r/LeavingAcademia

I’m currently going through a big dilemma about what i should pursue, as a 20 year old who’s currently a college student and is pursuing a marketing degree ( a master’s degree), this past year, i have been pursuing my passion if biology, and self studying it and learning it, intensely, it is a field i’m deeply passionate about ( i love learning about biology in general, zoology , neuroscience, evolutionary biology) ; and it feels like i have probably made the wrong choice by pursuing a marketing degree (i have done it because i couldnt get into the schools i was aiming for, and the college that im currently enrolling in is prestegious, so i wouldn’t have a problem finding a job…) but this still feels like im contradicting my beliefs, at heart, i love science, and even if technically economics are considered a branch of science, it’s not what provides me with the burning passion that only learning biology can keep lit… and this all in itself feels like a loss of potential, like i could have said fuck it and still quit what i’m doing and try my luck again, and actually utilize my passion and study something i’m deeply curious about, but i couldn’t muster up the courage, i chose the safe option, is to not waste 2+ year worth of rent in another city, of studies and time… and to stay.

I’m considering applying for a biology degree after i get done with this and get my diplomas, maybe find a way to merge the two fields, economics and science (maybe working in a pharmaceutical company where scientific knowledge would be valuable, or just forgetting about economics all together and giving my it my all, or just maybe dropping this idea all together, because maybe a passion can stay.. simply a passion, and it doesn’t necessarly need to become a way to put bread on the table).

i frankly do not know, i feel lost, but one thing i’m sure of : is my love for science and learning.

any help or insight would be welcome, drop in your thoughts.. and thank you for reading :)

I’m a second-year PhD student in biological sciences in Germany. I moved here from India last year, partly because it felt safer for me as a lesbian and I wanted to build a life where I could just exist without hiding. My move was also very sudden, my contract ended in August in India and I had to join my PhD lab in October. I decided to join my current lab also because I wanted to get out of my previous lab and from the homophobic environment. My residence permit in Germany relies on my job visa.

My PhD has been going downhill for months. The project I joined was built on results that turned out to be not reproducible, and my lab doesn’t actually have the expertise to do the work the project requires. My supervisor is basically absent. She doesn’t know the project in detail, can’t articulate the long-term goal, and communicates in a very unclear way. She is never constructive only critical. I have to make my own direction for a project and I self-doubt a lot, which makes it harder.

On top of that, my girlfriend lives in Belgium. We’ve been together for a year and 5 months, and being apart is getting harder, especially after spending two weeks together recently. I’m deeply unhappy where I am. I am unsure how to proceed. Is it okay to quit my PhD, if I am offered a job someplace else (even if the chances of that are very low).

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.

Hi Everyone,

I’m a full prof in mathematics in a very good dept with very significant managerial duties. I work all the time and i’m at my limit. I deeply care about trying to make the University better for everyone that works here, but I’m continually being asked to do more with less. The sector as a whole is not doing well in the UK.

I feel awful because I’m in a very enviable position career wise, but it is breaking me. I could just go to being one of those Profs who do very little, but I want to fix everything for everyone but it seems like an impossible task.

I’m strongly considering leaving academia, but I’m not even sure where to start. Recruiters aren’t even getting back to me on some cases. Does anyone have any advice?

So, my husband and I are at a crossroads. We are both 38 years old from Argentina, living in Italy since 2023 (he’s a citizen, I have a residence permit and will get citizenship in a while). We both have PhDs in Literature (his in Hispanic Literature, mine in Comparative Literature) and have recently held postdoctoral fellowships in our fields. We have solid CVs and we speak three languages and can learn the next one easily. We don’t have kids but wish to have the economic stability to be able to do it sooner rather than later.

Buuut we are not getting any work in academia, fellowships are a funnel with a cork at the end. Colleagues in the field say the same thing, there is no money, there are no fellowships, etc. Everything is ad honorem and it’s gotten to the point where we have to make money giving private lessons and translating. It’s not enough, though, as our energy is split between still trying to stay in academia (going to expensive symposiums, workshops, networking, devoting a lot of time to writing papers, etc.) and actually working for pay. Academia is not so much something we would be quitting as something that has quit on us.

We are giving it one last chance this year, but seriously thinking about starting 2027 with a clean slate. The thing is… we never trained to work outside the world of research. We can write, translate, give lessons and we have never been afraid of long hours. But it all pays very little (Italy seems to pay very little for cultural endeavors in general). We don’t know many people in Italy outside of academia (or Europe, for that matter) and seem to be missing data. We need serious advice about “how the world works” here. 

Should we change countries? (coming back to Argentina is not an option, as our country is practically on fire. I mean within Europe). Should we move into giving lessons in English in the hope of broadening our “clientele”? Should we just keep giving lessons and translating, trusting it’ll just grow? We are not that young anymore and know ourselves: we can only/mainly work from home and daily contact with people is a no-go, so work outside our field is not an option. 

I guess I’m asking for a massive brainstorming.

Please tell us:

- how many hours a week were spent doing RA/TA work or work for other people's papers, whether this was a formalized number of hours on contract or not

- field

- institution (R1, R2, LAC, other)

Hi everyone,

I have a PhD in Mathematics with a background in Numerical Optimization, and my undergrad thesis involved building a Dynamic Programming model for the agricultural sector. After several years in academia, I am looking to transition into the industry as fast as possible.

I think that my main bottleneck right now is my lack of corporate experience. I spent the last six months studying and building Data Science projects. However, after two months of active applying, I haven't landed a single interview.

I feel that I need to get my foot in the door quickly to break the ice and get that first industry line on my resume. Given my profile, I’d appreciate some blunt advice on:

• The Pivot: Should I keep pushing for Data Science, or would roles in Operations Research, Supply Chain Analytics, Data Analyst or Quantitative Analysis be a faster/better fit for a mathematical background?
• The Resume: For those who made the jump, how did you frame years of academic research to look "industry-ready" when you had zero corporate job titles?
• The Strategy: Is there a specific entry-level role or industry sector known for hiring Math PhDs quickly without requiring prior corporate experience?

Based in LATAM and looking for remote

Thanks for the feedback!

Hello everyone! I am a software engineer with almost 2+ years of experience. To give you a background -
I completed my masters in software engineering in 2020. During my study, I did my thesis and published 5 research papers in well known international journals/education societies (this is not something every masters student does. Mostly phd students do research and publications). After that, I transitioned to corporate jobs until 2023. I worked for great companies like Cerner and Disney. Starting 2024, I took a career break to look after my babies. Now I am ready and want to get back. But this time, I am thinking about transitioning to academia. I do not hold a phd degree yet but want to work as a lecturer or assistant prof at a university or community college. I was always passionate about teaching and research. I always envisioned myself as a professor and always wanted to go that route. Considering how the job market is, I am a little skeptical.

How’s the job market coming to academia?
Is it easier to get hired or just like the tech jobs (apply, apply and no reply)?
What should be my starting point if I want to get started?

I know that I do need phd for becoming a professor but that I am thinking that would only be after a couple of years.

30M expat finished my PhD 2 months ago in a building/civil engineering field.

After a year of search, found two jobs a month back ago: One post-doc and one consulting.

Rejected the consulting after a long thinking process and I’ll start the post-doc from June in a different university for a 2-year contract.

Already feel I did wrong and it gives me lots of anxiety and distraction.

I live alone, had no long term partner since 6 years ago despite my desire, and really feel jealous of seeing all my peers having kids and family.

My self esteem is below zero and cannot even talk with firm voice since this job choice.

I am viewing houses and talking to advisors to get a mortgage and buy a place with my post-doc salary anyways. The housing values increase and I am scared of not investing and being in the same financial situation as now except being 2 years older.

Looking into the future I see the post-doc as an opportunity to learn Dutch, or learn data science, and this is on top of whatever they will be expecting from me.
I have zero sense of what I can do to make a better profile for industry jobs after post doc.

I don’t like academic job especially as an expat here. I have this doubt in a more general sense for living here too. I feel moving to an English speaking country might be a better choice for me.

I have lost my will to do sports with these background thoughts in my head.

Do you have any advice on how to get on top of the situation?

Are there USEFUL coaches/agents/mentors that can help me with this situation?

Should I use 100% of my time on post doc’s outputs?

So a guy finds a forgotten 1968 book by two young professors who tried to destroy everything hollow about higher education and rebuild learning around lived experience, moral confrontation, and sincerity. They were eventually suspended and left academia.

The guy then wrote this short play (one interesting act). It opens with two sociology professors beginning a normal “Sociology of Religion” class before one of them detonates the entire logic of grading, credentialism, professional hypocrisy, academic careerism and the empty ritual structure of university life.

The argument isn’t just that academia is corrupt or bureaucratic. It’s that the university has replaced transformation with performance, the “Litany of the Word” without any lived encounter with reality.

Instead of papers and grades, the professors decide to take students into churches across the city to investigate religion, race, class, hypocrisy, solidarity, and meaning through direct experience. The play gradually turns into a broader argument that education no longer forms human beings; it reproduces compliant professionals.

I thought some people here might appreciate it.

I am looking for honest career advice from people who successfully pivoted out of academia/science.

I’m currently a postdoc in molecular biology at a university. I also have a somewhat unconventional educational background: an undergraduate degree in business administration and a Master’s in economics, although I haven’t worked professionally in either field.

I’ve spent ~10 years in academic research (6 as a grad student and 4 as a postdoc) and realized that I am deeply burned out and no longer enjoy bench science or academia and am looking for a more sustainable long-term direction.

Through a lot of reflection and career/personality assessments, I seem to be drawn more toward:

• healthcare/business operations
• program coordination/strategy
• systems/process improvement
• healthcare/public health
• possibly instructional design/learning strategy

I enjoy analytical thinking, improving systems/processes, learning, and helping people understand things. I’m less interested in aggressive corporate environments, sales, or highly political leadership roles.

Right now I’m considering building skills/certificates in areas like:

• project management
• SQL
• Power BI
• Lean Six Sigma
• healthcare/business operations

For those who transitioned out of academia/science:

• What roles ended up being a good fit?
• Which certificates/courses were actually useful vs not worth it?
• Would getting a PMP certification specifically be helpful?
• Are there specific healthcare/business/operations paths I should explore?
• How did you get your first job outside academia?
• Any advice for someone trying to pivot at this stage of life?

I’ve been applying to different positions already but haven’t had much success getting interviews yet.

Would especially appreciate hearing from former postdocs/PhDs who found work that felt more meaningful and sustainable outside academia.

Hi folks! I’ve been on this channel for sometime, wondering about my own experiences with academia. Some background, F37, in a PhD program, social science discipline. I have a child but I go to school in a different state (in the U.S.) than from my husband and child. I’ve recently been pondering about my own identity as an academic, or if I ever have one. Before starting PhD, I had a few jobs, including teaching in international schools overseas, edTech, and adult training. I also did a master before starting this PhD, and I was confident that I wanted a PhD until recently…people in my program and discipline talks about academia like that’s the only thing they know. And they all have strong identification with being a professor or a researcher. I’ve never had that feeling, even when I decide to apply for grad school. I just have some questions and wonderings about the world that I want to figure out. Now I question if I was too naive ( and never consider the sunk cost of going to school versus job prospect).

So I wonder, for those who made the pivot out of academia, did you ever had an identity of academics? How was the identity transitioning when you were going through career pivoting and what about your identity now? How do you define yourself now that you are in industry?

I recently finished my PhD in life science and have been trying to transition away from academia. I still want to work in a science-related field, but I no longer see myself pursuing the PI/postdoc route long term.

I’ve been offered a role as a Journal Specialist at Frontiers, and I’m trying to think carefully about whether this is a smart long-term move or whether it could negatively affect my future career options.

However, I also know Frontiers has a somewhat mixed reputation in academia depending on the field and the person you ask. I am aware that some researchers criticize aspects of its publishing model. That’s the part making me hesitate. My main questions are:

1. Would having Frontiers on my CV hurt future transitions into other science-industry roles?

2. How stable is Frontiers publication job, given the changing nature of academia and AI?

3. What are realistic exit opportunities after a few years in this type of role?4. For people who left academia: did moving into publishing help or limit your options later?

I would really appreciate honest perspectives, especially from people who transitioned from academia into publishing or adjacent industries.

Hello. I'm 37 male with PhD in genetics/cell biology related area from a top institution and had been working as a postdoc for several years in hope for a tt position. My skills are largely wetlab oriented with some bits of informatics/large volume image analysis/basic coding skills

Regrettably I'm in a situation where I'm in need to abruptly pivot to alternative career, and my understanding of current biotech market is somewhat bleak. I want to start to look for career options that can offer financial stability to my growing family - I've jeopardized them long enough in my chase for passion. I'm willing to pivot to different professions (and potentially some headway to enter training for a few years if warranted) and willing to relocate.

I would like to hear your paths and advice on what options would be available to me.

Basically what the Titel says. My PhD supervisor - who ironically does research in gender studies - had an open postdoc I applied to. In the job interview, I wasn't at my best because I recently had a child, was unemployed after their birth and was rather desperate for work. My supervisor then asked me whether I'd be able to work full-time and whether I had childcare lined up which was already not legal and morally questionable.

In the end, she rejected me for the job because I didn't publish enough in the year before (I had a high risk pregnancy and only published nationally, not internationally) and didn't have a new research focus (I had just finished my PhD when I got pregnant). Turns out, she employed a man with less experience, a degree in a different field but older and child free and with more _drive_. Well, that was that. My official complaint due to discrimination was filed but didn't have enough evidence so nothing happened from the side of the university.

At this point, I thought I'd just get over it, but the community in my field is very small and the PI was a horrible person to so many people and her practices were not ethical in many ways. She is known for not crediting people for her work - I rewrote one paper for her and didn't make it to acknowledgements and one other former colleague wasn't even mentioned as a contributor to a project in the publications after she left even though she did most of the research. My PI would request they be co-author for all papers written in the lab but didn't read most of them - she once asked for extensive revisions in the galley proof because she couldn't be bothered to read the paper beforehand.

Her scientific career is crap - consistently bad teaching reviews, few low-impact publications, no third party funding except for small local ones, no substantial scientific discoveries - the whole works. She's supposed to retire in a few years and from what I've gathered, she hired the other person because she needs someone to publish more and generate research output - which I couldn't have done because I'd have needed to get into the field again after maternity leave, I was gone for 9 months and had trouble working during pregnancy, so I missed about a year of opportunities.

Basically, I'm at a point where I think: if I leave academia because it's a hostile work environment and heavily favours people like her who just step on others to get ahead, should I use this as an opportunity to complain about her unethical practices to the university and to journals where she submitted work and left out contributors on purpose? I have paper trails in two cases and former co-workers of hers who would substantiate my claims of a hostile work environment created by her that led to us including her on our publications even though her contribution was zero and to several health issues in former colleagues (high blood pressure due to stress, acute hearing loss, burnout). Is it worth it? Or am I just bitter (which I definitely could be, but still)?

I am currently a staff scientist at a research institute in the Midwest. The pay isn't great, but it isn't too bad either. The position is quite cushy and stable with flexible hours and the ability to work remotely from home from time to time. I haven't really thought about leaving until very recently.

Recently, I was approached by a hiring manager working at a biotech startup via LinkedIn. I jumped on a virtual call and after multiple rounds of interview, I eventually got the job offer to work at the biotech startup in a more senior role. The pay is a 70% pay bump from my current salary with the prospect of career progression and a chance to break into industry, so I signed the job offer.

However, now I'm feeling quite stressed, anxious, and regretful about my decision since academia has been all I know for the past 13 years in the research field, and I'm quite worried about the volatility in the biotech startup world in general. Did I make the right decision to jump ship from a cushy staff scientist position in academia into industry?

I just finished my PhD (humanities), and I’m super fortunate that someone in my network has a family member who is open to interviewing me for an industry position. I have an informal call in advance of the interview tomorrow to learn more about the role.

I wasn’t expecting to get an interview (even an informal one) so quickly, so I haven’t practiced talking about my background to non-academics in interview contexts. Would anyone feel comfortable sharing their experience of presenting themselves in an industry interview, especially for a job that is not directly related to the area your PhD was in?

About to finish my genuinely good dissertation and low key sucks how gutted this job market has become. Ten years ago I don’t know if I would have been able to justify it

I am 2 weeks post leaving my program ABD, completed dissertation that I didn't have the chance to defend, because reasons, and I am realizing that I didn't know I haven't really been a person for the past few years. I'm still heartbroken that I worked so hard and it was not recognized, but my husband said tonight that I seem happy again and like I'm finding my way back to the person I want to be, and I think that's true.

Husband 37M is a senior post-doc theoretical in quantum physics. Has been in the same University under the same professors since 2018. This June, it seems like they will well and truly run out of funding. Husband greatly enjoys his work, it is his passion and he finds meaning in it. Now he is unsure of his future, he wonders what else he can do besides physics as he has always been in academia. He doesn’t know much of Reddit (he reads a lot of books in his free time which to be honest he doesn’t have much of), I’d love to hear from anyone who is or was ever in a similar situation and how you are doing now. Thank you in advance!