Post Academic

The site Grad Hacker has launched a helpful series interviewing people who chose not to go into academia after getting a PhD. The first article in the series interviews Marilyn Garcia, who received a PhD in Economics but decided to go into real estate. Part of why she shifted careers is the “continual, 24 hours a day guilt” that goes with being an untenured professor. She says,

Setting a specific goal is great but you have no idea how long, really, it’s going to take to achieve that goal. So you work for three hours and you’re not there, and then what do you do? You work for three hours after you’ve been in class all day, and you’ve got the faculty meetings, and had office hours, and driven back and forth.

The office world may seem like a daily grind, but, based on her statements, academia is really the hamster wheel. I’m speaking for myself only, but office life tends to provide clear deadlines. It’s true that I’ve worked 14- or 15-hour days, but those times were relatively short (the length of a football season, actually), and I had a specific goal to achieve. If I didn’t achieve that goal, I could go somewhere else and find new goals.

Take a gander at this Grad Hacker article. It offers much more for anyone dissatisfied with the academic life, especially if you have a hobby that you might be able to turn into a living.

What Do You Do With a PhD? [Grad Hacker]