How to Re-Career Post Grad School

[tabletop25]

I recently got my Masters in German literature, and am not too sure if I want to pursue a career in academia. I have been working on re-careering by doing unpaid internships that focus on online community management, social media marketing, and community outreach via social networks. I have learned a lot, and have even had some interviews with some decent sized start ups. I was wondering if any of you have had similar situations, are thinking about doing the same, have done it, and what you have experienced. I know it's terrible to plug, but I've also started a little blog about the journey I've had trying to find a job outside of academia, how I've gone about doing it, as well as small pieces of advice.

 

Thanks

[juilletmercredi]

Do you mean changing careers? I left academia after finishing my PhD and one year as a postdoc. I work as a researcher in industry at a large technology company. I started thinking about leaving academia before I even started - my original goal when I began my PhD program was not to be a professor, but to work as a researcher in industry or government (although in a different field). Sometime along the way in graduate school I started considering academia but I was never 100% sold, so I decided to try it out as a postdoc. Ultimately I was not happy with the work or the way my career would play out even if I was successful in academia, so I decided to change careers.

However, since I had been thinking about it so long I did many things in graduate school to prepare myself for an eventual non-academic career. The most significant was probably the six-month internship I did for a market research company; the work is directly related to the first non-academic job I got out of my postdoc (the one I am in now). But I also did some part-time statistical consulting, some academic advising, and some educational program management and curriculum planning. Having those experiences were all helpful for preparing me for non-academic job searches after my postdoc.

I also started investigating potential fields and non-academic options when I was early in graduate school (around my third year) and looked at job ads to see what skills and competencies those jobs wanted. I worked on increasing my skills in those areas. So by the time I knew I wanted to leave academia, I already knew what fields to look in, what keywords to search, and how to tailor my resume and cover letters to those kinds of positions. I also knew what issues to address in my interviews (namely, the concern about whether I could work in a fast-paced environment coming from academia, and how I could translate the more narrow and theoretical knowledge of academia to the broader and more applied work in industry).

[displayname]

@tabletop25 I think you're smart to have done these internships.  I didn't see your blog link, but I'd be interested in reading it.  I've researched Humanities/Social Science PhDs who have transitioned into non-academic careers.  I generally find that the transition is difficult, but much less so if you've been proactive throughout your academic training, as you have. I also find that almost invariably, the professionals are happy, make good money, and don't regret leaving academia  a bit -- so you're in good company.

I have very actively thought of leaving and am working on a transition as we speak. I've been researching alternatives since my 1st year of grad school, have reached out to alum who took non-academic positions, took classes in more applied fields, and hope to do an internship this summer and in my last year.  I've thought a lot about this and have gotten some great tips from other professionals and online sources.

[Navita]

Just pursue whatever works for you. It’s ok to change careers, I studied law but didn’t find it to be what I expected. I have always loved reading and writing. So I changed my career and decided to apply as a writer. Now, I work for a newspaper as an editor and column writer. It worked for me.