Denied tenure, crossroads give up or try again?
Last year of TT in humanities at a specialized but stable private university. Long story but I have goodwill here (great recs) and was supported at the department level but the case fell apart higher up. I didn’t appeal (dumb move knowing what I know now) but I’m not pursuing legal action, I just don’t have it in me to drag this out. It’s been a weird mix of grief, anger, relief, confusion, and honestly exhaustion. I say relief because while I’m great at my job it was probably always a bad fit where I landed but it was TT/pretty well paid and close to where I am from so I jumped on it. I care a lot about teaching, mentoring, and love the research and writing I do but I’m not splitting atoms, it’s interesting to me and a handful of others, no delusions about that but what I do feeds my teaching really well, current, relevant, interesting to students, stimulating for me, definitely still meaningful.
The whole experience has really made me question whether I still want to remain in academia long term. Less about the work and more about structures and processes. It’s all so procedural and transactional but also incredibly vague and ambiguous.
Part of me wants to try again somewhere else. I do still love aspects of academic life, especially the classroom, writing, and the flexibility/independence and I love travel and connection with other scholars on shared ideas. But another part of me feels increasingly drawn toward industry roles connected to communication, learning and development, training, internal comms, strategy, etc. I’ve realized a lot of my skills are actually very transferable outside higher ed since I was in industry before academia but my last industry role was a little over a decade ago so I feel so out of the loop.
I’m in my mid-40s, have kids, and I’m at a point where stability, compensation, and quality of life matter a lot more than they did earlier in my career. I could relocate for the right position but it would have to be a good move for everyone. I also don’t know if I want to keep tying my sense of worth to academic gatekeeping and constantly moving goalposts.
For people who hit this crossroads (or know someone who has navigated something similar):
• Did you try for another academic position or leave?
• Do you regret either choice?
• If you left, what surprised you most about industry life?
• If you stayed, was it worth rebuilding somewhere else?
• How did you know when it was really just time to let go?
Thanks in advance.