high, with new dreams envisioned, and without regret.
To quote Kurt Vonnegut " Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are "it might have been."
Perfect timing for this post :-)
ReplyDeleteOh Ana? Do share, either here or "back stage" :)...
ReplyDeleteJust that I am back to my regular routine, after 6 months of sabbatical and 2 weeks of annual leave... and exasperated to see that everything is the same, just a little more so. The bureaucracy is still the same, the endless meetings are still there, and so on and so forth. It made me wonder: if things are not changing, should I?
ReplyDeleteAnd, then, a wonderful colleague of mine (whom I had a special affinity with as we interviewed on the same day and got on extremely well even though we were competing with each other) announced that he was leaving. Leaving the Uni and, probably, academia. Which made me wonder even more so...
But, deep in my heart, I know that I do not want to leave academia. I just struggle with certain aspects of the job... but, then, every job has good parts and bad parts. And it is up to me to make sure that the good ones outweigh the bad ones. And to seek support... that is probably the hardest thing for me...